What iLIVE basically is - It is a remote desktop application for your iPad.
By default it is designed to let you connect to UNIX/Linux servers via your iPad. But the cool thing is that when you purchase iLIVE they'll give you a free virtual Linux desktop account for free (well free for the first 6 months). So after installing it on your iPad you'll be able to log-in to their servers and can use Linux desktop on your iPad screen.
How does it work?
Well they use the cloud computing for that. Meaning, that all the Linux OS files and other things are stored on a remote server/s. And within that virtual desktop you can run the applications such as Gimp, Gnome desktop of course and its applications (although not sure if it supports videos or other patent multimedia formats either), etc.
Although I have not used it so not quite sure about the full list of application support once you log-in to that desktop. And when looking at the below image I found on hothardware.com it seems that they use some sort of an old version of Fedora or Red-Had Linux (guessing from the theme...), but then again may be I'm wrong.
Some benefits rather than running it directly on ipad
*. Well since it runs on iOS it might help to save some of that battery life, even someone "made" a Linux version that can run on the iPad... still it could lack some of those comp-ability issues, but then again not necessarily.
*. Even if you desktop crashes or anything happens, again because it runs on top of the iOS, most of the time you should be able to kill it and spare the trouble.
*. Linux desktop runs on their servers, the applications and other software are stored on those computers which gives you two main benefits.
1. They'll load really fast.
2. You need no space at all to run it (other than the space that iLIVE needs of course).
*. Since Linux comes with a shi* loads of applications, you don't have to buy apps from Apple store to do things like image editing, etc.
One drawback
*. Now you do need a working internet connection for this. So let's say that you were using an app on Linux desktop while on a car something. Then if your iPad stop receiving 3G or Wi-Fi signals... well think you can guess the rest.
Although let's say that you were using Openoffice to edit a document or something similar then it is always best to make sure you've set it to autosave ... just in case. But iLIVE must have a work-around for that I suppose, but it is a drawback right ? ;-).
Final thoughts
Anyhow, unless the dudes at the Xda forum or someone else finds a way to hack into the iPad and make it run Linux in a non-virtual environment, until then I think iLIVE is a great way that you can enjoy Linux on your iPad. So if you're interested in it then why not give it a try!.
2 comments:
Perhaps you should change title of this article. It says "How to run Linux *ON* your ipad", not how to remotely connect to Linux running elsewhere.
@Anonymous,
You're right, it's a bit misleading. I corrected the title. Thank you.
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