Amidst all the hype surrounding yesterday's cheapo Iphone launch, US outfit Transmedia announced a new version of its Glide desktop, file sharing, workgroup collaboration and practically everything you could think of product.

Glide is a Web-based set of applications that allows Windows, Linux, Solaris and Apple PCs to share data with each other and with phones and PDAs. It's not actually an operating system, but it makes a pretty good fist of looking like one as it sits on your desktop, with a full set of office applications including presentations, spreadsheet, word processing and email, along with a media player and widgets.

But where Glide scores is that the data for those apps resides online and can be accessed by practically any PC, phone or PDA, with formats being converted on the fly - a Quicktime movie on an Iphone will automatically be converted to a Windows Mobile File for viewing on a phone running Microsoft software and vice versa. Glide provides support for over 250 file formats.

Workgroups can collaborate on documents and every version of a document is stored until the user decides to get rid of them.

We've had a quick play with glide and it really does work.

Oh, and it's free to sign up and use as long as you don't go above five GB of storage - after that it'll cost $50 a year per $15GB.

Users have control over seven levels of document rights management including the number of files that may be viewed, number of file downloads, the amount that can be uploaded in megabytes and gigabytes, what files can be transferred where, what files can be modified, and group rights management.

Transmedia's CEO, Don Leka, told the IT Examiner that he believes Glide could be a real shot in the arm for Linux.

'It's a proper, user-friendly desktop,' he said. 'PC makers need to get out from under Microsoft because their margins are minimal. Linux would offer them a better return but you really need to be an expert to use it. Glide even has its own Kids desktop with a different look and feel.'

Leka added that around 70% of Glide users - quite a few blue chip companies have signed up - are outside the US and stressed that the service was ad-free, extra revenue coming from a commission levied on items purchased from affiliated online stores.

'We offer things Apple doesn't offer,' he said. 'We want people to be able to use Iphones with Windows, Blackberries, Symbian and Android phones as well as Linux and Solaris. We have a single codebase covering every platform and both business and private users, which makes our job a lot easier.'

He also stressed that the company had no venture capital funding, in order to maintain independence.

'And it's far more fun that way,' he added. X

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