Hard Drive? What’s A Hard Drive?
Won’t be long before we look back at the idea of storing files and applications on our own individual computers the way we look at having to get up off the couch to change the channel. Ubiquitous, ultra-high-speed, wireless connectivity combined with cheap, convenient dumb terminals of every shape and size, running everything off of web-based services and online data storage.
Could be sweet, if someone finally manages to light a fire under our buttheaded telco monopolies and get them to actually offer decent service instead of the global embaressment that is our current lot! Is it too much to ask for a pricing structure that is at least as fair as those in 3rd world dictatorships!?
Bah, I’d be happy if just ONE of our major carriers offered an unlimited data plan…
Web As Desktop: 20 Web operating systems reviewed
The Frantic Industries weblog has a two part series that reviews 20 web operating systems. A few weeks ago we introduced Desktoptwo and received bunches of comments and questions about other web operating systems. The review done by Frantic Industries does an excellent job of introducing each web OS and giving a rundown of the pros and cons. If you’ve been searching for a usable web OS, give the Frantic Industries articles a read and let us know which OS you prefer and why.
Another 10 web operating systems reviewed [Frantic Industries]
1
.Mac just upped basic iDisk capacity to 10 GB, with 100 GB of transfer per month.
The big fear I’d have with a web-based PC is the potential total cost of ownership. Someone doing basic computing could probably get by on a few GB per month of back & forth but when I open Activity Monitor I notice that in the past five hours I’ve had 1.73 GB of read activity and 1.93 GB of write activity at desktop speeds. I can’t [yet] picture the kind of infrastructure and generous vendor [in Canada] who’d let me work like that, day to day, for any sort of reasonable price.
2
In our current market, definitly not an option. There will have to be a MAJOR network evolution (fiber-optic? Ultra-High-Speed Broadband + Wi-Max?) before it becomes practical to work entirely web-based without a major productivity hit.
I still think we could see it in our lifetimes though… the roadblocks are more political/corporate/strategic than technological (ie: who will build it, who will own it, who will decide what it costs, etc.).