14 DAY TRIAL // This time around Microsoft got a head start when it comes to stretching its Windows operating system into the Cloud. But the open-source community is also ready to step up its game. Canonical, the makers of the Ubuntu distribution of Linux, have introduced Ubuntu One, a service that is similar in some way and could be considered an alternative to Microsoft's Live Mesh. First off, both Ubuntu One and Live Mesh are focused mainly on providing synchronization via the Cloud. In fact, synchronization is the backbone of Ubuntu One.
The service introduced by Canonical offers, just as Live Mesh, the possibility for users to keep their files in sync across computers, Ubuntu computers, that it, at least for the time being. Ubuntu One is currently limited to just Ubuntu 9.04, but the promise is that more Linux distros will be added in the future. Still, synchronization is only possible among Ubuntu 9.04 machines for now, and Windows or Mac OS X support is not even in the plans. In this regard, Ubuntu One is limited in comparison with what Microsoft has to offer.
Live Mesh, while ignoring Linux, offers support not only for Windows clients, but also for Mac computers and even mobile phones. In addition, Live Mesh comes with 5GB of free storage space in the Cloud by default; Ubuntu One comes with just 2GB, and users need to pay $10 per month in order to get the storage space bumped to 10GB.
Ubuntu One and Live Mesh both let users not only synchronize and store content in Canonical's, respectively, Microsoft's datacenters, but also share it with additional users. In order for devices to become part of Ubuntu One or Live Mesh, users have to install the client locally on their computers. I will not go into specific features, but while Ubuntu One and Live Mesh allow users to work remotely, the latter comes with the Live Mesh Remote Desktop, allowing connections to be established between desktops. Via Live Mesh Remote Desktop, users are free to use another computer in the Mesh remotely, including accessing content that was not synchronized.