Last year, I decided to give Linux a try. Everything was going well, until I started working for a company that uses Microsoft Outlook for e-mail. There's simply no straightforward, reliable way to run Outlook on Linux. I tried Outlook Web Access, but the service strips code from HTML attachments, among other limitations.
(The company I worked for prior to my current employer used Lotus Notes, which is probably the only e-mail program in the world more proprietary than Outlook. Organizations must get some huge benefit from using these closed e-mail systems, because they sure make life difficult for users.)
I didn't get far with my Linux experiment, but I'm not giving up on my dream of a simpler PC. I'm ready for the true network computer. Unfortunately, Web apps aren't quite ready for me. More specifically, they're not ready for my boss, though they appear to be getting closer every day.
Do you really need all those programs on your hard drive?
It's downright wasteful to have huge software applications collecting dust on PC hard drives. Take a look at the programs with shortcuts on your Start menu. I bet you haven't opened half of them more than a handful of times in the last year, and a bunch you probably have used but once or not at all.
Adoption of Web-based versions of PC applications has been slowed by the services' limited features and performance compared to that of their desktop counterparts. Also, a dropped Internet link leaves you out in the cold.
Today, online services such as Zoho provide much of the functionality of various desktop apps, including Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. Zoho also includes an offline component that lets you continue to work without a Web connection. Likewise, Google Docs and Spreadsheets, Picasa, Wordpress, and more recently Gmail use Google Gears to allow offline access to your data in those services.
Security of Web-based apps comes up short
Of course, from an IT perspective, the most serious shortcoming of Web-based applications is their perceived lack of security. In particular, Google doesn't let you encrypt the data you store on the company's servers. Zoho's FAQ page states that the company will soon add a data-encryption option. Still, storing the organization's data on somebody else's servers can give system administrators nightmares.
There are still some applications I use regularly that don't have a Web equivalent: Outlook, the TopStyle HTML editor, and the Corel Paint Shop Pro imaging program, among a handful of others. The one thing all three of these programs have in common is that they were selected for me--by my boss.
Personally, I'm ready to go the Web-app-and-Netbook route. And as soon as I can say adios to the monster applications my work seems to require, I'll give the always-online life a try. Wish me luck convincing my employer to join me.
Ever since Gmail became my primary e-mail service in 2006, I've been waiting for the ability to search my voluminous message archive without a network link. My hopes jumped with the arrival in 2007 of the Google Gears plug-in for Firefox and Internet Explorer.
Gears lets you store Web services data on your local PC, among other functions. Gears and Gmail are such a perfect fit, I was sure that it would be just a few short months until I was rummaging through my Gmail archives while disconnected from the Internet.
Wrong again. That's what I get for trying to outthink Google. Unfortunately, there are still only a handful of Gears-enabled Web apps (Google Calendar isn't one of them).
The wait for networkless Gmail access ended last week, when Google Labs released Offline Gmail.
After you install Gears, you'll see an Offline option under the Labs tab in Gmail's Settings. Choose the Enable button, and when you restart your browser, you'll see an "Offline 0.1" link in the top-right corner of the main Gmail window. Click this link to begin the installation. (You'll also be prompted to download and install Gears, if you don't already have it on your PC.)
Click "Offline 0.1" in the main Gmail window to install the Offline component.
(Credit: Google)After the initial sync completes, click the Offline icon to the left of the Settings button to check your online status and view your options (choose Show Actions to see all available options).
Check your online status and access other options by clicking the Offline icon in Gmail's main window.
(Credit: Google)Your initial synchronization may take quite a while, especially if you retain as many old messages as I do. The fact is, I was ready for the first sync to take all day, but just an hour and 15 minutes later, my store of Gmail messages--including attachments--was ensconced on my laptop's hard drive.
The first thing that struck me post-sync was how fast my mail searches had become. Having your mail on your hard drive makes fast work of archive searches that can take several seconds when interacting with Gmail's servers.
The Google Labs folks warn that Gmail's offline capability is still experimental, so you may encounter some features that don't work as expected. Still, after using Offline Gmail for a few days, I feel like a kid on Christmas morning. Thanks, Labs guys!
My laptop's wireless 3G connection has been crapping out for over a week now. It works for a while, and then it quits. I don't know why. I don't know when it will be fixed, if ever.
I only know that when I'm on the road, I've got no way to get work done. While I wrestle with AT&T's alleged support services, I'm stuck in the breakdown lane of the old info highway.
I need access to Gmail and a half-dozen other sites, but for now I'll have to settle for stale Google Reader news feeds and my Google Docs files, plus a handful of other Web apps. These are the only sites I can access offline via Google Gears, a technology that lets Gears-enabled Web sites store information on your hard drive. That way, you can use the services even when your Internet link has gone south. Or at least that's the idea. In reality, you're still out of touch.
At present, Gears works with with Google Docs but not Spreadsheets or Presentations. You can view your Google Reader feeds offline, but you can't get to your Gmail in-box or Google Calendar. Other sites that are said to support Gears are the WordPress blogging system, ZohoWriter word processor, and Remember the Milk info manager.
I tried Gears with both Google Docs and Google Reader. The first time you visit Google Docs after you install Gears, you see a link labeled Offline in the top-right corner of the screen. Click it to open the Gears warning. After you allow the service to store information on your PC, the sync begins.
The first time you activate Google Reader's offline mode, you're asked to give the service permission to store files on your PC.
(Credit: Google)The initial sync can take a few minutes, but the process is faster subsequently. The green check mark in the top-right of the Google Docs window indicates that you're online. Click it and then click Settings to view your offline options.
The top button in the resulting dialog box simply puts a shortcut on your desktop. The second button lets you disable the offline feature. There are also two links in the dialog: the top link opens a simple information page, while the bottom link displays technical information about the sync, including the files you've downloaded.
Google Docs lets you access online files without a network link via the Google Gears technology.
(Credit: Google)You'll find more information about using Gears for offline access at the Google Docs help site. Note that even though Google Spreadsheets is said not to work with Gears, my online spreadsheets were downloaded just the same.
Google Reader's offline feature works a little differently. After you install Gears, you'll see a green arrow icon in the top-right corner of the Reader window. The downward arrow indicates that you're online. Click it to see a pop-up asking for permission to download data.
After you click Allow, the items in your feeds will be downloaded to your PC. The green downward arrow becomes a blue upward arrow, which means you're in Reader's offline mode. Click the arrow icon again to return to online mode.
It's nice to be able to access online files and news feeds without an Internet link, but what I really need is ubiquitous network access, which is what I thought I was getting with my 3G data link. Wireless data services simply aren't reliable, and offline browsing is no substitute for real-time access to e-mail and Web sites.
Maybe someday Google's new patent will be able to improve the situation. Or maybe WiMax will finally be ready for prime time.
All I know is, what we have now just won't do.
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