Framakey, U3 .. and beyond!

Today is a quieter day, thankfully. So I can do a bit of planning, reading, thinking and praying, catch up on phone calls and maybe a letter or two and also put one or two things on the blog.

One development that I think is very interesting is the whole portable software thing.

Laptop-lugging days may be numbered. What if all you had to carry was a USB key - perhaps a 2GB key (now less than £20 - cheaper even than a laptop bag!) with all the software you usually use on it?

www.framakey.org or www.portableapps.com will let you run good software like Firefox and OpenOffice etc. easily from a USB key.
U3 keys are becoming popular and the www.U3.com software automatically cleans up behind you so you leave no trace of having been on the computer you used.
Then there's the Mandriva Linux USB Key (http://store.mandriva.com/product_info.php?products_id=277) That's the ultimate, surely! Now you take your operating system with you!

Ah - well, perhaps not... What if all you had to take with you was your petite cellule grise..?

www.thinkfree.com offers online office software, while www.goowy.com and www.desktoptwo.com offer virtual desktops that you can access from any internet browser, complete with 1GB of storage space, and all you need to carry is your password.

Not to mention Google docs and spreadsheets, which enables several people to share and edit documents, too.

Ah! Brave new world that has such creatures in it!

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