I write all of my personal notes in "vi".

I find the idea that any app that can be used without the web residing only on the web appalling. And I think a lot of business folks will to. Sounds like a great way for Microsoft to continue its difficulties started with that operating system whose name I forget.

The big deal in cloud computing isn't internet-based end-user apps — it's running server images on a distributed commodity infrastructure like Amazon's EC2. Bring capacity online as you need it and don't pay for it when you don't.

We use a customized version of Open Office. Why? Because it's cheaper plain and simple. Microsoft needs a new business model to compete against that. Over time fewer and fewer customers will feel the need to pay hundreds of dollars for the MS Office Suite. Microsoft is considering web apps as a precursor to METERED web apps. That is, you rent access to your web applications much like you would any other subscriber model. The edge they see is that they will push a different kind of vendor lock in by using web app non portability linked to some other features like so called 'collaborative computing' i.e. link Web apps to MSN, Messenger and Outlook.

It's partway smart and partway desperation. None one really wants a web based Lotus Notes environment - it's too heavy. But the idea that you can easily run a small business off strictly web apps will hold appeal for many.

I had a similar experience when my old company transitioned from offline accounting software to Oracle. Press TAB, wait 5 seconds, press TAB, wait 5 seconds. Five seconds doesn't seem like much, but it adds up and it's not enough time to work on something else. Infuriating and counter-productive.

Obviously, the guys at Microsoft don't travel as much as I do. It's not always possible to find an internet in the smallest communities. Sometimes I've checked into a hotel offering wireless, only to find that it's 'broken' and there is no one nearby that can fix it. Businesses offering free wireless can be few and far between. International travel is even more dicey, as many countries only feature pay by the byte service. And what about those people that like to work on documents offline because, er, the internet is a major distraction?

I often travel for business, and a lot of that business is done with Microsoft Word and PowerPoint. It's very convenient to be able to use these applications on an airplane. In fact, I find I can get a lot more work done without an internet connection that with one.

I'm sure there will be tons of companies out there willing to manage their sensitive information on Microsoft's servers. After all, Microsoft products are world renowned for their security and reliability as they currently stand, what could possibly go wrong running them remotely over the internet?

Great plan! LOL!

this is the heigth of stupidity--the worst possible move in a complex environment.

Everybody right now is suffering from the bottle-necks. The PC on your desk or MacBook on your lap is not one of them. Your corporate/school/home firewall, the community ISP, the regional ISP, all are suffering from 100% growth in bandwidth every 6-months. Reducing significantly what little useful work you PC can actually do, and putting it in "the cloud," thows more gasoline on the fire.

Remember the early 90s idea of the "thin" client? This is similar to that, but even scarier. What mechanism for security does "the cloud" provide? The chief advantage of "the cloud," and why corporations love to draw them, is that they hide complexity and are cheap. You get what you pay for.

It's all well and good to condemn web apps for lack of security, but so what? How much do you need for those term papers and recipes? It's simply a matter of what angle you want to position the app for. Consider the merging of web office apps with email and Facebook. It's actually a pretty neat fit if you combine it with something like Netmeeting.

And if it will save my nonprofit the agony of MS "Patch Tuesday" and trying to fix this week's eleventy thousand security patches then maybe it's not such a bad thing.

And for the record I use Google apps and I'm not thrilled with them. Not a big fan, personally of the web app business but I can see how it might be a fit for someone.

David Bainbridge said: "I find I can get a lot more work done without an internet connection that with one."

Damn, this is so true. It's a lot easier for me to focus on the task at hand if there's no other option than to ... focus on the task at hand.

And? I still need a frickin' modem on my laptop because some of the places I travel to do not exactly have DSL, broadband, or an internet cafe on every streetcorner. These Microsoft architects must not travel to the same places I do...but it wouldn't be the first time that usability took a backseat in a Microsoft application now, would it.

you're an idiot even here.

Who says we have term papers and recipes to protect? Some of us have sensitive documents. Some of us do a lot of work in Word and don't want to lose any data. Some of us don't want to have to upgrade our connections to FIOS just to use Office.

You are a stone cold moron.

There's plenty of information that organizations don't want to be released in the public sphere. Defense and law enforcement-related material are obvious examples, but also trade secrets and other intellectual property, confidential lawyer-client communication, investigative reporting, and so forth. All of these things could be exposed by insecure cloud computing. Not to mention that individuals might want to have more control over their own personal data and not trust Microsoft to keep it secure.

I'm with Cyrus on this. Gmail is fine "in the cloud" because you obviously can't get your email sans connectivity, but I fail to see the point of having actual core apps online other than it gives MS a great new way to validate your access. In fact this may be the real motivation here.

One thing Cyrus did not mention was the fact that if you are in the cloud, so are all your documents, this is just too tempting for the NSA and the TIA types, your data can and will be scanned.

One last thing, Cyrus said that he feels he has better privacy with Outlook, or Thunderbird. Well, those emails still reside on a server and are available for subpoena.