
Icebergs.io Brings Linux Desktop to the Browser - isotope1
https://icebergs.io
======
ljlolel
Terminal.com has an XFCE snap that's cheaper and upgradeable too. You can
pause them, which keeps the RAM state, so it's much cheaper and more useable:
[https://www.terminal.com/snapshot/56ae96b9c4d0b6c088a66e6a46...](https://www.terminal.com/snapshot/56ae96b9c4d0b6c088a66e6a46d84f21376ac05952f1b05297371ffc56bd5ec4)

[http://yourname1-8080.terminal.com/guacamole/#/client/c/Desk...](http://yourname1-8080.terminal.com/guacamole/#/client/c/Desktop)

~~~
jasonjei
Guacamole also has a Docker image that you can use to mount on a free AWS
instance. Additionally, you can have a second docker container that runs GUI
apps: [http://stackoverflow.com/questions/16296753/can-you-run-
gui-...](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/16296753/can-you-run-gui-apps-in-
a-docker-container)

~~~
ljlolel
Yea but this takes 30 seconds to setup.

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baldfat
Really can't see a use case for myself and really looking for someone else's.

I have my own personal server where I just ssh into for my needs and it is
cheaper than $9.99 a month.

~~~
j_s
The pricing isn't quite ideal, but this may be useful in certain classroom
situations - like a MeetUp or something like that.

~~~
chrism2671
Can you suggest a better pricing structure? I'm trying to make it cheaper
(it's just AWS is expensive that's all!)

~~~
metamet
I feel like you should have your own datacenter if you want to run a business
like this. AWS is very expensive (but appropriate for many) and not intended
for VDI.

~~~
chrism2671
Yes, I agree, I'm hoping that I can move the architecture to an LXC based
setup to make it more efficient, and to allow instances to have unlimited
hours (that's the destination).

~~~
baldfat
Compared to a digital oceans' account? Just asking not making a statement.

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esonderegger
I see a bunch of comments asking about the use case, so I'll share one...

The Defense Department agency I work for employs between 50 and 100
developers, many of whom, like me, are contractors. The security folks have
things locked down to such a degree that developers don't have root access to
their own machines and the process for getting new software approved for use
on a developer machine takes months. We just got permission to have git
installed, for example. Getting Nodejs installed probably isn't going to
happen unless they could figure out a way to disable npm. All ports to the
outside are shut down except for 80 and 443 and everything runs through
IronPort, so anything running https has to allow you to not verify SSL.

If the latency/general performance is good enough, I think developers would
love to use something like this for their primary development environment.
From the agency's perspective, $50-100 per developer per month would be cheap
enough to be a no-brainer. As far as the security folks are concerned, this is
just web traffic, so they would have no problem with it.

My only issue is that this pricing doesn't seem to be very friendly to the use
case of wanting just one instance, but with unlimited hours.

~~~
alexlarsson
This seems like a pretty bad idea. All you do is work around the security
rules of the agency. If your "easy to install" software has some kind of
security exploit in it you just gave someone access to all the work you were
doing on your "virtual workstation", which might be pretty bad.

Its probably less bad than an exploit of some locally installed software, but
if you do most of your work in the vm it can still be pretty bad.

I understand that you're pissed of at the security rules making your job hard,
but the correct fix is to fix policy, not work around it.

~~~
JPKab
Yeah, he can get right on fixing the policy. All he has to do is go talk to
Obama and right after that he can get lunch with the Secretary of Defense and
show him a powerpoint about why everything the government does with IT
security is stupid.

Then, 3 years later, he can get started doing work.

------
fit2rule
Just tried it out .. very nice, quite usable, and fairly decent, performance-
wise. Single CPU, 2.5ghz, decent enough for most Linux desktop tasks.

The only issue I have is that it booted the instance and needed immediately to
do a software update .. that's a bit of a drag, I'd be happier if the base
instances were already up to date before they get configured/cloned .. but no
big deal, really. ( * -)

I'll use it for some ports and see how things go .. kudos to the icebergs.io
team for making it pretty smooth to get a new Linux developer workstation set
up easily enough ..

EDIT: (- * ) Actually .. this _is_ a big deal for anyone trying it out - the
update occurs and then the machine reboots, and then of course .. you lose
your instance on the free-tier account. So if you want to use this for free,
don't bother doing an update and definitely don't reboot the instance thinking
you'll get back an upgraded machine. Apparently thats only for paid users.

EDIT2: Well, 5 minutes after finishing the software upgrade and accidentally
hitting the "Restart" button without thinking, I'm left with a hung instance
and seemingly no way to get the machine back to life. In case anyone from
icebergs.io needs to know, the instance name is late-firefly-372, and all I
did was log in, do the required software update, hit restart .. and wait ..
and wait. The instance still seems to be responsive, but just not rebooting -
some of the windows I left on the screen prior to the reboot appear to still
be reacting to mouse events (the VNC config window checkboxes work), but the
DE is dead and gone, and the machine doesn't seem to be letting me do anything
.. thought I'd report it in case others run into this issue. Don't do the
update and don't reboot! :)

~~~
chrism2671
Yep, founder here. Trying to work out how to reduce the cost of both the free
plan & paid plans, in order to give more for less.

For performance comparison, they are AWS t2.medium instances.

~~~
broodbucket
Can you share who your target audience is? It looks pretty cool but I'm not
sure who'd pay for this.

~~~
chrism2671
I do 90% of my work on a Chromebook/ChromeOS desktop, but I can't program on
it, and yet I don't want to suffer trying to put Linux on it, so basically
anyone who doesn't want to install Linux on their computer :)

~~~
bachmeier
Actually, Crouton is easy to install, and you run it from inside a ChromeOS
window. I program on mine all the time. Most Chromebooks come with limited RAM
and hard drive (mine is 2 GB/16 GB) so I could see using something like this
if that's a constraint. Unfortunately the pricing is a bit steep (I see you've
addressed that above).

------
comex
With WebAssembly and related efforts (e.g. JS threading), I'm hoping it won't
be long before we have services similar to this, but actually running in the
browser rather than the cloud. A bit like that i386-in-browser demo, but with
performance a decent fraction of native, OpenGL access, etc.

~~~
TazeTSchnitzel
You can run Windows 95 in the browser:
[http://win95.ajf.me](http://win95.ajf.me)

(But you probably already knew this, since you follow me on Twitter.)

~~~
0x4a42
Ohhh! The original Windows Solitaire for free! :)

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anentropic
I can't work out what this is for

~~~
fit2rule
Would be good for developers who need to port something to Linux but don't
want to go through the hassle of setting up a dedicated instance themselves ..
build-servers that need a full Linux setup, etc.

Might be good for folks who have very slow computers, or non-usable machines
(iPads/tablets/phones/etc.) who nevertheless still need access to a Linux
environment for school or work, or even just for the fun of learning Linux for
the first time without much hassle.

Its certainly easier to use/setup an instance than some of the other options
out there, although things seem to be pretty competitive in this space .. so
who knows how long icebergs.io is going to be around.

I've bought a basic plan, anyway .. good for me to have my co-developers using
this to build our project code without requiring a big fuss with setting up a
PC/VM-instance/whatever...

In short: it can be used to do whatever you might like to do with a Linux
workstation. So: quite powerful, then ..

~~~
balac
If you are porting something to linux surely you will want to test it on a
real VM at least? Those are pretty trivial to set up and are free...

~~~
fit2rule
This is a real VM. The likelihood that if it runs on here, it'll run on a
'real Ubuntu instance' is quite high.

~~~
0x4a42
But why one would pay for a VM as a SAS when you can install one for free in a
just a few minutes on your own machine?

~~~
fit2rule
Maybe your machine isn't good enough for the VM? Lots of folks have low-
budget, slow laptops that could still nevertheless benefit from having access
to a decent Linux workstation environment.

~~~
crististm
So you suggest this is a good use-case because you can run Linux in a recent
Firefox on an old machine better than you can run it natively?!

Have you run a recent Firefox on an old machine for that matter?

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rwmj
Interesting offering. I assume it runs on the server, with some kind of remote
desktop (VNC or similar)?

Back in 2000 I was involved in a start-up company doing that [1]. It failed
because it was ahead of its time -- very few people had broadband, and the
numbers didn't really add up, when you think about the cost of hosting the
servers. (That's what we like to tell ourselves -- maybe it was also a
terrible idea!)

[1]
[https://rwmj.wordpress.com/2014/03/26/officemaster/#content](https://rwmj.wordpress.com/2014/03/26/officemaster/#content)

~~~
chrism2671
That's right! Cool!

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dangerlibrary
2015 is the Year of the Linux Desktop in the Browser.

I ... really didn't see this coming.

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pepon
I have been looking for a solution to do web development in the cloud, so that
if lose my computer I can continue right away from another terminal, or I can
also code from my iPad or check all my stuff from my smartphone or whatever.
However your product is not suitable for my use case because I do not need a
lot of computing power, for that I ssh to my AWS instances. What I would need
from a remote OS is to be cheap and of course without time usage limits. The
closest thing that I have seen to what I need is this Multiplex project:
[https://www.reddit.com/r/SideProject/comments/3jvwj6/multipl...](https://www.reddit.com/r/SideProject/comments/3jvwj6/multiplex_cloud_os_in_your_browser/)
. Just my 2 cents!

~~~
travjones
I agree with your 2 cents, so I guess that makes 4 cents if we combine our
cents.

Most tasks I would do remote require minimal power. It would be great to have
a cheap plan with unlimited usage but reduced access to resources (slower cpu,
less RAM, etc.).

I haven't tried it myself, but I think it would make more sense (at least for
me) to get a 5-dolla droplet from Digital Ocean, install ubuntu + xfce + vnc
and remote into that through an app (such as, VNC Viewer for iPad or similar).

~~~
pepon
The problem is that every remote desktop solution I have tried works quite
slow and laggy. It does not feel as if you are sitting in front of your
computer at all. Has anybody experienced the opposite? (I haven't tried this
iceberg.io, so maybe theirs works ok) And it seems it does not really make
sense to render all the graphics in the backend machine and got them sent over
the Internet.

~~~
chrism2671
Did you try this one? I'd be keen to get your feedback.

~~~
thetechstewart
I had the same initial reaction, however I did sign up for the free plan with
a great deal of skepticism. The performance was actually quite impressive, all
things considered. Since I already have a significant amount of virtual and
dedicated infrastructure at my disposal, and I live most of my life on the
command line, I don't have much of a use for it. That said, it does seem like
a very neat concept, and if I had more options for distributions and desktop
environments, I'd consider renting one if only as a test machine for the rare
graphical software I do run.

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jupiter2
I use to do something similar from late-'95 to early '98 using DOS, ANSI BBS
dialer, 56k modem (EDIT: 386DX, 4mb RAM). Would dial in directly into a Linux
terminal (it might've been Unix) - pure, whopping fast, text-base experience.
The server did the heavy lifting, including access over a T1 - I only received
the formatted text results.

Lynx was my main browser (effective at the time, simple html). Pine for email.
Don't recall what I used for Usenet, editors, file managers and some other
stuff. Copy/paste and some automation using DOS tools & TSRs.

I did this out of necessity at the time but later moved over to Win98. Finally
embraced Linux this year as my full-time OS so this site has a stronger
appeal.

------
ThinkBeat
Every minute you use it is one minute of compute time? So you actually get
only 25/h of usage for 9.99 per month? Spread across two instances.

I am quite interested in such a solution but the price point seems high. With
at least 8*25 per month included it would be great.

------
breakingcups
Does anyone know what is used to offer the remote desktop functionality in
HTML5?

~~~
hackthisuk
They appear to be using noVNC
[https://kanaka.github.io/noVNC/](https://kanaka.github.io/noVNC/)

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pvdebbe
I do recall encountering a similar X-server--HTML-bridge in the early 2000's.
It also was a remote server with store for working files type of service, but
free as I recall.

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Simorgh
I assume a benefit is that, using icebergs.io, you could run/access linux on a
lower spec machine?

So for instance I've heard it would be difficult to install linux on a macbook
2015, but using icebergs through your browser you could do so. Correct me if
I'm wrong.

~~~
err4nt
You wouldn't want to use this as a primary desktop, it would be like watching
a YouTube video of your computer screen.

Linux runs on very modest hardware, you shouldn't have any issue running it on
a powerhouse like a 2015 Macbook if I have successfully run ElementaryOS and
Ubuntu on my Mid-2011 Macbook Air!

Even virtualizing Linux on top of OS X using software like VirtualBox would
likely still be preferable to using browser-based VNC to a cloud desktop (and
free). I have a KVM server I use for web development so I'm often in there via
VNC using the desktop. It's not ideal but it works.

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mavdi
This is perfect for me guys. Nice work! I travel a lot and many times the SSH
ports are disabled in the networks that I use, so having a GUI over HTTP like
this is very helpful for me. Only downside is the cost, I think it could be a
lot cheaper.

~~~
dnet
You can use SSLH and other similar software to multiplex HTTPS and SSH (along
with a few other protocols) on the same port, so if 443/TCP is allowed, you
can just use SSH.

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inflam52
I agree. It's hard to wrap my head around the pricing. I can use my
DigitalOcean and just install a VNC. I see where you are going with this
though. I long for a future where you can achieve desktop-like performance in
the cloud.

~~~
philtar
VNC is terrible. I can't imagine you've used anything like this in a long time
because things are moving in this space.

~~~
idiot900
Can you share your experiences of better alternatives? Not hard to imagine VNC
has been substantially improved on.

~~~
ymse
Spice works pretty well: [http://www.spice-space.org/](http://www.spice-
space.org/)

~~~
anonbanker
in HTML5: [http://cgit.freedesktop.org/spice/spice-
html5/](http://cgit.freedesktop.org/spice/spice-html5/)

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Tinyyy
What's the latency on this thing?

Also, I've recently looked into remote desktop software, does anyone know of a
good remote desktop software with very low latency through LAN? How low can it
get? <50ms?

~~~
spreiti
I'm using X2Go[0] through LAN and it works very well. Just make sure you are
using a compatible desktop environment[1]

[0] [http://wiki.x2go.org/doku.php/start](http://wiki.x2go.org/doku.php/start)

[1] [http://wiki.x2go.org/doku.php/doc:de-
compat](http://wiki.x2go.org/doku.php/doc:de-compat)

~~~
Tinyyy
Hows the latency? Can you move the mouse naturally? That's my biggest concern.

Also, on LAN can you run it at lossless / no compression? How's the latency on
that?

~~~
spreiti
On my LAN I don't notice any latency at all. The mouse movement is natural.

Regarding compression: I've set to the best quality and never had any problems
or notable latency.

You should give X2go a try. It's simple to setup up[0].

[0]
[http://wiki.x2go.org/doku.php/doc:installation:x2goserver](http://wiki.x2go.org/doku.php/doc:installation:x2goserver)

~~~
Tinyyy
Thanks, I'll definitely check it out!

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mwill
For a moment I thought this was a HTML5 UI that spoke to a linux instance. I'm
not sure what I'd use it for, but it'd be cool tech.

~~~
arethuza
For a moment I thought it was Linux running _in_ a browser like this:

[http://bellard.org/jslinux/](http://bellard.org/jslinux/)

As far as I can see it is what you think it is - a web based graphical remote
desktop to a remote Linux instance.

~~~
mwill
I believe this is using VNC?

I was thinking something like a totally custom shell/thin client that ran in a
browser and spoke to a linux instance over the network.

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spyder
Works great, I can start and use WebStorm faster on the server than locally on
my old Core 2 Duo laptop (with SSD).

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TazeTSchnitzel
I want to run a similar free service for Windows NT 4, but finding an HTML5
client for RDP v4.0 might be hard.

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jordigh
Sounds a bit like [http://rollapp.com](http://rollapp.com)

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S4M
How does this work? Is this some kind of Linux VM with an XFCE interface that
runs in the browser?

~~~
TazeTSchnitzel
The VM's on their server, you're using it via some kind of HTML5 VNC/RDP
client.

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swznd
It's for webkit based browsers only. The cursor cannot move when I use
Firefox.

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fiatjaf
Crazy stuff.

~~~
kelvin0
Why does it seem wild to you?

