I’m taking the web-only challenge. Are you in?

With the slew of decent-powered but low-priced, small notebooks, I thought I’d try a little experiment. As of the time I hit “publish” on this post, I’m going to see how long I can go without using a full client application on my Mac or my UMPC. It’s not a terrible stretch for me to do this because I’ve been migrating away from software and towards services for nearly a year now. Still, a few times a day I currently up an app like Word, Outlook or the new Pandora client. Just for kicks, I want to see how long I can go without any of them.

This ties in with mobility, my last two years of daily UMPC usage and that wave of netbooks I alluded to at the beginning of this conversation. For mobility, you need connectivity, but you don’t necessarily need horsepower… unless you’re a PIXAR animator that likes to work in the park. If you are, I’d love to see the rig you lug around. ;)And UMPCs over the last two years? I’ve watched them struggle with a balance between performance and run-time due to battery life and device design. With the 1.33 GHz Intel Core Solo under the hood and the two 6-cell batteries I have for my Samsung Q1UP UMPC, I can easily work a full 10-hour day so I’m covered there as well. Many of the new netbooks and small notebooks should benefit in terms of battery life with Intel’s Atom, even though there’s still some question on the performance side of the house. I think we’ll see a generally acceptable compromise between performance and power needs, but in the end, you won’t be designing “Cars II” on these smaller devices. The raw performance isn’t there and it isn’t meant to be.My thought is that while some people will always have a genuine need for specific client applications, you can be productive with a lower-performance device that doesn’t have much more than a web browser and some type of connectivity. Web services are maturing… not extremely fast… but fast enough and with functions that people want to use; not tons of functions that few will use, as I’ve seen in many a desktop application. I’m also a good candidate for such an experiment: my computing needs are really meager in the sense that I create contentSo the intent here is to “test” a lifestyle. A paradigm shift. A glimpse into what I expect we’ll see in the future. Namely: a centralized heavy-duty box for the home, but lighter, portable web devices for the home’s inhabitants. I realize that not everyone wants or is ready for that and that’s OK. Personal computing is, and should be, personal. This is just to have a frame of reference and help open up some eyes as to what you can really do with small, low-cost notebook or UMPC and the web.I’ll have to request four exceptions up front. First, for my WWAN connectivity, I use a Verizon EV-DO card. On my PCs, I have to run the VZ Access software to make such a connection, so that’s going to be labeled “acceptable”. I don’t need to run that software on my Mac. Another exception is for me to download, trial, and/or review software applications to be covered here at jkOnTheRun or other writing venues I contribute to. I also reserve the right to use iTunes but ONLY to upgrade my iPhone if I’m still holding out when the next software upgrade occurs. I also produce the MobileTechRoundup podcast, so unless you don’t want to hear any more shows, you’re going to have to let me use Skype and Audacity for the show. Aside from those few conditions, I’ll have one app and one app running only: my web browser. Deal? [If you're really feeling charitable, you'll let me read my eBooks in eReader too, but I'd understand if you won't. ;) ]I’m not really suggesting you join me on this, but it might be a good experiment to try. See how long you can be fully productive using nothing more than a browser and web services if you can. You just might find some new services that you would have missed otherwise.I’ll report in along the way if I determine there’s any information that would be useful to share. Of course, I’ll also let you know when I fell off the wagon and why. The clock starts now!