Ah, the web finally coming into it’s own. Typical scenario – Software publisher releases new version of software, posts 600MB setup file (trial version) on website for everyone to download, and noone bothers to do. It takes too damn long and why the @#$% would you want to wait that long and then risk destroying your finely balanced PC with beta crap? Doesn’t work too well for the publisher either, expecially when the trial is cracked and put up on the P2P networks before the official release.
Enter remote desktops – the publisher installs the software on a web server and gives public access to try out the software via the web, without having to download it. MS has done a decent job to give access to the evaluation edition of MS Office 2007 via a Citrix browser plugin (IE only, of course). Don’t see how this can be used for trial versions of games though.