Let the network be the computer

The network card of my work computer blew up last night. The motherboard has to be replaced and that will happen on Wednesday because of Diwali holidays. Till then, that machine is a black box. Of course, I am still able to use offline applications like Visual Studio, Visio etc. but other very important applications like Email and Perforce (CVS client) need network access. Thankfully Microsoft Exchange server also provides a web interface for email. So I can right now access my email from another machine. The web interface is surprisingly similar to the normal desktop Outlook interface. However, it is slower than gmail or yahoo mail in spite of the fact that I access it through company intranet. I wish that like email, all other applications that I use were web based. And all my data was also on the network. So no matter which computer I am sitting on, I could still access those apps and data. Though Google has denied the rumours about Google Office, I think more and more applications will go the web service way in near future. There is no software piracy in this paradigm. You can pay per use basis. And you won’t feel stranded if your network card blew up. Last but not the least, you get a fighting chance to challenge the monopoly of certain OS makers from Redmond.