Over the past couple weeks I’ve been trying a new experiment. Now that I’ve embraced the “netbook lifestyle,” I thought I’d see what this cloud computing thing was really all about. While I have Microsoft Office 2007 loaded on my HP Mini-Note, I thought I’d try Google apps instead.

The way I see it, there’s two different paradigms to use with netbooks.

1. Thin client, or web-based. Using web-based applications and living out of the browser. This has become much more feasible than it used to be, and others have made a pretty good go of using only Firefox for all their computing needs. And thanks to Google Gears, you can even work offline (albeit with some pretty significant limitations).
2. Thick client, or what used to be called client-server computing. Here you use traditional desktop software and either store your data in the cloud or sync your data through the cloud to other PCs.

Technically there is a third option, just using the netbook like any other computer and not using networked data at all, but where’s the fun in that?

The most popular option, at least among the technorati, is option one. Google’s office suite (Gmail, Docs, Notebook, Calendar) does a pretty good job of replacing heavier client-side apps like Microsoft Office or OpenOffice. And if you’re using a computer designed to be online all the time, why not use online tools?

Supplementing Google’s suite with a few additional services like Remember The Milk for task management and ScribeFire’s Firefox plugin for blogging, I tried this out for a week. I even ditched Exchange on my Treo and used GooSync and MilkSync along with Gmail’s IMAP service to use Google services on Windows Mobile (which works, but not as well as Android, alas). I used Gears to allow offline use in RTM, Docs, etc. And it worked, sorta.

I tried to like it, I really did. And the integration between Google Docs, Notebook and iGoogle is pretty compelling. I was able to keep my documents online and editing them was fast and easy. I expect I’d like Google Docs a lot more if I was doing any active collaboration, it looks really good for that. But the limitations got to me. You can’t create a new document in Google Docs when you’re offline, among other things.

Because that’s what really made the decision for me. It’s easy to get online with a netbook, but it’s not a given. I’ve found that WiFi hotspots are far more common that I would have suspected, but they’re not everywhere. I can tether my netbook to my Treo pretty easily, but that involves a cable (I can’t seem to get it working with Bluetooth or WiFi, even with PdaNet), which means a stable setup where I’m going to be for a while. For quick work, jotting something down quickly (10 minutes or less) setting up a cellular internet connection is too much of a hassle. And as a result, I wasn’t using my netbook as often as I could have.

If I was using an even smaller netbook, like the Asus eee 700 series with just 4GB of flash and pretty much instant-on Linux, I’d be more inclined to make web-based apps work. But I have an XP-based netbook with a 120GB hard drive. I have the ability to use local storage, local software and the full power of Windows. Why not use it along with the best of cloud computing? (and yes, there is a vision for more, but I’ll get to that in another article)

So instead of living in the clouds, I’ve got a core group of local software that ties into the cloud for storage and sync, allowing me to work offline with no compromises when I have to, but have all the benefits of the net when can. I’ll detail my set up soon, but for now, how are you using cloud computing?

I’m sitting at Chipotle putting the finishing touches on an article about deciding between using thick clients (Word, Outlook) versus thin clients (Google Docs, Gmail) on netbooks, and a guy walks up to me and stares until I take out my earbuds (one of the reasons I love writing at Chipotle is that between my hearing damage and my –20db headphones, it’s actually less distracting here than at home).

He points at my HP Mini-note. “Where do you get a computer like that?” He explains that he needs to get a PC for his daughter in high school.

I tell him that for a high schooler, I wouldn’t actually recommend the HP, as it’s a little pricier than the competition. I tell him about the Asus eee 1000, which has a 10” screen, comes preloaded with XP and could run all the stuff she needs for school. Then I tell him he can find it locally at Best Buy for $399.

His eyes nearly pop out of his head, and he starts grinning widely. I make note of this, and he says, “Wow, that’s such a great deal.” He booked out of the restaurant and I’d bet dollars to donuts he was headed straight for Best Buy.

I see this sort of thing all the time. I’ve talked before about my 12-year-old niece’s netbook-lust, and the other day when she brought her friend over while I was at my sister’s for the Broncos humiliating defeat by game against the Patriots, her friend was also star struck at the possibilities afforded by a computer of her very own that she could take anywhere.

Paul Thurrott and Leo Laporte discussed netbooks in this week’s Windows Weekly podcast (along with soundly thrashing Windows Mobile) and dismissed them as a temporary bridge between traditional laptops and future smartphones running desktop-class operating systems. While I like the idea of a Windows smartphone running the same Windows kernel as the desktop version, using the same API for programs and having binary compatibility with desktop Windows, but using a user interface optimized for mobile use, that doesn’t obviate netbooks.

I’ve used mobile phones for years as stand-ins for ultra-mobile PCs, and the problem isn’t the operating system or applications. As evidenced by the popularity of not only netbooks but devices like the Celio Redfly, form factor matters. A clamshell device with a larger screen and touch-typable keyboard is just better for some things. I post blog entries and read Google Reader from both my Treo and my Mininote, but I read ebooks exclusively on the Treo and write longer form work exclusively on the Mininote. It’s about using the right tool for the right job, and it’s becoming increasing obvious every day that netbooks are the tools a lot of people have been waiting for.

Spent most of the day running around with my dad looking for netbooks retail. Best Buy has the Asus eee 1000HD and the MSI Wind, both running XP, along with the older 7″ Linux-based eee.

The eee 1000HD is actually pretty impressive, and would be a contender if it weren’t saddled with a last gen Celeron M processor. Granted, my trusty HP Mini-Note runs on a Via C7-M, so who am I to criticize, really. Keyboard’s nice, though.

The MSI Wind, on the other hand… I can see why this seems to be the runaway success of the netbook set. It’s nearly indentical in size to my HP, with a comfortable keyboard, a spiffy Atom processor and even one more USB port than I have on my HP. It’s impressive, and upgradeable to the capabilities of a “real” laptop, given that Josh just upgraded his to 2GB of RAM and a 200GB 7200rpm hard drive.

There’s a reason this is the only segment of the PC market that’s actually growing. Should be interesting to see what Microsoft has to say at PDC this week about how Windows 7 will run on lower-power PCs.

The big news out of Cupertino today was more of the same. While a lot of the tech press, yours truly included, expected Apple to announce a netbook (albeit a pricey one at $800), what we got was more 13 and 15 inch Macbooks that look pretty much like the ones already on the market. The old plastic Macbook dropped in price to “under a thousand dollars” (that would be $999) but it’s still 13 inches and over four pounds. Pass.

When asked why Apple wasn’t releasing a netbook in the Q&A, Jobs replied that netbooks are still a “nascent” market and Apple doesn’t do that. That’s a may be, but that also means that Apple is gleefully ignoring 37% of the market, which, oh, by the way, just happens to be the only part that’s actually growing.

Given that it’s pretty easy to put OS X on a netbook if you really want to, maybe this is for the best. Let Apple keep their overpriced shiny to themselves, and the next generation of mobile computing will just move on without them.

Jason Perlow has an interesting article over on ZDnet about how the economic crisis might spur IT innovation to save costs. He’s focused mostly on a top-down, enterprise-focused “how the heck can we afford this datacenter” perspective, but it got me thinking about netbooks.

Before long y’all are going to be as tired as my RL friends of hearing about netbooks. I’ve recently purchased an HP 2133 Mini-note, and it has completely changed how I approach using a computer. I really think these small, cheap, “under-specced” laptops are going to change computing. And it occurs to me that they might have appeared at a historically perfect moment.

The thing about netbooks is that they can be so small and cheap precisely because they don’t do as much as a “real” laptop. Now over time the definition of a real laptop has changed to the point that my writing partner’s 15” laptop has more power and better gaming performance than my desktop, but that’s beside the point. Netbooks are good enough to do about 80% of what you’d want to do with a computer. They’re great at email, surfing, light media (for instance, as I write this in Windows Live Writer, I have Outlook and Firefox open as well as tunes in Windows Media Player; works fine). In other words, they’re the perfect second or kid’s PC for most families. As long as you’ve got one big desktop in the home for the other 20% work, why would you buy anything but netbooks from then on?

As we slowly stagger into the holiday shopping season, expect to see netbooks sales skyrocket while sales of desktop and larger laptops tapers off.

Economic crisis as a technology change agent | Tech Broiler | ZDNet.com