Living in the cloud - and loving it

Stan Beer
Tuesday, 03 June 2008 09:14

Opinion and Analysis

I also use Google Calendar and the same thing goes as for emails - except even more so. It used to bug me that all my appointments and settings on my Outlook Calendar were confined to one desktop PC. If I was away from my office and didn't have my laptop with a synchronised calendar (another pain) I had no access at all to my computerised diary.

Now, getting access to my diary is just a matter of logging on to Gmail. All my appointments are there exactly as I entered them, no matter which computer I use, which operating system or even which browser, as long as I can access Gmail.

While it is true that all of my computing is now done in the cloud so to speak, I still need a desktop for one other essential application that I use - Skype. However, with Skype, it's simply a matter of downloading the application to whatever computer you're using (unless it's already there) and logging into your account.

There are of course still some software packages that currently need to reside on the desktop. There is no Photoshop or Quickbooks online - yet. However, there are a number smaller providers offering online accounting package equivalents, such as myworkspace, and Adobe itself launched a free basic version of Photoshop, called Photoshop Express, a couple of months ago.

If there is one gripe that I have then it's that the three most popular browsers don't let you save your bookmarks in the cloud - unlike Opera. With Firefox, I have to keep a copy of my bookmarks on my keyring USB memory stick, which seems a little silly for web browser - even if the application which launches sits on the desktop.

I happen to be using Vista and the only desktop applications I have running are AVG antivirus, Skype and Firefox. The other applications are simply tabs on my browser. If I was working on a Eee PC or a Mac, I probably wouldn't even be running AVG.

The point of all of this is that living in the cloud is possible - I'm doing it right now.