I'm continuing my drive to get as much stuff (master data) off my PC and on to the web.
- I use www.4smartphone.net for my email and PIM data hosting
- I use Google Bookmarks for my bookmarks/favorites
- I've started using Google Docs for keeping docs
I just set up a new PC at home for my wife and am going to try the challenge of installing as little software as possible. Google Docs can automatically be used to open .doc and .xls files and you can save in these formats so I don't really need an office suite.
The advantages are:
- Less time spent on software installation and maintenance
- Very easy to move to a new machine using any operating system or use my data whenever I have a machine with an internet connection, wherever I am
- I can access much of the data using a smartphone or connected PDA (Windows Mobile are my devices of choice), which vastly increases the places and situations in which I have access to and can work on my data
The risks are:
- What happens if I don't have an internet connection? (Answer: keep an offline copy of anything critical or don't use online services for this data)
- What about data privacy? (Answer: Don't put anything online or even on a PC that you are not willing to lose or face the consequences of losing)