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G.ho.st, the Global Hosted Operating SysTem, is the world’s only true Web OS. Available from any Web browser, G.ho.st provides access to all Web applications and ties them together into a personal computing environment on the Web with a single desktop, a single online file system, single login and data sharing. For the user who wants to be mobile, the G.ho.st Virtual Computer (VC) offers a real Web-based complement or even alternative to Windows.Zvi Schreiber is the founder and chief architect of G.ho.st, the Global Hosted Operating SysTem, and was previously founder and CEO of Unicorn, in enterprise software (acquired by IBM) and Tradeum, in B2B E-Commerce (acquired for $500m). Schreiber holds a PhD in computer science, is an inventor of some 20 patents, and is a frequent speaker and writer – he lives in Jerusalem with Rina and four kids.

As more and more apps are heading to the web, and the need for constant connectivity to all of you data at an all time high, the Virtual Computer market seems to be gaining a lot of steam. Have the masses adopted to the idea of Virtual Computing and if so, how are you seeing it received by the community?

I think G.ho.st is by some way the leading Virtual Computer (or Web OS) but even so its still in alpha – the mass consumer market is not yet aware of this possibility, because it’s still a few months away from prime time. But when people see G.ho.st, especially but not only young people, they just get it and get really excited. Within seconds of seeing it people are saying “Now I can make my school library computer be my own computer” or “this will be my solution to doing my personal computing on my work computer” or “I might not buy that laptop after all” or even “when can I access it from my cell phone”. People get it and have there own ideas for how to use it, some of which we haven’t even thought of.

Considering that G.ho.st is primarily a collaborative company, what have been some of the challenges you have faced in relying on 3rd parties to help develop and delivery your product?

The challenge is that there are absolutely no standards for collaboration between Web-based applications – no standard APIs for single sign-in, data exchange, file exchange etc. So we are partly creating our own standards and partly integrating to partners with a one-off effort each time. That makes the process of adding applications to G.ho.st a little slower than we would like, but we are getting the hang of it and the adding of applications should accelerate a lot in upcoming months.

What lessons learned from your previous startups were you able to leverage in developing G.ho.st?

It’s more fun to create a consumer service than an enterprise product.

BONUS: Of all the patents you hold, what is the one you are most proud of?

Well given that I’m a little bored of software patents, I would mention a patent for power supplies for halogen lights where I am a co-inventor (albeit by no means the primary inventor).

Copyright © 2007 by Will Kern