Revolutionising how PC's and other devices are used?

[Primal ShadoW]

http://www.mainframe2.com/

Basically, you can run any application in a browser, given that your connection is faster than 3Mbps. So, every photo editor (e.g. Creative Cloud programmes), video renderers, 3D simulators, even Paint! The processing is done in the cloud, then it streams an image back to your screen. Basically, what this does, or rather, has the potential to do, is to remove the need for desktop computing. No more need to buy HDDs, RAM, CPUs, GPUs etc, because everything is done in the cloud.

Any views on this? Will it change the ways PC's are used?

Obvious issues would be connectivity, security and responsiveness, but they definitely work with those issues already.
- Connectivity is primarily your own problem.
- Security, I don't quite know how they solve.
- Responsiveness is solved by deploying an array of server farms across the US and EU (at the moment they use Amazon's EC2), so you connect to the closest one, thus eliminating high latencies. They claim to have latency down to less than 100ms, regardless of where you are.

Personally I think this is where we'll end up eventually, with the possibility to e.g. render really complex animations with your smartphone, connected to some WiFi (not sure why anyone would do that, but just pointing out that it can be done).

Only downside at the moment is that it does not include any form of high end gaming. That's basically what http://www.onlive.co.uk/ does though. Another example of cloud processing.

[Security]

In theory it sounds really good but just like company's coming back from thin clients to normal desktops it has it's issues, the obvious one being that you need that internet connection functioning properly.
Then there is the fact that people often do not like the restrictions of it or merely the idea of not being in control.

Just like with the game streaming solutions which pretty much failed I doubt this will be a success, at least for now. Maybe it will be a success in 10 years.

[Brick]

Its how it would be if they could get away with it, its all about subscription payment they make more money off you in the long run

[Primal ShadoW]

In theory it sounds really good but just like company's coming back from thin clients to normal desktops it has it's issues, the obvious one being that you need that internet connection functioning properly.
Then there is the fact that people often do not like the restrictions of it or merely the idea of not being in control.

Just like with the game streaming solutions which pretty much failed I doubt this will be a success, at least for now. Maybe it will be a success in 10 years.

I agree on the part of "losing" control, although I reckon you don't really lose the control. Their entire business model relies so heavily on security and privacy, so if that isn't rock solid, they won't get anywhere.

Also, you allegedly only need a 3 Mbps connection, which most households today have.

Its how it would be if they could get away with it, its all about subscription payment they make more money off you in the long run

That's a bold statement, seeing how their payment solution hasn't been publicised yet. They recently did a survey where among other things, the payment options were what you could choose from. You could choose if you would either a) make a monthly subscription, like you say, b) pay-on-demand, which basically means "I'll open up Photoshop now, and pay by the hour, then pay nothing when I close it back down", or c) pay a one off fee.

Also, if you knew economics, you would know that the price you pay for the product/service would have to be very similar to your alternative cost, i.e. what other, similar product you rather could spend the money on. Otherwise you obviously wouldn't use it.

At least they're trying to come up with a viable way of deterring piracy, the same way Spotify tries to do it for music, and Netflix tries to do it for films. You see similar solutions across the board. Amazon launched a similar service just days after this went public. Adobe have launched their Creative Cloud subscription. It's slowly, but steadily turning towards on-demand services.

[Little_Devil]

On the face of it, it sounds like a decent idea, particularly when you say you only need a 3Mb connection. The majority of people will automatically assume that with their 20Mb connections, they will be fine, but that is their download speed, and not the upload.

I have a 20Mb download but a very slow and erratic 1Mb upload speed. Clearly not enough for this service to operate at its full potential and one of the reasons I use individual packages instead.

[coldandtired]

Needs a bit of work