A funny thing happened on the way to the file system

When Apple's MacBook Air first came out, I was woefully unimpressed. Sure, it was plenty pretty, but it lacked the thing I needed most: a big hard drive.

Well, a funny thing has happened in the past year. I've stopped using my hard drive.

Yes, I still install applications, all of which require hard-drive space. And yes, I still use Handbrake to rip DVDs to my hard drive to watch on long flights.

But I've also started keeping all of my e-mail on my company's Zimbra server. But it's not just e-mail: I keep all of my files in my e-mail folders, too. I work with a file long enough to edit it and then immediately delete it from my hard drive once I know it's safe on my e-mail server.

In fact, as I upload photos and just about everything else to remote servers, it's becoming less and less clear why I need much of a hard drive at all.

Maybe I shouldn't be loading up my e-mail system like it's a file system. Back in early 2007 Jeff Nolan wrote about poor performance with Microsoft Outlook/Exchange, quoting a Microsoft product manager who blamed the performance on people who were "misusing" an e-mail system as a file system.

As Nolan wrote, that product manager is completely wrong. Products, if their designers hope to have them endure, must live up to adoption patterns. At any rate, it's too late to go back: I like the freedom from my laptop that remote storage provides for me.

Or maybe I'll come to desire the security of my hard drive again. After watching a few friends struggle with dying hard drives, I'm not optimistic that this will happen.

So maybe, just maybe, I'm finally part of this whole "cloud" trend. I'm conservative and have never been very good at being trendy. This just happened to me. It started making more and more sense to store things remotely, because, well, they no longer felt all that remote.

You feeling the same?

[brentlemons]

Why not use Alfresco?

[Matt Asay]

Ouch! Actually, I do use Alfresco for all work-related documents/files. But I don't have a server set up to store the rest of my files. For personal files, I use Apple's Time Capsule at home and keep everything there (as well as on my hard drive).

[nintendoeats]

I would feel incredibly insecure keeping all my data on a machine that I cannot access (the exception being web based mail, which has enough benefits to counteract that fear).

This is for alot of the same reasons that I won't buy music or games unless I get a disc. Even if the steam servers go down, I can alwasy install steambuster and install my games off the disc. Yousir are walking a dangerous road.

[sherr88]

Great observation Matt. I too have been using Gmail and my Zimbra as a way to go between multiple devices whether it's my desktop or one of three portables I always have my data. I can even access most of it from my iPhone and/or Curve. Whether this cloud stuff works itself out or not I do enjoy not having the kitchen sink downloaded to my oh so small Asus Eee PC.

[sherr88]

Great observation Matt. I too have been using Gmail and my Zimbra as a way to go between multiple devices whether it's my desktop or one of three portables I always have my data. I can even access most of it from my iPhone and/or Curve. Whether this cloud stuff works itself out or not I do enjoy not having the kitchen sink downloaded to my oh so small Asus Eee PC.

[rurik_bradbury]

I am the same -- all my files are in Unison. It's different when you have a real offline client as cached mode is much faster than pulling every file from the Web, every time you need it. (BTW I agree that Outlook/Exchange is not good for this -- too clunky and slow.)

I hate to say it, but this is why Microsoft's 'software + services' vision is superior to the SaaS zealots who want all apps to run in the browser. Native desktop clients are simply better than Web clients and will be for many years to come. For instance, Unison Desktop has telephony built in -- which browser based clients cannot yet do.

[tristanbob]

Matt - Now that you are relying on your Zimbra server to store all of your important data, make sure you are backing up that Zimbra server! Perhaps you would even use some open source software to do that, say Zmanda? ;)

[benjaminstraight]

Cool article.

[The_Decider]

I hope you have an offline backup or you will sorely regret it sooner or later.

[Goodbye Helicopter]

then you really aren't doing anything with truly large files and must have really nice network connection.

video....? (not youtube)

[loose_screw]

I use my hard drive for photos still...

[idfubar]

Not being hard disk drive "dependent" also unbinds the computing experience from a given piece of hardware (e.g. laptop, work computer, etc.); being able to use a library computer, loaner laptop, or even new platform (e.g. Zonbu device) and not lose a step in your day-to-day routine can be very empowering.

PS: Anyone care to guess whether hardware manufactures will realize performance for mass-market systems can be greatly improved (by several orders of magnitude) by loading the OS and a small set of applications (i.e. web browser) directly to memory?