Comments on your reasons:

* Regardless of whether you use Google Docs or any other online document creation service, you MUST have a copy of Word, Excel and Powerpoint on your computer to do business.

Strongly disagree. Half of my office is now on OpenOffice (both PCs and Macs) for over a year, and haven’t had a single compatibility issue. I installed it on my work netbook and have been very pleased thus far as well. If you meant to say “MUST have a copy of a desktop office suite,” then I would tend to agree with you.

* Browsers can freeze or just be annoyingly slow. Google uses the browser as their platform to launch these cloud-like services. Bad browser experiences will hinder acceptance of these products.

With Google Gears handling offline better, Chrome speeding up Ajax-heavy and JS-heavy sites, and Firefox and even IE getting faster, this will become less and less of an issue. Assuming Google Docs uses (or will use) the same auto-save method as Gmail, you really don’t have to worry about losing an open document.

*Microsoft isn’t too many years away from developing good web/sharing functionality that would be built into MS Office.

Already in development/testing. But late to the market – check out DocSyncer. This and other 3rd-party apps will eventually allow you to use any desktop suite with an online counterpart. Microsoft will be the closed version of that system, and will probably charge for it. There will be room in the market for both solutions.

*Big businesses seem reluctant to leave the Microsoft standard suite for online services for their core functions.

100% agreed. I had a meeting yesterday with a large company at my office – 2 people from their company, with 5 more on conference call. They brought 5 PowerPoint presentations, 4 of which wouldn’t play on our large screen system because they saved them as PowerPoint 2007, and we’re running 2003. We ended up all looking at a laptop screen. Had the presentation been online somewhere (as a webcast or even a Google Doc), the whole snafu could have been avoided. In this case, I think the presenter learned his lesson.

@Barry

I agree with you that open source software is a good alternative. But the lack of customer service makes many businesses hesitate when implementing Open Office as a standard for the entire company.

I agree with most of your comments actually. There will be room for both solutions in most instances. That is why I dislike the “taking over the desktop” articles that I see around the web whenever Google makes a move. Google is not going to be competing directly with MS Office. The market will accept both and utilize both accordingly.

Frankly, I have a number of problems with people who claim that “Google will conquer the desktop.” I’m too lazy to make a blog post about it, so I’ll summarize my points here:

- The web isn’t an operating system
No matter how hard we try, a browser is just an application and HTTP is just a protocol. Is it possible to envision a browser acting as an operating system? Sure. But it’s not there yet, and nobody’s really investing much time into it. So, for now, as long as we have PCs with disk drives and operating systems, the “cloud” will not win.

- My data is MY DATA
Putting your data in the cloud is akin to putting your stuff in a cubby in school. Sure, your teacher could lock the classroom to make sure no one from outside can access it, but what if your teacher gets hit by a bus and no one can get into the room? Well, you’re just screwed then, aren’t you? Your data’s inaccessible because your data provider is gone.

- No, you don’t understand: My data is REALLY MY DATA
When I upload my content into the “cloud,” it lives somewhere else. Who owns it? I don’t know. Who can see it? I don’t know. How secure is it? I don’t know. My data is only as secure as the people guarding it. And let’s face it: if banks can lose credit card numbers and social security numbers, Google can lose your spreadsheet. If Comcast can broadcast porn during the super bowl, Amazon sure as hell can “broadcast” your document to the world by mistake.

When my data is on my computer, my data is as secure as I choose to make it. I can encrypt it. I can put up a firewall. I can unhook my ethernet cable. And as long as no one janks my laptop, my stuff’s safe.

- Your Cloud Ain’t My Cloud
Oh, you have Google Spreadsheets? Ah, well, tough luck, then. My Super-Cloud-Inc. Spreadsheets are incompatible. Yup, that’s right. No compatibility. Sans compatibiblio (I’m making words up, now). Nisht worky. Sorry. Too bad. Better switch to Google Spreadsheets coz I sure as hell ain’t switching to Super-Cloud-Inc… I hear they punch small animals.

My point is: sure, applications can have incompatible formats (maybe iWork won’t work with MS Office), but I *own that data.* I can save it as whatever I want. Or copy and paste it wherever I want, provided I own other apps. Sure, the cloud designers may choose to make their data formats compatible with each other, but they may not.

- No, really, your computer can’t do ANYTHING without an Operating System
People. Look. Without an operating system your computer is just a fancy device that goes “whrrrrrrrr” (that’s the sound the fans make), and “beep boop” when it POSTs. A browser can’t “just run.” It needs something. It needs an operating system, or it needs to BE the operating system.

Browsers open websites. Websites consume memory. The OS provides access to memory. The browser is not a kernel. It doesn’t have unfettered access to the memory — and you ought to be damned happy it doesn’t. Your browser will always, always, ALWAYS be an application with SOMETHING running it.

Hell, even the iPhone has an operating system. Blackberry? Has an operating system. Please don’t talk about being “shackled to the operating system.” This isn’t “shackling.” It’s not a “necessary evil,” unless you consider the need for oxygen a “necessary evil” for survival.

Ok, I think I’m done for now. It’s not as eloquent or amusing as I’d have hoped, but it made sense in my head.