Home Computing Evolves

In the beginning... 
After the hobbyists had finished building their computers and the emergence of several versions of desktop computing, the IBM Personal Computer (PC) came along and provided a standard platform for what we know today as the Desktop Computer. Microsoft soon got into the act and sold us a standard Operating System – first DOS then our beloved Windows! We then happily bought packaged software like Microsoft Office, Adobe Photoshop etc. For our Internet connection we originally thought that Dial-Up was fantastic for email but then found that browsing the World Wide Web on Dial-Up was akin to watching the grass grow!

After sitting at our desk for a number of years we wanted to get more mobile so the Laptop Computer was developed. These early "luggable" devices gave us the ability to use a computer elsewhere in the house, even take it on holiday. We were still trying to grapple with the Dial-Up connection but the "road warriors" with a screwdriver managed to connect to the Internet in almost any hotel room.

Thank goodness ADSL came along to save the day and to give us an "always on" Internet connection that did not stop our friends and relatives phoning us when we were "online". Some lucky individuals with access to Foxtel cable could get an even higher speed "always on" Internet connection. These new connections made browsing the Web lots of fun and the services on the Web blossomed so much that we wanted access to it wherever we were in the house or even travelling.

In the house this problem was solved by Wi-Fi which meant that we could now get an Internet connection anywhere at home and the Laptop suddenly started to seriously challenge the Desktop in the home. The introduction of 3G Wireless "dongles" that could be plugged into our Laptops meant that an Internet connection was even available to us when on holiday. Now even small and light Laptops were considered too big and heavy!

Enter the Netbook which was a sort of “cut down laptop” with all the same connectivity (Wi-Fi and 3G dongles) but smaller, lighter and no DVD-RW drive. These Netbooks proved to be popular for a while as the ultimate light traveller, however, hard on the heels of the Netbook came the Tablet, namely Apple’s iPad. The Tablet lost some of the connectivity of the Netbook but did fill the gap between the Netbook and a SmartPhone. Google decided to develop a variant of Linux and called it Android – this was to become the main Operating System of Tablets (and SmartPhones) made by all manufacturers other than Apple.

These Tablets have a very different user interface to the familiar Windows that we had been using since 1985. The user interface is more in common with the SmartPhone and, in fact, from Android 4.0 onwards, it will be identical to the SmartPhone interface. So now we have it – a range of devices all the way from a Desktop to a SmartPhone that can access the Internet and get your Email. Is one device going to wipe out all the others – I doubt it. Did one type of vehicle with four wheels wipe out all the others? Your choice of four wheeled vehicle depends on what you want to do with it – if you want to tow a caravan, if you want to move 5 kids around or you want a motorised shopping trolley or a soft top sports car. The same is likely to be true of computing devices. It is likely that many people might have a Desktop at home, a Netbook for travelling and a SmartPhone.

A new problem now emerges – on which device do your store your personal information that you want to have access to anywhere? If you make copies on multiple devices then it becomes an issue trying to keep the copies identical as you will likely update one but not all. Enter the ubiquitous Cloud that resides somewhere up there in the Internet ether. Since all devices have access to the Internet, the Cloud becomes the one common repository that is available to all. After all, we have been using it for a while with Web based email systems such a Hotmail and Gmail. The more adventurous of us having been putting our photos on Picasaweb or indeed uploading them to social networking sites such as Facebook. All of these services are part of the Cloud.

Google has been working very hard in recent years to be the dominant host of as many Cloud based services at is can. Openly working with other Cloud based services such as DropBox and EverNote, they have amassed a tremendous range of free services accessible from any of the devices mentioned above. Access to these services has only been possible and practical since the introduction of broadband “always on” connections, Wi-Fi and Wireless 3G – it would never have happened in the old Dial-Up days. So now we have been finally set free from our single Desktop Computer containing all our software and all our personal data. We can now use any computer device connected to Cloud, use mostly Cloud based software and access our Cloud based personal data anywhere in the world. What more do we want?