The Beginning - May 9th, 2009

Every story has a beginning. This one starts with an ending. Actually the beginning of an ending. But an ending just the same.

I am referring to the end of software applications as we know them. The end of downloading, installing and configuring software, at least from an end consumer perspective. Gone are the days when software is built in one place, and executed in another. From this day forward it all happens in the "Cloud". In other words, the client server party is over. Put on your coats, you don't have to go home, but you certainly cannot stay here.

If we dare consume the wisdom that Mark Benioff bestowed upon us 10 years ago, and all that has been pontificated since (by Mark and many others), we should be marching along with Netbooks, actively conducting business.

There should not be a debate. All software, at least for the general population, should exist in the Cloud, and we should not have a second thought when we use it and or access it. We should be working without software, without application bits or bytes on our local hard drives, we should be Softless!

But we are not! I want to know why. I want to know just how difficult it is to unplug and work without software installed from a CD, the Internet, or otherwise.

My mission, if I choose to accept it, and I do, is to purchase a capable NetBook (something supposedly built from the ground up for this task) and perform all of my personal (and most of my professional computing) without installing applications. Essentially work from a browser 100% of the time.

This is a large challenge, I am mostly considered a "power user", not a programmer by any stretch, but I spend most of my normal days on a machine loaded with software. I am fairly competent with general software as well as some tech-centric analytic applications. This is not going to be a walk in the park.

I leave a loophole concerning the professional computing. I cannot dictate to our CIO the change required to replace local applications which are essential in my role at my place of employment. But, I will commit for the sake of the exercise, and because corporate policy would not allow otherwise, that I will use my corporate applications not accessiable directly from the web on a corporate machine.

All other computing will be performed via a Netbook (choice to be discussed) or my home desktop on which I have installed a fresh copy of Vista, iTunes and nothing else. At this point I am doubtful about my success.

I will chronicle my experience. Not so much for entertainment, but more as a log, so I can track the success and failure of my efforts. I have little expectation that this will be much more than a weekly BLOG post over the next 6 months or so.

I hope that you and some of your friends check in on me from time to time.