The power of servers on the net can be great. Web-based email, calendaring, WebLogs, WikiWikis, and all manner of other personal and group information management. The web browser can be a universal client on applications, for ubiquitous access. Web services and open protocols can provide good loose-coupling and separation of functions which can be used and combined in ways not forseen by the original creators, as opposed to the dictation of use by lock-in leaning technologies.

The problem with servers on the net is that they are either owned by someone else, and so your data is in semi-hostile territory (do you get backups? what if they go under or decide not to like you? are they collecting metrics on your data?) or you need to pay for a FullPeer server out on the net.

So how much of this necessitates a FullPeer server on the net, and how much of it can I run on my desktop, or better yet, on my laptop?

One factor that has changed is that servers out there used to be a much larger concentration of computing resources than anyone could have at home on their desktops. Now, cheap desktop systems have a huge surplus of cycles and resources that are rarely used, except perhaps in the case of gaming. Other than being FullPeers, a lot of home machines can do everything that a server has traditionally done.

As far as I can see, the lack of being a FullPeer cuts out ubiquitous access. For me, this is less of a problem because wherever I want access to my services, I usually have my laptop. So if I run my services on my laptop, I have access. The other reasons I'd want a FullPeer is if I want to offer others access to my services, or if I'm not fortunate enough to have my laptop with me.

A partial way around this is developments in things like JabberRpc?, such as the work being done in RadioUserLand to connect non-FullPeers via Jabber IM services. Computers connect to the Jabber network, and relay messages to each other through the network. This communication is identity-based and not location- or IP-based, and pierces firewalls. There's still a FullPeer out there (namely the Jabber server), but we can at least work on making the FullPeer less of a service provider and more of a meeting place for service providers.

See: DesktopWebsite, DesktopWebAppServer, PersonalMailServer

-- LesOrchard - 09 Mar 2002

Main.PersonalServer moved from Main.PersonalDesktopServer on 09 Mar 2002 - 19:58 by LesOrchard - put it back