It is a night to revisit a blast from the past (in other words, an article that I meant to write but never got around to). On my mind tonight is the fact that I do not want people to get confused about what I was saying a few days ago about me buying into Cloud Computing. I am ok with my primary data repository being out in the cloud. This is the data repository that will serve as the ground truth that my devices will sync to. That is fine. What I am not ok with is the concept that my PC will eventually just be a collection of silicon, but that all of my apps and other software, right down to the Operating System itself, are going to exist in the cloud.
Last year, a CNET editor reported on IBM's intentions on the PC Market here. It is a neat little concept, albeit maybe one taken too far. I am absolutely ok with this when we are talking about implementing the "software-less" computer at the network level. I would be ok with a central computer at my job hosting all apps, and me simply having a keyboard, monitor and mouse at my desk. OK; that's more extreme. Still, what IBM is/was talking about are PCs that have no instances of local apps stored on their hard drive.
This might work in the workplace. And then, only for the employees that use a desktop and do not travel. But does it hold together when we start talking about laptops? In my opinion, it absolutely does not. Requiring connectivity for a laptop to function is just asinine. When I am working on a laptop, I need to know that it can stand alone as a mobile workstation, at least for a few hours. This includes not just power, but sufficient storage, and local instances of any app that I use when I am at a desk. Until 3G is configured to offer unlimited data connectivity across all of the major carriers, laptops will need to retain enough of themselves to remain useful devices.
What I fear more is that this idea will extrapolate more into the Commercial model, and that these types of setups will get a lot of press and then the market will shift until virtually no desktops are being sold with pre-installed SW. That would be bad.
In general, I am not a fan of the online-only application model. It particularly torques me off when someone refers to an over glorified widget that acts as an over glorified Safari bookmark as an app. The on board code needs to stand alone and needs to be installed on an owner's PC. IBM's concept of computing needs to not happen until after we have sufficient infrastructure to support it. Business-types will get along ok, because they typically have a help desk that can take the information down until they can get someone to physically stop by an assess the issue. Consumers will not.
The largest point is that I can not afford to not be able to work because there is a thunderstorm and my connectivity is out. Lifting the OS and app layer off of the PC assumes 100% up-time of the network it has to go through to find it. When was the last time that that happened ?
- Vr/GJr.