How to have got your documents and applications available everywhere using portable applications and virtual applications. Advantages and disadvantages of both options. Downloading the presentation you could see the moderator notes with some additional information.
TRANSCRIPT
"Portable applicationsvs.
Virtual applications"
How to have got your documentsand applications available everywhere
(by David Comuñas, eqhes.info)
Moderador
Notas de la presentación
Hello world! In this presentation I’m going to explain how to have got your documents and applications available everywhere using portable applications and virtual applications.
Introduction
Better infrastuctures
New work environments
Mobility
Moderador
Notas de la presentación
The infrastructures of communication improve each day. The wide band extension and the universalization of the technology gives users new work environments which facilitate mobility. Web applications and portable applications does accessible our work environment from everywhere and without depending on concrete systems. And now, I will talk about tendencies and products that can help us to improve our mobility.
Conceptual evolution
Personal computer
Laptop
Pocket PC / UMPC
Web desktop (WebOS)
Moderador
Notas de la presentación
Things have changed a lot since the first personal computers made back in the forties. Today we can notice a clear trend on the evolution of the devices used to manage our personal information. Before continuing you need to know the meaning of two words I have got to reinvent: mobile and portable. For me: - “Mobile" is something that can be moved from one place to another, just the original meaning of the word, as you know. - “Portable” it's one step over the mobility. If a device is portable that means some things: it is mobile, it’s personal (provably you will not lend it to anybody) and it’s part of your live (maybe you can’t go out from home without that device - as a mobile phone, for example -). If you have understood what means “mobile” and what else “portable”, you will now understand the conceptual evolution of the personal technology. - Personal computer: not mobile. - Laptop: mobile, but not much portable. - Pocket PC: mobile and portable, but we continue depending on a device. - Web desktop (WebOS): it is not mobile, but it is accessible from anywhere via internet, independently of the device that we use.
Types of mobile technologies
Portable applications.
Virtual applications.
Web desktops (WebOS).
Moderador
Notas de la presentación
There are three kinds of mobile technologies, which I will explain you right now: - Portable applications. - Virtual applications. - Web desktops (a.k.a. WebOS). In most cases they are free applications and sometimes they are open source code, which means that you can edit them freely. There also exist private code ones. Both, private and open source applications, can be free or commercial.
Portable applications:Introduction
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Notas de la presentación
These are the applications that we can save in a memory stick, in a pendrive, in a SD card or some else. We can use these on any computer with any operating System supported by them. However, most of these applications work only over Microsoft's Windows operating System. Anyway, you can use them on Unix systems through "Wine HQ“, for example, which is a free and Open Source implementation of the Windows API.
Portable applications:Advantages
They take up little space.They don't need to be installed in the computer that we use.They don't leave any trace in the computer.
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Notas de la presentación
There are some advantages using portable applications: - They take up little space. This permits us to bring with us these applications from one place to another: in the pocket, in the briefcase... - They don't need to be installed in the computer that we use. We only have to execute the program kept in the portable memory. - They don't leave any trace in the computer.
Portable applications:Disadvantages
They depend on an operating system: Windows, usually.
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However, there is also one disadvantage: - They depend on an operating system: Windows, usually.
GIMP Portable (photograph and imagemanipulation).FileZilla Portable (FTP client).Gaim Portable (chat).Mozilla Firefox, Portable Edition (Web browser).MozillaThunderbird, Portable Edition (emailapplication).VLC Media Player Portable (multimedia player).OpenOffice.org Portable (word processor, database, vector graphics editor...).
Portable applications:Interesting links
More portable applications in:◦ http://www.framakey.org/Portables◦ http://portableapps.com/apps◦ http://software.u3.com◦ http://www.linux.com/articles/52932
More information in:◦ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portable_application
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Notas de la presentación
A list of indispensable applications. Applications for the PortableApps Suite. This has got one problem in my point of view: a pendrive with special technology is needed. Yes, there are Linux applications, you can see them here. What to say about Wikipedia? :P
Virtual applications:Introduction
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Notas de la presentación
These are applications or services accessible through internet. If you can access to Internet, you can use them - OK, not always, but yes in most cases -. Virtual applications take advantage of internet's characteristics to give users community options such as share the generated documents or tools to get in touch with other users.
Virtual applications:Advantages
“Any physical space is required”.They don't need to be installed in the computer that we use.They don't leave any trace in the computer.Not operating System dependent.Only a web browser is needed.
Moderador
Notas de la presentación
These are the advantages using virtual applications: - "Any physical space is required". You no need any physical support to carry them. Virtual applications are installed on a server which will be accessed remotely from "any" device (sometimes also from pocket PCs or consoles like Wii, PS3, etc.). - Like portable applications, you don't need to install them on any device you will use. Consequently: - You can use them without a trace, nor leaving personal information on the device where you are using them. - Not operating System dependent. In other words: they should work as well on Mac, Linux/UNIX and Windows. - Only a web browser is needed. However, maybe you will need an specific browser.
Virtual applications:Disadvantages
They depend on the internet*
* This must not be a disadvantage.
Moderador
Notas de la presentación
And, of course, there is one disadvantage: - They depend on the internet, because the access is virtual. This could be problematic, but nowadays there are more wide band connections (ADSL, 3G, etc) and free access points (town hall, library, etc).
Virtual applications:Some examples
Splashup (http://www.splashup.com - image manipulator)net2ftp (http://www.net2ftp.com - FTP client)MSN Web Messenger (http://webmessenger.msn.com - chat)MSN Hotmail (http://www.hotmail.com - email application)Last.fm (http://www.last.fm - internet radio)Zoho (http://www.zoho.com - word processor, database, spreadsheets...)
Virtual applications:Interesting links
More information about web applications:◦ http://www.webware.com
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Notas de la presentación
Daily updates talking about web applications.
Web desktops (WebOS):Introduction
Moderador
Notas de la presentación
"WebOS" means "Web Operating System". However it is a common name for that kind of applications, really they aren't real Operating Systems. Therefore, the correct name for them should be "web desktops". A web desktop is a virtual application which is able to manage virtual applications like the mentioned before. Because that, they have got the same advantages and Disadvantages we have told as well as the following:
Some advantages: - Centralized system: all applications that we need are saved in the same place. In this way we have not to access to them one by one. - Usability: web desktops are easy to use, because the basics of the system are similar in all of those applications. - Time saving: taking into account the previous points, time is saved, which is also important.
Web desktops (WebOS):Disadvantages
They depend on the internet.
They depend on a specific environment.
Moderador
Notas de la presentación
And some disadvantages also: - As they are virtual applications, they depend on internet. - Also, they depend on a specific environment to use the applications (this problem comes from the traditional model of operating systems).
Web desktops (WebOS):Some examples
eyeOS (http://www.eyeos.org)
DesktopTwo (http://www.desktoptwo.com)
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Notas de la presentación
These are two of the major WebOS right now, but there are many others you can find through your preferred search engine. - eyeOS (http://eyeos.org – PHP + AJAX – AGPL license - developed by Catalonian youths and a great international community) - DesktopTwo (http://desktoptwo.com – Flash + PHP – AGPL – developed by Sapotek Inc. http://sapodesk.org, it seems not active since 2007)
Web desktops (WebOS): Interesting links
More information in:◦ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WebOS◦ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_desktop
Moderador
Notas de la presentación
General information about Web OS/Web desktops on Wikipedia. If you are looking for information on an specific WebOS, you can search over their respective official pages.
Conclusions
Use those you need, not those are cool ;).
Applications
Not mobile
Traditional(desktop)
Mobile
Portable(flash memory)
Virtual(web)
Moderador
Notas de la presentación
"Mobile or not mobile?", would say Shakespeare today. All kinds of applications are useful for one person or another. To decide which of those are the best in our particular case, we should ask ourselves two basic questions: Need I mobility? If I need to be mobile, what is the best for me: carry a flash memory with all my applications and documents or save them on a server and access them through internet? We think that mobile applications might be "the future", but we should use those we need, not those are cool ;).
