Comments on: A funny thing happened on the way to the file system

Matt Asay finds himself using his hard drive less and less, and wondering whether he's part of a trend.

[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?