Can someone explain the appeal of the Google O.S. to me?

[glocke12]

I was just reading this article:

http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2010/12/09/death-hard-drive-cloud-google-chrome/

and I fail to see what is so great about this, especially from a privacy standpoint. By using a cloud based storage system aren't you potentially exposing yourself to some rather serious security issues?

What am I missing here?

 

[miles01110]

and I fail to see what is so great about this,

Cloud computing allows you to have your stuff anywhere you can connect to the internet. If you can't see the numerous advantages inherent in such a system then it's clearly not for you. Yes there are tradeoffs, but the average person doesn't care that much about privacy given the numerous attack vectors a baddie can take advantage of to steal your personal information.

especially from a privacy standpoint. By using a cloud based storage system aren't you potentially exposing yourself to some rather serious security issues?

...says the member with a facebook quote in their signature.

 

[glocke12]

Cloud computing allows you to have your stuff anywhere you can connect to the internet. If you can't see the numerous advantages inherent in such a system then it's clearly not for you. Yes there are tradeoffs, but the average person doesn't care that much about privacy given the numerous attack vectors a baddie can take advantage of to steal your personal information.

...says the member with a facebook quote in their signature.[/QUOTE]

I can see that advantage, but thats why I have a laptop that I can carry around... it basically seems like you are trusting a mega-corporation with a great deal of your privacy (email correspondence, photos, any electronic logs or journals that one would keep)

...says the member with a facebook quote in their signature.

Yeah, facebook was one of the biggest mistakes Ive made in recent history.

 

[miles01110]

I can see that advantage, but thats why I have a laptop that I can carry around... it basically seems like you are trusting a mega-corporation with a great deal of your privacy (email correspondence, photos, any electronic logs or journals that one would keep)

I haven't yet seen a convincing argument from anyone (especially the privacy whiners) that Google, facebook, Apple, or any other of the new-wave technology companies are any worse than Visa, MasterCard, Comcast, AT&T, whatever bank you use, or pretty much any other large entity (including your country's government) in terms of privacy.

Privacy online is a myth. Using the Google/Apple/Facebook/Microsoft cloud is no more or less risky than any other online service to which you provide personal information.

 

[Rapmastac1]

I think cloud computing is great, but I'm still an old fashioned person when it comes to my computer. Now on my laptop I use online applications and access most of my stuff from my home computer. But when I'm at home, I have all my data on-site with only certain things backed up else where.

It's just like when we moved from cash to "digital money", or using cards. There are people who are going to embrace it and there are people who refuse it.

I'm old fashioned but I use "the cloud" when I can. It's like me finding out there are still people manually managing their music library, like naming the actual files and organizing them in folders. But, some people are used to something and won't change unless they are absolutely convinced the tradeoffs are worth it.

 

[motulist]

some people are used to something and won't change unless they are absolutely convinced the tradeoffs are worth it.

And that's as it should be. New doesn't mean better, it just means new. If my memory serves me, even when I was a kid I didn't like stuff just because it was new, I liked stuff because it did what I wanted it to do. In fact, that's how I switched to Mac in the first place. I had always been an MS OS user and I scoffed at Mac users, but once I actually got my hands on a Mac and started using it, I pretty quickly realized that it was better at doing what I wanted a computer to do, so I switched.

Cloud computing allows you to have your stuff anywhere you can connect to the internet.

Yeah, but we definitely aren't at the point where internet access is ubiquitous. In my daily life there are several places I go where there's no wifi signal and no cell signal. Even in a mega-city like new york, there are lots of places where there's no signal of any sort. It would be incredibly lame to not be able to access my documents just because I was in a location that didn't have any internet signal.

 

[Heilage]

Chrome isn't designed to be the be-all end-all of operating systems, but rather the perfect tool for some things, like corporate computers, public computers etc where one would benefit from having access to data wherever you log on.

 

[VPrime]

I think it would be great to have a laptop with a real OS and chrome OS.
Have chrome OS load up instantly (Like macbook air or ipad ) then when you need to do "real things" have the option to go into a real OS.

There were some laptop manufacturers that did this with linux.. But the concept never took off I guess.

 

[miles01110]

Yeah, but we definitely aren't at the point where internet access is ubiquitous.

For all intensive purposes we are at a point where if you have a need to connect to the internet anywhere, you can do so. WiMax and 4G is only going to make coverage better.

In my daily life there are several places I go where there's no wifi signal and no cell signal.

It's RF. There's always going to be dead zones. Sometimes I stand in places where it's fairly dark during the daytime, but I'm still willing to accept that the sun is warming the rest of my half of the earth.

It would be incredibly lame to not be able to access my documents just because I was in a location that didn't have any internet signal.

You can move, or buy a picocell. They're pretty cheap. Those that need 100% access to the internet have a multitude of options available to do so.

 

[motulist]

For all intensive purposes we are at a point where if you have a need to connect to the internet anywhere, you can do so.

That's just absolutely false. It's demonstrably false. You even go on in your next couple of sentences and describe WHY there are places where there is no signal.


(p.s. the saying is "for all intents and purposes.")

 

[Sydde]

That's just absolutely false. It's demonstrably false. You even go on in your next couple of sentences and describe WHY there are places where there is no signal.

I have this dead tree thing from about 12 years ago, "The Size of the World", wherein the author was attempting to circle the globe without flying. There is a picture of him sitting in the middle of the vast desert in Mali (where Timbuktu is) using his laptop to connect to his blog or whatever they called it back then. He was using a thing called "Satellite".

Which, of course, is probably rather expensive and impractical for most people. Really, if you need your docs handy, carry them on a SD card or iPod (if they still make ones you can easily mount).

 

[miles01110]

That's just absolutely false.

You apparently do not understand the concept or science behind RF/wireless technology. Yes, there are deadspots. Due to the nature of RF and the frequencies used by wireless technology, these deadspots tend not to be very large. You can move to a place where you have wireless coverage, put your access point in a better location, or build a better antenna at the receiving end to make the signal easier for your machine to pick up. Therefore, wireless is always available for those who have the budget and are intelligent enough to take advantage of it.

 

[wirelessmacuser]

Privacy online is a myth. Using the Google/Apple/Facebook/Microsoft cloud is no more or less risky than any other online service to which you provide personal information.

Excellent Post!

I could not agree more. While I take many precautions, at the end of the day as you have so correctly stated.... Privacy is a myth.

Those who have gone before us lived in denial and simply didn't take it seriously ... the horse is out of the barn now, so to speak.