A nice little experiment i’m working on this weekend is in preparation for one of the next Knightwise.com podcast episodes. The show will deal with using the googleplex and cloud services across a landscape of mobile and cross platform “workplaces” in order to get things done. The general question of the podcast will probably be : Can we live without the classic concept of a ‘computer’. As I am busy gathering information, I find countless interesting services, apps and links to help me on my way to a world where “Software installations” on a harddrive are no longer relevant, applications and storage moves to the cloud and where the device you use becomes nothing more then an “interaction medium” with your content. The funny and fascinating part is : Its not that hard to do. With googledrive I have finally gotten around to cleaning up my countless googledocs, and in the process rediscovering the power of the google apps. When I take a look at what I do in “office applications” both for work, and for play, 99% can be easily done in the Google plex. ‘office is dead to me’ I proclaimed last week as I didn’t even bother to reinstall libre office on one of my Linux machines. With the limited functionality I require and my constant ” hopping ” from device to device (and os to os) both local software AND storage are nothing more then a nuisance. So i will keep you posted in the results. In the meantime : what are your favourite cloud based app and storage gems ?
Many cloud storage apps have been increasing the amount of storage they offer for free. They still charge you if you want more. With 5GB available free from each service, though, if it isn’t necessary to have everything in one place, there is a lot of free file storage at your disposal. Dropbox and Box.com are well-known cross platform cloud storage services. UbuntuOne is not so well-known outside of the FOSS community, but they too have 5GB of file storage available for free — and they have clients for Linux, Windows Mac and mobile devices. Regardless of the service you choose, it all helps you to ensure that whatever electronic device you are using has the file you need, when and where you need it.
Larry Bushey
Going Linux Podcast