@JR: “the compiler would have to be a local feature as some apps take ages to compile and this is a very processor intensive task.”

As someone who does a lot of programming from my HTC x7500, I’m very thankful of remote compilation! You’re statement seems to be based upon an assumption that the client machine will have more processing power than the server… not always true, especially when you’ve got your own cluster-based server system that can expand on demand to super-computer processing speeds.

See Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2) for example.

You may also consider using RescueTime to track your usage. Does a great job tracking usage and the nice thing is that you can bucket different apps in different categories. Now if you are on the web nearly exclusively that may not be a useful feature to you.

I like Zoho. I tinker mostly in Google docs, but have been interested to give it a shot. How’s the mobile web client?

@Hatmike:
Have you tried Zoho apps? Maybe you’re a power user, but works well for me.

Why does it have to be Either-Or? What’s wrong with Both?

>>>Second, web services simply put too much dependency on a remote service that is out of my control.

Sing it, brother! YahooMail has always managed to find the *exact* moment to be ill when I Absolutely Must get an email out NOW.

I personally couldn’t survive without client apps. I need a programming tool for coding and while the coding part (syntax, objects, efficiency, etc…) can easily be supplied on a web service app the compiler would have to be a local feature as some apps take ages to compile and this is a very processor intensive task.

Program/software technology types I don’t think are viable for web apps atm are:

Language Compilers,
Video Editors,
Picture Editors,
Critical apps that need access 100% connectivity like some military/government databases/communication software.

Of course the first three will be limited by bandwidth and processor power (systems that will improve in the future) but the last listed item will always be a niche me thinks.

To me Skype or other VoIP solutions instead of landlines qualifies as web apps.

No.

I’d love to be able to do this but it doesn’t even work for Word documents. I still have some other cloud services to try but it’s not looking good.

Welcome to the cloud. There are a lot of us who rely exclusively on the cloud for casual computing. Because I own a MacBook, a Q1, and an eeePC, my main system requirement is Firefox compatible. I understand that it’s not viable for enterprise solutions, or high end video/music/animation/etc, but for day to day, it serves me well.

Hi Kevin,

I’ve been using a Pentium III 1Ghz laptop to run apps on my main desktop via Remote Desktop (over EVDO). Once in while I might notice a little slowness due to latency of the connection but overall its very usable.

BTW, I’m still running my XV6700 but upgraded to WM6 (Helmi version) and SPB Mobile Shell with an 8GB microSD card. It’s really amazing how well it runs now.

So you’re only going to use Skype for the show, not for occasional other calls?

Sounds like a fun experiment. Definitely keep a list (updated for us readers, of course) of the apps you find yourself using.

If your main area of work is non-mission-critical content creation for the public, then cloud computing is fine. But for the core of most businesses, where security and near-100% uptime are the difference between success and failure, it just doesn’t work yet.

I think this kind of cloud computing is a nice idea, but not really all that practical if you are doing anything that would qualify as “mission critical”.

First, connectivity and bandwidth are still too unreliable. I’ve experienced complete outages (at least within the area I’m in) a couple times with the Sprint EVDO services and I’ve also found plenty of places where the signal is too weak to get any kind of reasonable throughput.

Second, web services simply put too much dependency on a remote service that is out of my control. With local applications and data storage, I suppose I do run the risk of a hard drive crash or some other system failure, but at least I’m not at the mercy of some third party that I have minimal-to-no control over. Having experienced significant outages or service degradations from my email and web hosting companies in the past, I’m definitely not ready to run a risk of the same kind of problem with word processing, notetaking, or even something entertainment-oriented like music playback.

Finally, I think there is still a big issue of security. My employer already expects us to maintain certain levels of security on any systems where company-confidential materials are stored. We also have to use a VPN to get into the corporate network. For any company work, use of cloud computing services are pretty much forbidden unless the company has entered into an SLA with the service vendor regarding security and reliability. These issues are going to make most cloud computing options pretty much a non-starter for a large percentage of business-people that want mobility for their work.

Still, I’ll certainly be interested to see how your experiment ends up going. I’m sure that under certain circumstances and conditions, working in the cloud will work out well. I do hope you will pay close attention, though, to how much (if any) productivity, convenience and ease-of-use you end up having to sacrifice to make that work.

Wakoopa would be a good way for us to keep Kevin honest. But wouldn’t Kevin be failing the challenge by installing the Wakoopa client install?