The race is on for creating the world’s first web operating system. Google, eyeOS, YouOS are the names that get bandied around the most frequently in this regard. An Indian startup is attempting to take an entirely different approach to this problem. Instead of taking the web OS route, it wants to take your Windows desktop environment to the web. Nivio is positioned as the world’s first Windows based online desktop; this is what its website says– “…your personal windows desktop on any computer in the world…when we looked to design a desktop available on the web we thought why change something that everyone uses (windows) ….we want to focus on delivering a better service rather than re-inventing the wheel…â€. The service launches in a couple of weeks.
Nivio is a 20 member Delhi based startup and one of its co-founders is Iqbal Gandham. Iqbal is a serial entrepreneur of ‘pre Web 1.0’ vintage, for he co-founded Net4India in 1997-98. The company is registered out of Switzerland and thats where its servers are also hosted, but the founders, the development team, sales & marketing team are all based out of Delhi.
When I first heard of Nivio, the idea behind the product seemed quite ambitious, in fact bordering on the fantastic. Google’s rumored web based operating system (as well as its web equivalent of MS Office) may have been discussed threadbare to the point of being somewhat romanticized, but in reality they are a generation away from being functional in a useful way. Given that scenario, Nivio’s basic intent seems quite pragmatic. While they are likely to confront significant technical challenges, you have to appreciate their attempt at thinking differently.
So how will this work out? Nivio is being offered as a web service; for a monthly fee (Rs 399 pm), you get access to the Windows desktop environment on the web. You can access it from any computer (whether running Mac, Linux, Windows) with a browser and internet access. Nivio requires Active X for working in IE, while on other browsers, it uses Java Applets. What you get as part of the standard package is Windows XP, 5 GB Space, automated backups, virus protection, antispam etc. Some applications are available free e.g. Open Office, Yahoo! Messenger, iTunes, Firefox et al, whereas some software will be available on paying a monthly fee e.g. MS Office. Users will get a synchronization tool that allows them to upload/download docs/files to Nivio from their regular desktop. Specific applications can be enabled in your account on demand, either free or on a paid basis.
This is a highly hardware intensive webapp and the architecture is globally distributed over several locations in category 1 data-centers in Switzerland. As the user base grows globally new nodes will be put in place to satisfy localized demand for Nivio services.
I was given a test account by Nivio to try out the application. Logging into the account was smooth and the Nivio desktop looks just like your regular Windows desktop. I create a sample document using Open Office Writer. Browsing on Firefox (within Nivio) was somewhat jerky on my 256 kbps home internet connection. I feel that the streaming over the internet is likely to be bandwidth intensive and one would need a fast internet connection for a comfortable browsing experience. Nivio’s plans to distribute the hardware across different locations will come in handy in reducing network latencies. Iqbal informs me that the core technology is still under development, so you should expect significant performance improvements.
Overall the service looks intriguing and definitely worth a try. I couldn’t help getting a kinky feeling, while using a web version of Windows. In fact, it would be interesting to know what Microsoft thinks of Nivio, for this could be one of the ways to counter Google’s rumored web OS.
Hi
I guess I had to comment to this :-), Thanks amit, for the post. Nivio has been a long time in the making, and hopefully it will be something which will inspire alot of other entrepreneurs in India to really start to add value.
We are open to carrying any software which vendors have written, so if you are a developer and have some cool windows based software get in touch via the forum http://forum.nivio.com.
As for Microsoft, I really wish I could comment, but I can’t…not just yet :-), actually am more interested in what Linux and Mac users think, now you can get all your companies to use Linux…and have windows there also 🙂
Iqbal
Sounds really cool idea but if I need to buy Windows desktop (or Linux) and on top of that nivio (other OS) then doesn’t make much sense.
I would like to have hardware (laptop/desktop), which directly boot from internet, so no need for windows/linux installation.
Just my 2 cents.
Iqbal,
I want to prick your brain about the backend technical architecture.
If the information is not confidential and can be shared, can you tell us how this is being achieved. Is this based on virtualization or is it some variant of a network version of windows? I am curious. Also how does the software licensing work with Microsoft.
Any pointers would be helpful.
amit
This is not a bad idea, me thinks.
Some basic assumptions can be made like noone would use nivio to browse the web as he is already in a browser. The main use I can think of is using this as an extension to a Linux box.
Regarding Linux users, I can make a guess that they won’t have a need for this as a service. I speak from personal experience. I just got hooked onto Ubuntu and am never turning back to windows again. Open-source is the way of the future.
Companies might…but they won’t be able to get their custom applications onto this platform. If they can, then it would be useful for them.
Great news indeed.Few days back we were talking about lack of innovation in indian start-ups.Nivio seems to be a great start toward using out of box thinking.
Nivio is definetly a disruptive product but I still looking for market need it trying to serve.Surely its not for indian market (12 $ for one month is too much for user who can get a pirated copy of softwares in 100 rupees in Nehru Place market).
I have registerd myself as beta testers 🙂 .Surprisingly I didint find much about TEAM behind this wonderful product.Iqbal will you please share Nivio story with us.I am sure many of us would like to hear more about your story.
A very good idea and an equally good implementation. Let me play the devils advocate and spoil the party a bit. How would Nivio stand up to the now available online version of MS office? Office 2007 and several newer versions of Microsoft softwares are available for online pay by the drink model.
Hmm, so finally Windows catches up with linux. I’ve been using the free service by CosmoPod. It gives a 1GB KDE desktop on all OSs. They use NoMachine‘s NX protocol which is open-source. It has an awesome compression and has been demonstrated to operate over network links as slow as 32kbps.
I mainly use it for shell access to servers around the world, and bypassing stupid firewalls and content blocking mechanisms.
Then there is another Indian startup: Atlantis Computing‘s WebTop product provides application access in browser through Java applets. They offer free access to a bunch of opensource applications like OpenOffice and GnuCash. Speed is decent.
I’m not leaving my cosmopod account anytime soon though. 🙂
I have a question here :
Alot of companies these days block chat, email, social networking sites. Do these online desktops make it possible for people to use these services, while they are in their company networks? If so, is this a security threat? (that’s the logic given for blocking them in the first place)
Cheers,
R
Is this you iqbal ??????
This is a amaizine thing, I need to work on it a little more, but what I have seen till now I am impressed with this thing….
@Saket: Nivio is NOT an OS, it runs windows XP. As for booting from the web…watch this space.
@Amit; Dont fully understand the question, users cannot share their data, and we do use a layer of virtualisation under the hood. Can’t say more than that, the process is patent pending, so I could tell you, but someone would come and hunt me down.
The software licensing, you pay us, we pay them 🙂
@Mayank: users can request apps via our forum, forum.nivio.com, and eventually users will be able to download and install their own apps. Currently there is a list of available apps , and a user can select these via the Nivio panel (Live early next week)
@Satpal: Price is in the range 200-400Rs, and will be available shortly, as for TEAM, we didn’t really have a section because we found it boring, but there is a team, trust me I have neither the capacity or brainpower to do this on my own. Full details of team, etc will be on another blog (mine :-)), sometime over the weekend..a bit hectic currently
@i2i: There will always be competition, if not MS then Google, but Nivio is more than just one app. It allows you to use any windows based app. Imagine being able to goto Tucows, and try the apps before you download an install onto your own system. Imagine being able to allow your children to learn howto use a PC, without then breaking your office laptop….
@Niliesh: I am a linux guy, always have been, and have used cosmopod, would really like to get your thoughts on Nivio v Cosmopod
@ Rohitesh: Companies should not block :-), Nivio does let you get around the security, but so does websites like meebo, but we hope users will use Nivio not just to bypass security, but to improve productivity also.
@Ashiesh: Yes it’s me, well at least it was when I woke up this morning 🙂
Rohitesh,
Since the apps are running in a sandbox, there is no risk of viruses, trojanhorses and network hacking, If you do manage to bork your setup, it will be Nivio’s headache. Your own PC will have no problems.
On the other hand, if your company is so paranoid and distrusting of its own employees that they resort to implement content blocking ( read “censorship”), then yes, Nivio does allow to bypass it. (Did I manage to make it sound good? 🙂 )
cheers
Just got my hands on a beta tester invite 🙂
[grinning from ear to ear]
First impression : It’s kewl !! Really comes in handy if i got to work on large documents with a team over the net.. give them one login and all can contribute without having to send large attachments.
I know u guys must be waiting to pounce on me with the word “Google Docs” , but trust me, you cannot get the same tools and productivity from Google Docs than from a Complete Office Suite.
Good work Iqbal and kudos to your team for this great initiative.
[ I just got the link to your blog today so expect me to start commenting there too 🙂 ]
Wishing you all the success…
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Well, I have evaulated quite a few software products for a large financial institution. There were many firms offering hosted desktop solutions (either through native Microsoft RDP or the wrappered Citrix and so on). But the enterprise architects were not happy with the scaleup capabilities of those solutions.
So the NIVIO, as I see, is not a new kid in reality. A critic review would be…
FOR HOME USERS: The very idea of having to possess a PC to access a PC is not promising atleast for a home-user. Microsoft office can always be substituted with the free and fantsatic StarOffice. What else does a home user needs?
FOR GUYS IN SOFTWARE BUSINESS: They always carry a laptop to showcase demonstrations. If not there are firms like RUNAWARE who host virtual demonstrations. Microsoft uses RUNAWARE for showcasing their OFFICE product suite.
FOR STUDENTS IN INDIA: First of all, they dont need a virtual desktop. They can get all sorts of free applications which can do work for them. They dont need a desktop on roaming.
But from a positive side, I can see NIVIO can be a hit when NIVIO itself can offer me as part of rental:
1. A notebook like device (like a DishTV DTH settop box:-)) which can just connect to NIVIO with no additional internet service provider in between. I would say it should connect wirelessly like a DTH antenna.
2. Allow bidirectional file-tranfer from external media and the virtual box.
3. Ofcourse allow me to browse internet on the NIVIO box.
Thanks
Venkat
how is this different from moka5: http://www.moka5.com/
For all practical purposes how is this different from having rdesktop or Nx client or citrix or whatever to a personalized vmware (or any other virtualization tool) image hosted else where. As put by the author the working was jerky on 256Kbps connection. I have had better experiences with NX client connecting to my desktop in office from home.. works awesomely at lesser speeds.
The only advantage I can see is that you dont need to install a rdesktop client.. which is hardly a compelling reason.
I also quite agree with Venkat’s views.. the next could actually be to provide some kind of dumb terminal hardware…
None the less I feel the guys at nivio must have thought about all this and probably I am missing a bigger picture.
-=turtle=-
Or…I don’t need a computer at all! Just a Television with a browser, wireless keyboard and mouse, and I’ve got a computer! So…I pay the cable company my monthly fee and for $4.00 extra I have a computer that is always fast, always up to date, never has viruses or spyware, and has the latest apps, and games I subscribe to. Sweeeet.
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Hi
Can someone please guide me, who are the other players in the indian market providing services similar to Nivio. I guess one is sify anywhere… who ae the others this concept seems to be exiting
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