Why should I care about Google Chrome OS?
 

If I wanted a lightweight OS, I would rather choose another linux distro, than some overblown webrowser. Google, you get a pat on the back for Android...but I'm not impressed with Chrome. But something tells me this will be the iPhone of OS's...

Re: Why should I care about Google Chrome OS?
 

I didn't mind the idea of the users OS being kept in a cloud-based style, yet people with bandwidth restrictions might have problems with that.

It has potential though, especially for netbooks. Though isn't google bundling their browser into the OS core the same way MS did with IE and got sued for it? Hohoho...

Re: Why should I care about Google Chrome OS?
 

Possibly, but I doubt it.

It seems designed specifically for the netbook (and Google is only supporting specific netbook configurations although others could extend it by writing drivers). I can see it becoming the default Linux distro for really cheap netbooks but I see the Linux netbook losing out to the Win7 netbook.

It's a question of what people are used to (the browser versus Windows) and what people will want to do with their netbook. The netbook seems to be going down the road of being a cheap, light, and slow laptop. If this is how people view it, Win7 will win. For Chrome to win, Google will have to convince people that they can and want to stay in the cloud and that may be too much of a conceptual leap.

Re: Why should I care about Google Chrome OS?
 

You should care, because it's an underhanded ploy to take away people's control over their own computers. There's no reason a real Linux distro couldn't ship with a simple user interface, but just like Apple they want to control and monitor what you do. Google just can't afford to look evil, so they have to do it by breaking compatibility and making things physically impossible rather than using closed platforms.

Re: Why should I care about Google Chrome OS?
 

its definatly geared towards the netbook, but i feel like I'm loosing more OS than gaining. why would i choose this over the other lightwieght options?

yeah but were talking about Google, Gmail, Gtalk, Google Maps, Youtube, Wave...

Re: Why should I care about Google Chrome OS?
 

Nonsense. Chrome is not Android. It's completely open source. The only thing Google is doing is limiting their development of drivers. If you want to write the drivers you can put Chrome on almost anything. Saying they are evil because they break compatibility is like saying the rest of the Linux distros are evil because they aren't compatible with my Tablet PC. It's not evil, it's a matter of priorities and time.

Once and for all, Google doesn't care about controlling your computer (or your phone). They just want you on the web and not on your desktop. Chrome facilitates that. You can access Yahoo Mail through Chrome; you can look up addresses on MapQuest; you can even search with Bing. But Google is confident that once you get to their part of the web you will stay because they offer a better product. And they do.

The reason that another Linux distro hasn't shipped with a simple user interface is that you haven't written it and neither has anyone else. Google did and they should be applauded.


P.S. I just checked again and my statement on the TabletPC, while it has been correct for years, may be out of date. The Linux Wacom Project put out a release which added E2 and E3 support about a month ago. Then again, it was an independent group that wrote the drivers, not Ubuntu or RedHat (or Google).

Re: Why should I care about Google Chrome OS?
 

That's just the problem! Their cloud products are better than the rest, so the competition they fear is from OpenOffice etc. If they just wanted to produce a simple Linux GUI, they could've done so on top of a normal distro. How is wanting me on the web rather than the desktop not wanting to control my computer?

And this isn't about us, but the average user, who will suddenly have much less options available if he starts using Chrome OS computers. And he'll happily go along with it because it's shiny and it says Google on the lid.

Imagine trying to compete with MS Office if you couldn't even offer your replacement for free, but would have to set up a professional server farm just to offer your product. This cloud computing fad needs to be stopped now.

Re: Why should I care about Google Chrome OS?
 

Because it's simple and easy. There are many (most?) people out there who only know of root as the part of a plant that's underground. Even amongst those who recognize computer terms such as root, many don't want it.

If all you want to do is be connected to the Internet, why have everything that goes with a full Linux distro, however lightweight. Puppy Linux is one of the easiest distros I have run across. But once you get through the configuration you see the main screen. What do you see? File, Help, those I think most people would understand, but Mount? Console? FD0? SDA1? SR0? Not to mention all those program icons that you're not going to be using if you live in the cloud.

To look at it another way, take a desktop computer. Desktop computers are very easy to build assuming you can use a screwdriver. You can determine exactly what you need and what you don't need and put together a computer that fits you perfectly. So why doesn't everybody do that? Because it's simpler and easier to go to a store and say "I'll take that one."

Re: Why should I care about Google Chrome OS?
 

Imagine competing with T-Mobile if you had to build your own cell phone towers. This mobile phone fad needs to be stopped now.

Re: Why should I care about Google Chrome OS?
 

I would love to have something like Chrome OS for the computer in my kitchen. Let's see, I have Win7 gadgets for weather and stock market updates, calculator, Google Calendar, and general web browsing running on a Dell Mini7. ChOS would be an ideal replacement for Win7 (Which actually works pretty well.)

Jim

Re: Why should I care about Google Chrome OS?
 

Google can't limit development of drivers. It's running on the Linux kernel with a custom config that strips out most devices. Unless they went and manually trimmed the tree it's a compile away from supporting everything else.

Assuming the kernel on devices that come with ChromeOS can even be replaced.

Precisely, they don't care about controlling your computer they care about controlling your information and that is far, far more valuable.

Re: Why should I care about Google Chrome OS?
 

I'm mainly interested because it's a new OS and one with pretty original take on what an OS should be.

It doesn't seem to fit my requirements for an OS that well so my interest in rather "academic".

Re: Why should I care about Google Chrome OS?
 

trust me i undersand what you are saying. but 'simple and easy', IMO, can never replace 'complete'. but i suspect, as you suggest, it may have a larger audience who do care for 'complete'..

Re: Why should I care about Google Chrome OS?
 

Quite right. I should have said "their development of drivers" not "the development of drivers" - it's not that drivers can't be programmed, just that Google has no intention of programming additional drivers themselves.

I don't even know if I'd agree with that, although it is closer than the idea that they want to control your computer.

Google wants to maximize the amount of time you spend on Google sites. The more time you spend, the more ads you see. The more ads you see, the more money Google makes.

An analogy would be a newspaper. Newspapers don't make their money from subscription fees, they make their money from ads. In essence, the entire content of the newspaper exists so that you will open the newspaper and see the page with a company's ad. Google's services exist so that you will be looking at the web page when they display a company's ad.

Google collects information about you for three reasons. First, they can use the demographics of their user base to sell their services to advertisers. Second, they can provide you with targeted advertising which makes it more likely that you will click through (and Google will get an additional fee). Third, they can provide you with a customized experience which will make it more likely that you will come back and spend more time on their sites.

Re: Why should I care about Google Chrome OS?
 

Most people probably aren't going to agree with you, but I do see your point. I don't really want my apps or data on Google's or Microsoft's or any other company's servers.

But I do like to take advantage of access to my data from anywhere and keeping up with my own servers (which I do now) is a real pain.

I'm not sure how we get something that frees individuals from the headaches of software and hardware and gives them the freedom of access from anywhere without falling into corporate or government hands.

Maybe the next version of the open source movement needs to be about creating a community owned, free, secure cloud. Kind of like EC2 in the spirit of TOR... but that seems unlikely due to the costs...

It seems like a difficult challenge to me. But I do see how cloud computing could undermine (at least some of) the principles of open source.

Re: Why should I care about Google Chrome OS?
 

That’s so true and also really scary. Imagine if fascists take control again. Who would like to see his live on a cloud.

Re: Why should I care about Google Chrome OS?
 

I would not consider it original. Netscape tried to create a browser OS back in the 90s. And the thin client model goes way back.

I think there will be some interest in Chrome OS machines as secondary devices. But it will be a while before Google convinces the average computer user to abandon local applications altogether.

Re: Why should I care about Google Chrome OS?
 

Always in for a fun discussion ;)
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Should the person who visits a forum about open source mobile software and business processes care about an operating system built using the same methodologies but without the care or attention to legacy issues? Yes.

Should a person who is looking at computing from the casual and very functional viewpoint of "what can this do for me better than my current setup does" care? Yes... but to a point it will be relevant.

Should a person who utilzies the breadth of online services to advance personal and professional aims care towards an OS-platform that seems tailor made to reduce some of the friction of being such a person care? Yep.
---

Now for the fun part. Operating systems are no longer key to platform survival. Its connectivity to the information that matters most. Whether its a business platform (Salesforce, SharePoint, etc.) or a personal one (Yahoo, Google, iTunes), the key is always reducing the friction. And while most companies will admit it in private, they will not publically say that most of the times, the complexities of maintaining OSes as part of their platform strategies presents a serious drain on resources (money, time, patience, and people).

So what's left? Take a few roads to simplify.
- open source the OS in order to cut out some of the overhead for long-term platform support
- utilize a services-oriented nature to get continued profits from the OS which no longer sits under their roof but presents an opportunity for good will and further engagement
- base the platform completely on services, dialing out the development tools and profit engines to those who are willing to put in the work (usually established encumbants), and creating your brand as a platform enabler
- or die and be remembered for how good you used to be

Nokia is doing #s 1 and 2 with Ovi and Maemo. The point for them is to thread the connections, using services and attention to needs thru their logisitcal network to meet trends as they hit the most profitable audiences. It doesn't need to innovate here, just needs to be relevant at ther right times.

Google and Palm are doing #3. They see the web as their ultimate branding engine, and are using the strength of the consumer to push incumbant brands into this space where they have less control over their consumers, but ultimately have to deal with the results of the experience of the consumer. Here, Palm and Google make the opportunity for their brands to become synmonous with the very fabric of web/internet innovation, and at the same time, unless they are careful, will move too far and there will be others - sometimes incumbants like RIM, Nokia, and Apple - who will move on top of their mistakes and not only take position, but branding and overall technology and social leadership.

By the way, MS is trying to be #3 while avoiding #4 like the plague.

---
So is it relevant? Yes. The way that computing is being done is changing towards something that isn't controlled directly by users or technologists. And at the same time, it will be the desire of technologists - such as many of us here at Maemo - to drive home the point that innovation only matters when technology's relevance is felt personally.

For many, an OS-platform that takes the thinking out of being connected is a very relevant answer. They will want the same on their mobile. This will shift perceptions.

For others it will be a blip towards a loss of what as control. They won't want it and develop/design different. Innovation moves in this fashion. Its always something worth caring about.

Re: Why should I care about Google Chrome OS?
 

*Clicks imaginary "Thanks" button.*

Re: Why should I care about Google Chrome OS?
 

No, its not that difficult of an idea at all actually. And Nokia is trying to pull it off - peep the 2015 video released about a week or so ago. That's what they are aiming for.

In this sense, the "cloud" would be a secondary enabler to local connectivity. Devices would all be servers, and 3rd party interactions would be facilitated only when needed - but be leveraged for shared intelligence, marketing, etc.

I personally try to live like this in repsect to using Nokia's Mobile Web Server on my mobile device. I don't store anything in the cloud, but use the mobile device and the information on it wherever that I have a browser. I then take advantage of the device's ability to connect with other objects (when possible and I can convince others to think/act that way) without using the web as an intermediary.

Its different, and enabling, and at the same time, not what many OSes propose to do. And at the same time, its the kind of non-cloud computing but cloud computing living that is possible when *not* going the Google/Palm route.

Re: Why should I care about Google Chrome OS?
 

The thing is we're due for a massive OS paradigm shift... maybe overdue. What we're experiencing now was predicted at least 10 years ago and only now becoming truly possible. It's inevitable. Scary too.

Re: Why should I care about Google Chrome OS?
 

I don't understand what point you're trying to make. The US networks are horrible precisely because it's so hard to compete with them, and even if this wasn't the case software isn't a physical object.

Re: Why should I care about Google Chrome OS?
 

The point is your post advocated stopping cloud computing because of the cost of entry in that competitors to MS Office would have to "set up a professional server farm just to offer [their] product." Just because a service requires an expensive infrastructure is no reason to oppose it, whether it is cloud computing or, as in my example, a mobile phone network.

Re: Why should I care about Google Chrome OS?
 

Of course not, but when you're setting up that limitation artificially, it's not the same. There's no reason a computer shouldn't be able to run local applications.

Re: Why should I care about Google Chrome OS?
 

There are plenty of reasons you create devices (hardware and software combinations) that cannot run local apps. A number of architectures (from time sharing to client-server to cloud computing) have been and are based on a limited local device for input and output and a comparatively massive remote device for computing and storage.

The theory behind this architecture is that not everyone needs to buy a quad-core processor with RAID SSDs for their local computer. It is cheaper, in theory, to buy a server farm which utilizes a greater percentage of the CPU cycles to deliver performance to the local computer over broadband pipes. This does, of course, depend on the server farm being sufficiently powerful and the pipes being sufficiently broad.

This is not to say that you can't buy a personal computer that can run local apps, just that it may be cheaper to buy a service that provides the apps and the computing power to run them. Then again, personally, I'd love to have Velocity Micro's new Raptor:

Intel’s Core i7-975 Extreme Edition (stock speed of 3.33GHz)
CoolIt Domino ALC to overclock the CPU to 4.2GHz
Three EVGA GeForce GTX 285s video cards
Four SLC-based Intel X25-E Extreme 64GB SSD drives in RAID 0

Now that's a computer that can run some serious local apps. Unfortunately, I don't have a spare $9,000. :(

Re: Why should I care about Google Chrome OS?
 

Why?

And anyway - running stuff in a browser instead of a desktop and moving storage into 'the cloud' is not a massive OS paradigm shift. It's shifting your storage location and running some web-apps.

I must admit that I just don't get it. A browser is not an OS - it still requires an OS to run. All I see is that the desktop is now a browser and the user loses the desktop. Where's the advantage in that? I'd rather have both please.

But then I still think all software should be written in Oracle Forms 4.5.

Re: Why should I care about Google Chrome OS?
 

The better question is "what's the advantage of a desktop" - within its current metaphor/iteration?

If you will, when you are utilizing the web/internet as both storage and network-runtime spaces, your hardware requirements go down, resource efficiency goes way up, and the perception of limitaitons are no longer constrained to "what fits within this box here" or "what can I build onto this from the Tiger Direct catalogue."

Yes, a browser isn't an OS. And that's the point. The paradigm shift is from localized OSs to localized services that can run independent of an OS, but can and do tap into the hardware through the OS exposing elements. For this a browser (and a few choice programming languages with it) works wonders.

For the bulk of users who don't need/want to deal with the OS user space, who are concerned first and foremost with getting things done. The browser as the entire OS is not only a paradigm shift, but a relevation towards computing done differnet.

As with many things computer-related, personal relevance may vary depending on several factors.

Re: Why should I care about Google Chrome OS?
 

I think this is something most people don't examine sufficiently. Which is what makes it a paradigm shift. Within a few years, the average user will not need to leave the browser. The computer OS will be as invisible as my TV's OS.

And a TV is a good comparison. I understand from another thread that my TV runs Linux and I can get even get root. I assume this means I could change channels from the command line. Would I want to? Not so much. I'm a TV user, not a TV programmer. The TV UI isolates me from as much of the hardware and software as it can. And I like it that way.

That will be the paradigm shift - when a new user no longer realizes the tablet he's holding has an operating system under all that Chrome.

Re: Why should I care about Google Chrome OS?
 

But this is so backwards. Hardware is getting cheaper not more expensive. Why do I need to limit my resource requirements - what advantage will that bring in 5 years time. I should be able to do most anything low end hardware at that point.

The one resource that isn't getting cheaper currently and where there are likely issues is with bandwidth - so why build a system that increases bandwidth use and dependancies on that.

Furthermore in what way does running stuff through a browser increase resource efficiency? It pure and simple doesn't. I have no stats to back this up but the overhead running an app in the browser vs running on the OS is huge.

It's a return to dumb terminals and mainframes which we moved away from for very good reasons.

(And don't get me started on the fact that most people will trust their important data to 'for free' services only to find that 'for free' = 'zero customer service'. Ever lost a googlemail password?)

It's all madness i tell you.

Re: Why should I care about Google Chrome OS?
 

This is an incorrect analogy. As a mobile phone user you accept that you can't change this around because their are many financial restrictions and legal regulations to do with broadcasting.

Computing is different. We're talking about control of user experience here. Currently, the cloud is fast becoming an alternative to actual software applications.

But cloud computing isn't balanced at all. With software apps, finances generally aren't a huge barrier.

But the cloud is being played off by huge corps such as Google and MS who already have a mass of resources at their fingertips. If the computing market moves mainly to the cloud, hobby businesses and FOSS projects are going to be crushed as they will simply not have the finances to compete nearly with these major players. The server costs will be too high to make it sustainable for the average indie developer/hobbyist/FOSS proponent.

As a user, I prefer my computing experience to be arbitrary. And I plan to support this experience for a long time.

On a side-note, reading your posts, you seem to be eating up Google's "do no evil" policy. But, to be honest, the only intentions companies really have in mind is those of their shareholders. Pretty much any for-profit entity is out their for its own back, and not anyone else's.

Re: Why should I care about Google Chrome OS?
 

Let me say, for the record, that I find Google no better than many companies. OTOH, I find them no worse than most companies. I worry about my privacy and use Adblock Plus, No Script, Better Privacy, and Targeted Advertising Cookie Opt-Out on Firefox to try and stay out of online marketer databases (and if you haven't installed Better Privacy you should look into it).

That said, Google offers a suite of useful services I willingly use every day. I give up some privacy to do that but I give up some privacy every time I go online. Plus, the Google Dashboard allows me some degree of privacy management which I don't have with, say, my ISP.

I'm wary, but I don't believe in a Google conspiracy. Besides, I wonder how much anti-Google sentiment is related to their online services and how much arose after they started writing Android.

Re: Why should I care about Google Chrome OS?
 

Resources aren't limitless, and they aren't getting cheaper - the cost is being paid by you in other areas, usually in the necessities of life in small enough amounts that you don't care enough to complain.

Yes, people will trust servers and governments alike to provide for them where they can do for themselves. The same has been true throughout history, and is made much easier with mobile and web-enabled services.

If its madness, blame us who are technologically literate for not being versatile enough to be as politically and industrially savvy as we are technological.