Delete Microsoft Word. Uninstall Adobe Illustrator. Say goodbye to Excel, Outlook, Access, PowerPoint and a big chunk of your hard drive’s applications directory.

I’ve just visited Ismael Ghalimi’s Office 2.0 Setup: a collection of services that do all the work of desktop software. The difference is that every single one of them is a web application (and most are free of charge). As he explains,

Through the extensive use of carefully selected services such as Gmail and Salesforce.com, I will try to increase my personal productivity while refraining myself from using any application installed on my personal computer other than a web browser. No word processor. No spreadsheet editor. No email client. No files on the local file system. Now let’s see if Sun’s original vision for the network as computer can actually be turned into reality today.

He’s hardcore, as he explains in his rules: no documents on the hard drive, and no web apps that won’t work with the most popular browsers. (The two exceptions: he still uses Photoshop for image manipulation and iTunes for listening to music.)

But maybe you want to wait before you finally trash Microsoft Office. If you don’t have a bulletproof Internet connection any time you need your data (say, while you’re commuting or flying), there’s an obvious problem here. No hookup? No applications and no data. “If you need to work offline, Office 2.0 might not be the best option for you, and you should not believe people who advertise online services that can work offline as well. They do not, because they should not,” he says. And for nearly everyone I know, that’s a fatal flaw.

Which doesn’t mean Ghalimi’s Office 2.0 experiment isn’t cool and potentially very valuable. There are some enticing advantages: total data portability no matter whose workstation you’re using, an end to software upgrades, and – providing your services are run by responsible operators – guaranteed backups of your data. (Although if you’re like me, you can already feel cold fingers tickling your spine at that thought.)

Maybe what this points to is a potentially huge demand for the seamless synchronizing of data between online apps and their offline equivalents. In the meantime, we’re left with a long list of best-of-breed web applications, chosen explicitly for their ability to spur collaboration and information sharing, and for their modest footprint on your computer. That in itself is a pretty valuable online service.

(Kudos to Andrew at Smallthought for the link… and congratulations to the whole company on the official launch of Dabble DB!)