I hear more and more IT geniuses tell me that its pointless to buy a high spec PC 'cos in a few years all you'll get is a monitor and a terminal and everything will be running online...
Honestly I just can't see that ever happening. Maybe to synch things between PC, fair enough. Even basic storage is ok... but everything? High end gaming? CAD? CAM? Scientific research? Any private data?...
Exactly. It'd be decent on a handheld though. I don't own a smartphone so I don't care, but I figure it might make those who do happy because they won't have to reprogram their handsets every time they upgrade, since all their stuff will be in "the cloud". And if for some reason you lost access for a while, no big deal, it's all just scheduling and contact stuff anyway.
The sad thing is, when everything goes to the cloud (and sadly I fear it is when, not if) and everything goes Pete Tong then it will all be blamed on the Pirates.
Just look at the gaming industry. Don't get me wrong, I actually quite admire what the gaming industry has done. They were losing money to Pirates (one way or the other, whether its as much as certain people claim is another story) and so they adapted. Now you mainly see MMORPG's which are practically impossible to pirate.
However, I think you'll agree, there is a difference between buying an online game and an online OS. If people dont have a good enough connection for an online game, they just wont buy it, no big deal. An online OS? Sooner or later, if thats the way Microsoft want to go, most people won't have a choice. Or they will buy Macs. (Although I suspect Jobs is foaming at the mouth at the prospect of DRM'ing the entire Internet.)
Sadly, I think its going to happen. Everything, including our personal data will go to the cloud. As Caspar Bowden (Microsoft Chief Privacy Advisor for Europe) said to me: Microsoft takes these concerns very seriously, Microsoft plan to set up several regional data centres, and if an individual or company asks for their data to only be stored in that centre then it will be."
In other words: "It's going to the cloud whether you like it or not, but at least you can decide which server it will be hacked out of"
In other words: "It's going to the cloud whether you like it or not, but at least you can decide which server it will be hacked out of"
That obviously is a major concern. But I have more confidence in Microsoft protecting my stuff than all the banks and retailers out there that have my credit card and personal data on a 10 year old system.
Not that I WANT Microsoft to have my information, but it's pretty naive for me to think it's not already all over the world now anyway.
Well it also depends how you look at the situation:
For tablets and mobile devices (not laptops) I think its a good idea, because then we wouldnt need to have added weight to the device itself because of internall ssd or other technologies.
Now for my point on laptops:
OS and sertain files you allow go on the cloud, while still leaving important and critical file localy on the laptop
Now for my point on desktops:
I dont think its a good idea, but I can see people who travel alot object to this idea.
The 'Cloud" is nearer than some of us may think it is. It seems that Microsoft and Google are going to be pushing this style of computing onto the public.
Here is an article that is worth reading if you are thinking about joining a "Cloud Computing" network.
I think that those who have been...