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Steve Jobs talked about this when he returned to Apple. He basically discussed how he would work at his home Mac and then come to the office and login and sudde

Steve Jobs talked about this when he returned to Apple. He basically discussed how he would work at his home Mac and then come to the office and login and suddenly with the internet and networking the work Mac would be exactly the same. I think the ideal should basically be that. You can pick up a phone, any phone (limited to iPhones for Aplle), login to your iCloud account and suddenly it's your phone, indistinguishable from the other phone thst was yours, outside maybe unavailable hardware features. That's one of the great things about web apps. I can log into Gmail anywhere and it's the same thing. I haven't used it, but I believe this is the promise ChromeOS delivers.

copperx 9y ago
Isn't this the decades-old idea of Plan9?
- socceroos 9y ago
  I see distributed computing as a slightly lower-level concept in the more generalised field of ubiquitous computing.
- Someone 9y ago
  IIRC, it's what he had at NeXT (in the office and on the machine(s) in his home). Plan 9 may have existed at AT&T, but first shipped in 1992 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plan_9_from_Bell_Labs#History https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plan_9_from_Bell_Labs#History)
- Sharlin 9y ago
  It's the decades-old idea of thin clients.
  - TheOtherHobbes 9y ago
    No, it's not, because the CPU is still local, so you're not just using your device as a terminal to a remote server. We don't have the infrastructure for this yet. The absolutely open version - even if it was just storing apps centrally and downloading them on demand, and not downloading everything - would still require something like 100 times more bandwidth than we have now to be usably fast. A workable version, with local storage providing device accounts for a small number of users, would still need more local storage than we have now, and storage isn't cheap enough yet to make this fully affordable. 256/512GB devices could possibly handle family needs, just about, but would struggle at work.
    - majewsky 9y ago
      IMO network bandwidth and latency is a bigger problem than storage. Right now, I can stream [1] HD movies from my homeserver to wherever my notebook is right now, because the upstream at home is wide enough (6 megabits per sec). But that application only works because it has quite predictable bandwidth requirements and can cope with latency quite well. Many other applications would be horribly slow if every file access had a second-long roundtrip. [1] via sshfs
- catwell 9y ago
  It is certainly something Rob Pike wants. Read the "What would be your dream setup?" paragraph here: https://usesthis.com/interviews/rob.pike/ https://usesthis.com/interviews/rob.pike/ A lot of people have had that idea over the years (remember John Gage's "the network is the computer"?) You could even argue The Shockwave Rider, a 1975 Science Fiction novel, described it pretty well. I don't know about the Steve Jobs quote though, do you have a link?
- rwmj 9y ago
  The first time I saw this implemented was in 1996 at Olivetti Research Lab in Cambridge UK. Everyone had an IR badge, and when you walked up to a machine it recognized you and popped up your desktop (no login, and it was exactly how you left it). Technology-wise it was a bit of a dead end. However the underlying protocol was VNC which they invented for this purpose.
mattacular 9y ago
With ChromeOS you can, if you wanted to, sync all of your profile/settings to Google, "power wash" (completely clean) the machine upon shutting down. Then when you reboot syncing everything back to the machine happens upon entering your credentials.
snyp 9y ago
This is exactly what the hand off feature in iOS is about, granted it does not work across all apps but they have done some great improvements with iOS 11 and hopefully will keep improving upon it in the future
deleted 9y ago
[deleted]
mattowen_uk 9y ago
>> how he would work at his home Mac and then come to the office and login and suddenly with the internet and networking the work Mac would be exactly the same I don't think this is the right end game. Now that almost every adult in the 1st world has a mobile phone in their pocket that is more than capable of being a desktop PC, the solution we should be heading for is universal docking stations (preferably) wireless. So that wherever you are, there's a large screen+keyboard+mouse (or the phone screen can be a trackpad) and your phone just connects to those, be it at work, or home, or in a hotel. Your main machine is in your pocket; a lot of non-techie people don't even have any other personal computing device (laptop/desktop etc.). Personally tho, I like having a division between my work machine(s), and my home machine(s).
- KozmoNau7 9y ago
  I would like to have a docking station that could turn my phone into a desktop-like device, with a proper mouse, keyboard and monitor(s). I don't need much, a full-featured web browser, Spotify and a handful of other straight-forward apps are all I really need, but I wouldn't mind a fully-fledged Linux environment. If I could also get a laptop-like dock, my phone would take care of ~95% of all my computing needs. Strictly personal, though. I envision simply having a different phone for for work, for privacy reasons. But plugging it into the same docks.
  - lostlogin 9y ago
    That's close to the day phone/night phone thing so causes instant revulsion for me.
    - keithpeter 9y ago
      Parent and grandparent posters: how about a sandboxed part of storage under employer's admin with employer's data? Your phone, they get to manage a small protected portion. VOIP for corporate voice calls?
      - philjohn 9y ago
agumonkey 9y ago
This was looong ago and in the context of desktops which weren't as numerous and obiquitous as phones. Now Apple probably wants you to have 3, 4 of their devices and not 1 per room that can easily be shared.
torstenvl 9y ago
It seems obvious to me that Apple is developing the technology that will enable this. Handoff, continuity, iCloud, Apple Watch authentication/unlock... step by step, we're getting to a point where your user identity and your current work all travel with you.
AlphaSite 9y ago
I think a laptop is what he was really after, 1 computer that’s the same everywhere you are.
_jal 9y ago
How often do you change phones? I get it more with the model of desktop computers, maybe even laptops. But phones? Why? Is this a vision of a world where phones are treated like umbrellas? In any case, my desires are for the opposite. If you don't own the storage substrate, you don't own the data on it, and I prefer to own my data. I have an iPhone, but don't use iCloud, except for syncing a couple specific things. I remember the first release, and remember the NeXT model of "home directories on an optical drive". I was really, really hoping at the time that the iPhone would be that home directory, portable between machines. Now, I join the chorus of folks who think I should just be able to plug a monitor and keyboard into my phone. But that also needs to come with a viable computing environment, which for me means a unix shell and hardware control. Which is why I'm bolting for an open phone, as soon one actually gets off the ground.

copperx 9y ago

Isn't this the decades-old idea of Plan9?

socceroos 9y ago
I see distributed computing as a slightly lower-level concept in the more generalised field of ubiquitous computing.
Someone 9y ago
IIRC, it's what he had at NeXT (in the office and on the machine(s) in his home). Plan 9 may have existed at AT&T, but first shipped in 1992 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plan_9_from_Bell_Labs#History https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plan_9_from_Bell_Labs#History)
Sharlin 9y ago
It's the decades-old idea of thin clients.
- TheOtherHobbes 9y ago
  No, it's not, because the CPU is still local, so you're not just using your device as a terminal to a remote server. We don't have the infrastructure for this yet. The absolutely open version - even if it was just storing apps centrally and downloading them on demand, and not downloading everything - would still require something like 100 times more bandwidth than we have now to be usably fast. A workable version, with local storage providing device accounts for a small number of users, would still need more local storage than we have now, and storage isn't cheap enough yet to make this fully affordable. 256/512GB devices could possibly handle family needs, just about, but would struggle at work.
  - majewsky 9y ago
    IMO network bandwidth and latency is a bigger problem than storage. Right now, I can stream [1] HD movies from my homeserver to wherever my notebook is right now, because the upstream at home is wide enough (6 megabits per sec). But that application only works because it has quite predictable bandwidth requirements and can cope with latency quite well. Many other applications would be horribly slow if every file access had a second-long roundtrip. [1] via sshfs
catwell 9y ago
It is certainly something Rob Pike wants. Read the "What would be your dream setup?" paragraph here: https://usesthis.com/interviews/rob.pike/ https://usesthis.com/interviews/rob.pike/ A lot of people have had that idea over the years (remember John Gage's "the network is the computer"?) You could even argue The Shockwave Rider, a 1975 Science Fiction novel, described it pretty well. I don't know about the Steve Jobs quote though, do you have a link?
rwmj 9y ago
The first time I saw this implemented was in 1996 at Olivetti Research Lab in Cambridge UK. Everyone had an IR badge, and when you walked up to a machine it recognized you and popped up your desktop (no login, and it was exactly how you left it). Technology-wise it was a bit of a dead end. However the underlying protocol was VNC which they invented for this purpose.

mattacular 9y ago

With ChromeOS you can, if you wanted to, sync all of your profile/settings to Google, "power wash" (completely clean) the machine upon shutting down. Then when you reboot syncing everything back to the machine happens upon entering your credentials.

snyp 9y ago

This is exactly what the hand off feature in iOS is about, granted it does not work across all apps but they have done some great improvements with iOS 11 and hopefully will keep improving upon it in the future

deleted 9y ago

[deleted]

mattowen_uk 9y ago

>> how he would work at his home Mac and then come to the office and login and suddenly with the internet and networking the work Mac would be exactly the same I don't think this is the right end game. Now that almost every adult in the 1st world has a mobile phone in their pocket that is more than capable of being a desktop PC, the solution we should be heading for is universal docking stations (preferably) wireless. So that wherever you are, there's a large screen+keyboard+mouse (or the phone screen can be a trackpad) and your phone just connects to those, be it at work, or home, or in a hotel. Your main machine is in your pocket; a lot of non-techie people don't even have any other personal computing device (laptop/desktop etc.). Personally tho, I like having a division between my work machine(s), and my home machine(s).

KozmoNau7 9y ago
I would like to have a docking station that could turn my phone into a desktop-like device, with a proper mouse, keyboard and monitor(s). I don't need much, a full-featured web browser, Spotify and a handful of other straight-forward apps are all I really need, but I wouldn't mind a fully-fledged Linux environment. If I could also get a laptop-like dock, my phone would take care of ~95% of all my computing needs. Strictly personal, though. I envision simply having a different phone for for work, for privacy reasons. But plugging it into the same docks.
- lostlogin 9y ago
  That's close to the day phone/night phone thing so causes instant revulsion for me.
  - keithpeter 9y ago
    Parent and grandparent posters: how about a sandboxed part of storage under employer's admin with employer's data? Your phone, they get to manage a small protected portion. VOIP for corporate voice calls?
    - philjohn 9y ago

agumonkey 9y ago

This was looong ago and in the context of desktops which weren't as numerous and obiquitous as phones. Now Apple probably wants you to have 3, 4 of their devices and not 1 per room that can easily be shared.

torstenvl 9y ago

It seems obvious to me that Apple is developing the technology that will enable this. Handoff, continuity, iCloud, Apple Watch authentication/unlock... step by step, we're getting to a point where your user identity and your current work all travel with you.

AlphaSite 9y ago

I think a laptop is what he was really after, 1 computer that’s the same everywhere you are.

_jal 9y ago

How often do you change phones? I get it more with the model of desktop computers, maybe even laptops. But phones? Why? Is this a vision of a world where phones are treated like umbrellas? In any case, my desires are for the opposite. If you don't own the storage substrate, you don't own the data on it, and I prefer to own my data. I have an iPhone, but don't use iCloud, except for syncing a couple specific things. I remember the first release, and remember the NeXT model of "home directories on an optical drive". I was really, really hoping at the time that the iPhone would be that home directory, portable between machines. Now, I join the chorus of folks who think I should just be able to plug a monitor and keyboard into my phone. But that also needs to come with a viable computing environment, which for me means a unix shell and hardware control. Which is why I'm bolting for an open phone, as soon one actually gets off the ground.