Mobile computing - how it should be?

Slashdot has just reported on the new "Mandrake in a box" version of Linux which they are calling Mandrake Globetrotter. Basically its a Mandrake Linux distro pre-loaded on one of those awfully nice FA Porsche desgined mobile USB drives from LaCie. LaCie drives (even the non FA Porsche versions) are beautifully designed and engineered and this particular one doesn't even need a power supply, sucking its power from the USB power line.

Assuming your computer can boot from a USB drive - and most manufactured in the last year or so should be able to - then you can plug in the drive, boot from it and be running Mandrake Linux on any PC or even laptop in a flash regardless of what is installed on the default system drive. Its exactly the kind of thing your system administrator doesn't want you doing and exactly why a well locked down computer system will restrict access to external drives and BIOS configuration. However if its your machines you're playing with then why not?

From my perspective, given the tiny size of the LaCie drive (3 by 5 inches, 0.65 inches thick) it goes a long way to my idea of truely mobile computing. For a long time now I've been moaning about how Windows and other OSes don't give you true mobility. Sure you may have a mobile computing option like a laptop, PocketPC, Palm, or even some kind of PDA-phone device, but what about all that sync software you have to run everywhere just to keep track your contacts and calendar info up to date on all your machines? Lets face it, most of the time sync software barely works between two machine, let alone three or more. And what if you're in an Internet Cafe and don't have your favourite mobile gadget to hand? Or a phone booth?

Wouldn't it be just great if you had a USB key sized device with about 1Gb of storage that included a wireless connection and thumb print verification? Call it the "Mobile Me" and think of it as a GSM SIM card on steroids. Take Mobile Me up to the host computing device of your choice - PC, laptop, Linux box, PocketPC, Smart Phone, Internet cafe kiosk, ATM, phone booth, etc. etc. Give your thumb print to the host machine and to your Mobile Me allowing both to communicate. Data on your Mobile Me becomes accessible to the host device for the session and you essentially see what Windows users would call their "profile" on the host device, and Linux users would call their home directory. The Mobile Me device could contain just data, or applications (for portability make them Java applications), or a combination. Either way the upshot is you'll have all your familiar data from contacts, calendars, email, bookmarks to hand and ready to use, quite possibly along with a few of your favourite applications.

Sure security is an issue - you need to make sure the host system isn't stealing the data from your Mobile Me, but that can be done via appropiate technologies. Besides - when you go to an Internet Cafe and access your banking web site how do you know your keystrokes aren't being logged? If the host device is inherently trusted - because its your own device - then there is no problem. Now you can truely roam between your home PC, work PC, Pocket PC, or whatever device can understand the protocols.

Now I realize that a few people are getting close to this. Its now possible, though not trivial, to load up a USB key with a copy of the Mozilla Firefox browser and Thunderbird mail reader and have them use a profile stored on the key. That takes care of your email, bookmarks and contacts. But this still takes some work when setting up the configuration and launching it - plus of course you have to have a compatible software setup e.g. Windows both ends or Linux both ends for this to work. Also Windows supports roaming profiles but these are not really designed for truely mobile disks, rather networked disks that are always there. Anyone who has looked at the amount of junk Windows puts under your Documents and Settings directory will soon realize that a slow writing flash drive isn't going to be a satisfactory solution.

Thus in the mean time I aplaud Mandrake for releasing their Globtrotter solution, even though it wasn't such a huge innovation - just a logical step in the right direction to truely mobile computing. Remember mobile computing should really be about having your data and your applications running where you want them on whatever general purpose computer is available to hand - that's the object oriented view of the world. Computers should be just computers and your data should be unique, protected and available to you at all times. Duplicating devices and data in multiple places should be, like soooo last century.

Imagine this scenario - next time you get on transatlantic flight from New York to Paris the flight attendent hands you the latest "Mobile Me" compatible computing device with widescreen hi-res screen, internet connection and all the latest bells and whistles. You scan your thumb print on it, activate your Mobile Me device and the device boots and runs your applications and your data as if you'd owned it all your life. When you're done you press the big red reset switch on the device and its purged of all information other than its BIOS and you hand it back. As you get off the plane you pull our your smart phone and repeat the process... mobility achieved.