OnLive Cloud Desktop: news and impressions of the Windows thin client

For a while there, we were worried that OnLive's streaming Windows 7 cloud desktop service might have legal trouble due to a Microsoft complaint, but it seems that OnLive isn't using Windows 7 any more. As you can see in the image above, it's now Windows Server 2008. Before you worry that the service will be diminished in any way, you should probably know that both operating systems are functionally pretty much the same, and other than a much-improved touchscreen keyboard, it's actually rather difficult to tell them apart, anyway. In fact, the only really interesting part of the change is the hope that OnLive found a way around Microsoft's licensing conflict.

When we asked, OnLive confirmed the changes, but wouldn't say whether they had anything to do with the licensing complaint: "OnLive has never commented on any licensing agreements," a representative told us. Without any evidence that the streaming provider is out of the woods, it's perhaps too early to say, but the company's definitely bullish about the future of the service. In fact, OnLive told us it has millions of seats worth of enterprise, government and education customers on the waiting list:

OnLive Desktop is an impressive exercise in the potential of cloud services — a Windows 7 client with Microsoft Office that streams to your iPad or Android device. We fell in love at first virtualization, and it's received mainstream attention (and praise) from the likes of The New York Times' David Pogue, who specifically and repeatedly called it "Windows on the iPad." But, critically, does the service fall in line with Windows' licensing terms and conditions? Microsoft seems to think not.

In a post today, Corporate VP of Licensing Joe Matz outlined what the company's terms allow for in Windows virtualization. More to the point, he very explicitly called the OnLive situation an "issue" that needs to be resolved and said that Microsoft is "actively engaged with OnLive with the hope of bringing them into a properly licensed scenario." It sounds like this discussion has been ongoing but only now is being made public due to inquiries from analyst firm Gartner — whether or not that's actually the reason remains to be seen. We've reached out to OnLive for comment and will let ya know what we hear.

OnLive's Desktop service is available for Android tablets, allowing owners to access a copy of Windows 7 with a variety of apps including Microsoft Office running in the cloud. We first got a taste of OnLive Desktop back in January for the iPad, with it even making an appearance in The Vergecast at CES, and found it slick and responsive. OnLive's CEO Steve Perlman describes Android as "a great platform for OnLive Desktop," specifically calling out the availability of LTE and support for USB keyboards and mice as major benefits.

The basic OnLive Desktop service is free, which gives you access to your own thin client, 2GB of storage, and access to all of the apps. For $4.99 per month, users are also given access to other cloud storage services (e.g. Dropbox) and the gigabit-accelerated web browser we played with a couple of weeks ago. It's currently available in the US only, but if you want to give it a try, you can grab it from the Android Market now.

It's been over two years since OnLive CEO Steve Perlman showed off a cloud-accelerated web browser on stage, demonstrating how an iPad could load a full website in the blink of an eye... by actually loading it in OnLive's server room miles away. Today, the company's finally making that same ability available to users for $5 a month, and it's pretty amazing.

Remember how OnLive's free Cloud Desktop service let you use a virtual copy of Windows 7 on your iPad? Well, it didn't have a web browser, but if you pay $5 a month for the just-announced Cloud Desktop Plus tier, OnLive throws in a copy of Internet Explorer 9 with all the trimmings as well as priority access to the service. So far, that might sound pretty mundane, until you realize that unlike your home internet connection, OnLive loads pages at nearly a gigabit per second.

OnLive's Windows 7 thin client for iPad is now available from the iTunes App Store. It's a 4.8MB free download, and you'll need an OnLive account to start toying around with the likes of Microsoft Office on the cloud service. Late last night, OnLive told us the app release would be delayed until Friday in order to deploy more servers to meet the expected demand, but it's out, it's working (at least for one of our non-press accounts) and you can find a link to the app at our source link. Read all about the free trial (and upcoming subscription Cloud Desktop services) right here, and see what all the excitement is about in our video demo below. Also, don't miss this gem in the included Getting Started guide:

Thanks, Jamie!

Update: OnLive says the app is actually coming Friday, due to an additional deployment of servers to handle the estimated load.