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Is personal computer software becoming irrelevant?

I have been pondering lately about how little I use software installed on my computers for personal purposes. Of course, I understand that every aspect of my life is increasingly dependent on digitized data and software running in the cloud. But it feels like all that is happening in the background with almost no input from me.

I rarely pickup up a laptop, fire up an application and do something that would have a real world impact. Most of the time, I just use a web browser to consume information or entertainment. Should I not be doing more with all the computing power at my disposal?

The situation is very different in my professional life. I am constantly switching between several applications as I create software and other content everyday. In fact, my challenge there has been to try and reduce the number of programs that I use so that I can be more efficient in my workflow.

The reality is that SaaS based solutions have been steadily replacing standalone applications for a while now. With the convenience of online data storage and multi device access, I no longer feel inclined to run single purpose programs on my computers.

However as a relatively technically competent person, I believe that I should be comfortable running programs locally on my computer and owning my personal data. So I am really going to focus on taking back control of that aspect of my life over the next few months.