Despite the rise of apps on our phones and tablets, I find myself using dedicated applications on my computers less and less. I was contemplating this fact recently when I started using the online version of Office 365 for my work email, and foregoing starting up the dedicated Outlook app on my work computer. The latest version of Outlook online is actually very, very robust, and I’ve only found one or two occasions when I’ve had to boot back into the fat client to get something done. I’ve also started transitioning over to using the web versions of Word, PowerPoint and Excel, since they integrate so nicely with the web version of Outlook.

It shouldn’t surprise me that much since I’ve been application free for years at home. Ever since converting over to the Google suite of products, I almost never boot up a dedicated application for basic productivity. My email is just in tabs on my browser, and my office suite is a click away in Google Drive. To be honest, I don’t miss dedicated applications for these tasks at all. I’m able to be just as productive, and I don’t need to worry about installing software or keeping it up to date. As long as I have a modern web browser available to me I can do everything I need to do.