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Gosh, the new WIRED is already out and I didn’t get to write this post quick enough – I thought the article in last months magazine, The Netbook Effect: How Cheap Little Laptops Hit the Big Time, was fascinating.

Having rebuilt my laptop (netbook and regular laptop) recently it made me think about how the cloud has already become second nature for me. I run a number of apps from the cloud but more interesting perhaps is that a lot of my data lives in the cloud but I still use local applications. Of course I’m bound to say this given I’m a big time advocate for Microsoft’s Software plus Services approach but it does really suit the way I work.

Here is what happens, in order, when I install a new build of Windows 7

  1. Install of the Windows OS finishes
  2. I install Live Mesh and immediately begin synchronising 6 or 7 key folders from the cloud (cloud stored data)
  3. I install Windows Live Wave 3 to get Messenger, Windows Live Writer, Silverlight and Windows Live Mail (cloud dependent apps)
  4. I install Office 2007
  5. I configure Outlook 2007 to get my corporate email
  6. I install Adobe AIR closely followed by Twhirl to get my Twitter juice (cloud dependent app)
  7. I install Spotify to get my music from the cloud and my shared playlists (cloud dependent app)
  8. By this time, my cloud folders from step 2 are well on their way….they allow me to
    • Have all of my browser favourites back
    • Have my favourite photos so I can customise my logon photo
    • Have all of my blog post draft as I sync my Live Writer drafts folder
    • Have all of my key PowerPoint slides and Excel spreadsheets for my work

 

With a Netbook, Live Mesh and Windows Live Wave 3 I have a great deal of what I need to do the vast majority of my work. The only exception is Outlook where I spent ~40% of my time and though I could use Outlook Web Access I prefer the speed and local features of Outlook 2007 so it’s my tool of choice.

What did I learn from the WIRED article? Not a lot…but it did make my realise that I’m now a cloud dependent user for sure – both for applications like Spotify and data like photos and blog posts. It’s made my computing experience very efficient and transferable.

Sometimes things change…and you never notice until you stop and gaze at the clouds. The WIRED article poses the notion that Netbooks are changing the economics of the PC business and that’s true but I’d say the adoption of cloud apps and the simplicity of storing data in the cloud is an impressive accelerator on that trend.