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Google Previews Chrome OS, Scheduled for Release in Late 2010

Guys saying that local storage is good and etc... Sure! But remember that Chrome OS is NOT your main OS. It's the OS that you have on your netbook, given that you already have an awesome computer! You want a netbook to be portable and cheap, so it has bad specifications. Therefore, it can't run a full OS in a decent manner. You don't store your MP3s or your photos on your netbook, you store them on your main computer. You have your netbook because you often need to communicate with people on the go, check your mail, etc... Often, your netbook will have 3G, so you will ALWAYS be able to connect to the net.

This means that Chrome OS makes sense for that use.
 
I think this is a great concept, and it will fit perfectly within its target market.

Google are only looking to run this on netbooks, not full featured laptops or desktops. So the fact the OS would be no good for working off line, editing pictures or video becomes totally irrelevant.

Netbooks have been designed with one thing in mind, social computing. Nothing more than light web browsing and social networking. They're basically the portable DVD player of the computer world - mobile convenience at the sacrifice of features and quality. Chrome OS is also clearly designed with this in mind, making computing on the go easier and faster.

People who do professional work shouldn't be working on netbooks! Therefore don't need to worry about not being able to do their work in Chrome OS.
 
I would prefer a 24 inch screen in a all-in-one Atom powered desktop with a touch screen for the office or home rather than a small netbook for this product. Perhaps in the $300 dollar price range.
 
But honestly, you know who are going to eat this up??
- Women of all ages.
- Old People, as long as the grandkid set up a WiFi station in their house.

My wife, who is VERY computer literate, would eat this kind of thing up. She uses our "Her MacBook" (I bought it as a gift to myself on my birthday years ago) and iPhone 3G to Facebook, Yahoo Message/email, look at photos and listen to music predominately. With the iPhone she does also play some games but that's it.
 
nkawtg72 said:
not surprised by all the criticism here. refer to page 1 for my original post.

i think too many people are missing the point of this OS. i think too many people are being too close minded to its true potential.

i'm not going to sit here and try to even guess at what percentage of people use the internet for what percentage of their normal computer use. i will say that a vast majority of the people i know that own computers 1) don't demand from their computers enough to justify the knowledge of an OS that today's OSes require from most users. 2) if their internet is down, they'll not be at their computer anyway. 3) have never bought and installed software that didn't already come on the machine (refer to point 1). and 4) they wouldn't know the difference between the picture they just transferred from their dig camera being stored locally or on a "cloud" (as long as it's appears in FB or Flicker for their friends/family to see they're happy).

the biggest thing i think people are missing here is that there already are several markets that this type of OS would be extremely successful. there are quite a few on here that are questioning whether google is trying to create market for this OS that isn't there.

first and foremost EDUCATION!!!
imagine how many thousands of schools with tens even hundreds of thousands (certainly millions) of computers are out there. one of the biggest expenses in school systems is IT. google's OS would work perfect on an INTRANET (vs an Internet).

it would require a lot less resources to support and maintain as the current Windows OS (and Apple OS) do. virus protection would be less of an issue because each machine would be void of a traditional OS and data to be hacked, and virus protection for data would be done at the cloud level in "one" location, making it more efficient, and reliable.

security of data and hardware would also be easier to handle as the theft of a computer from a school would serve the criminal little to no advantage. there would be no data on the machine to farm. if they google os was in firmware, and only able to run google os, then if stolen they would be of no use to someone unless connected to the internet. the second someone did do that, the machine could be easily traced and the thief caught.

the hardware would be much cheaper too, because it could be stripped of all the things that are only needed to be able to run the sometimes bulky OSes that are installed now.

sure there would still be some departments that would require a traditional desktop for power computing, but that's not what google os is aiming for.

you could also apply the same arguments above to business. i work in a government agency that is currently working on replacing ALL of our machines with terminals. all apps, data, and computing would be done by servers. all that would be at our desks would be a little black box to connect peripherals and a monitor. ie Cloud Computing. so as you can see the market is already there. google os just needs to find its footing and i think it'll be a hit.
Click to expand...

You make the a good case but there's a flipside to that coin:

1. You have no local data. Which means you essentially have nothing with you if you're offline and the performance of your OS is only as good as your connection to the web.

2. Security. You are trusting that the website doesn't have security issues and won't get hacked.

3. Backups. You no longer have a personal backup of your info which means you are trusting the 'cloud' with keeping your info. I think the recent Sidekick fiasco calls those things into question.

4. Google. You are now dependent on Google for everything and it remains to be seen how much they are aware of what you are doing.

5. No games, no serious photo editing and no movie editing. A service like Onlive may work and alleviate this concern but chances are it won't. Also with the advent of cheap Flip camcorders, everyone edits video.


There is no doubt that Chrome OS has its advantages but it does also have a significant amount of negatives as well. One could say that they are not offering much more than you could already do on a smartphone, only on a bigger screen and full size keyboard.

Oddly enough, while Chrome OS lives off of web apps, Android still uses native apps. The Pre is more like Chrome OS than Android is.
 
BaldiMac said:
There are already thousands of apps for it. It runs web apps. Apps will not have to be designed specifically for the OS.
Click to expand...

That's sure to develop commitment for the platform.

Zero apps exclusive to it. Many excluded from it. Pure genius really.
 
pcorajr said:
Apple's Cloud plans = mobile me.... yeah the overpriced service that is slow and buggy. No thanks.

BTW for all you that are complaining about "oh what about when my internet connection is down?" I'm sure that the OS will have a offline mode where you will be able to sync your docs and e-mail. You will not have to put your MP3's up in the cloud. You can have local video and mp3 play from the harddrive or a USB drive.
Click to expand...

do you even know what comes with your MobileMe subscription?! i laugh when i hear people like you say it's overpriced.

case in point. PC Anywhere (remote desktop service for Windows) costs over $19 a month AFTER your 3 month trial period. remote desktop and remote file sharing are JUST ONE of the many features of MobileMe. MobileMe only costs around $8 a month. so who is it that's overpriced?!

if $8 a month is still too much for you because you wouldn't get any use out of MobileMe's features, then that's fine. but that's not justification for calling it overpriced.

educate yourself next time before you start talking about something you obviously have no clue about.
 
haydn! said:
Netbooks have been designed with one thing in mind, social computing. Nothing more than light web browsing and social networking.
Click to expand...

That's right, but doesn't it make sense to extend the telephone with those features? I mean the phone was the original social networking device. Once phones start having web browsers and facebook, where does that leave the Netbook, if it can't also do wordprocessing, printing etc.
 
str1f3 said:
You make the a good case but there's a flipside to that coin:

1. You have no local data. Which means you essentially have nothing with you if you're offline and the performance of your OS is only as good as your connection to the web.

2. Security. You are trusting that the website doesn't have security issues and won't get hacked.

3. Backups. You no longer have a personal backup of your info which means you are trusting the 'cloud' with keeping your info. I think the recent Sidekick fiasco calls those things into question.

4. Google. You are now dependent on Google for everything and it remains to be seen how much they are aware of what you are doing.

5. No games, no serious photo editing and no movie editing. A service like Onlive may work and alleviate this concern but chances are it won't. Also with the advent of cheap Flip camcorders, everyone edits video.


There is no doubt that Chrome OS has its advantages but it does also have a significant amount of negatives as well. One could say that they are not offering much more than you could already do on a smartphone, only on a bigger screen and full size keyboard.

Oddly enough, while Chrome OS lives off of web apps, Android still uses native apps. The Pre is more like Chrome OS than Android is.
Click to expand...

please read my post again. you totally missed the part where i said INTRANET NOT INTERNET. there is NO dependance on google when dealing with an INTRANET.

if you clear up your confusion with that then consider the example market i describe then all your other points will be clearly addressed.
 
nkawtg72 said:
do you even know what comes with your MobileMe subscription?! i laugh when i hear people like you say it's overpriced.

case in point. PC Anywhere (remote desktop service for Windows) costs over $19 a month AFTER your 3 month trial period. remote desktop and remote file sharing are JUST ONE of the many features of MobileMe. MobileMe only costs around $8 a month. so who is it that's overpriced?!

if $8 a month is still too much for you because you wouldn't get any use out of MobileMe's features, then that's fine. but that's not justification for calling it overpriced.

educate yourself next time before you start talking about something you obviously have no clue about.
Click to expand...

Agreed Find my iPhone is worth the $60 bucks at Amazon alone. Lojack charges the same price just for that.
 
str1f3 said:
I don't trust Google, much less depend on them for everything I do. They have basically built their dream: an adware/spyware platform to know what you're doing across a wide range of devices.
Click to expand...

That's an incredibly paranoid and rather ignorant view..

Let's be clear.. Google could care less about "spying" on you or "knowing what you're doing". They are basically in the business of selling context-sensitive web ads. They actually could care less about content itself, as long they can present ads against it.
 
KindredMAC said:
But honestly, you know who are going to eat this up??
- Women of all ages.
- Old People, as long as the grandkid set up a WiFi station in their house.

My wife, who is VERY computer literate, would eat this kind of thing up. She uses our "Her MacBook" (I bought it as a gift to myself on my birthday years ago) and iPhone 3G to Facebook, Yahoo Message/email, look at photos and listen to music predominately. With the iPhone she does also play some games but that's it.
Click to expand...

We have a winner. If it's priced properly, ChromeOS will be a huge hit with everyone who uses their computer as a fancy communication tool. Obviously that disqualifies most people on this site, but I can see the majority of my family using something like this (and I no longer have to provide free tech support).

Those who are dissing the concept, remember that you are most likely NOT the typical computer user.
 
Chrome OS at Apple At Ease?!?

To me they kinda look similar...

Edit: Sorry for the big example images...

demoapps-atease.png


google-chrome-os_1024x768.jpg
 
I like the concept that they are going for. I don't know if it's really the best solution for me but it's a good idea. Perfect for the average PC-person that only browses the internet, checks email, looks at pictures, and listens to music... and let me tell you, this is the majority of PC users. I see a rather large market base for Google.
 
internet connections will be reliable and full time within the next 5 years via 4G. This is classic first mover advantage on Google's part. Very smart business move imo.

flash media will solve the local storage problem.
 
jmull said:
My Mac boots in 35 seconds. But that doesn't even matter because my computer is on 24/7. I can be on a web page in less than 7 seconds at any time. The whole 'boot up and be on the Internet in 7 seconds' doesn't impress me at all and although I can see a use for it, I can't imagine that everyone turns their computer off every time they check their mail.
Click to expand...

so your laptop stays on 24/7?! you walk through the airport and down the street with the screen up?!

impressive.

oh wait, i'm sorry, i realize now that you simply totally missed the point of google os and didn't bother reading/watching the information presented in the post before commenting
 
str1f3 said:
You make the a good case but there's a flipside to that coin:

1. You have no local data. Which means you essentially have nothing with you if you're offline and the performance of your OS is only as good as your connection to the web.
Click to expand...

Not true. Data can be stored locally through HTML5.

2. Security. You are trusting that the website doesn't have security issues and won't get hacked.
Click to expand...

You have to have the same trust of the website in addition to the local security on most computers. Remember, you don't have to store your information with Google. It can be any server, including one maintained by the school or company.

3. Backups. You no longer have a personal backup of your info which means you are trusting the 'cloud' with keeping your info. I think the recent Sidekick fiasco calls those things into question.
Click to expand...

You would normally have redundant backups at the server level. And you can backup locally on your primary computer (or server at a school or business.)

4. Google. You are now dependent on Google for everything and it remains to be seen how much they are aware of what you are doing.
Click to expand...

You are not dependent on Google for anything except those things that you choose to use Google for. Don't use Gmail. Use open source chromium builds rather than the official chrome os build.

5. No games, no serious photo editing and no movie editing. A service like Onlive may work and alleviate this concern but chances are it won't. Also with the advent of cheap Flip camcorders, everyone edits video.
Click to expand...

There are many games on the web. Photo and movie editing are not limited by being web-based. Other than bandwidth and connection speeds for uploading movies of course. But the editing could actually by done theoretically faster over the web than on a netbook. The web apps just need to be written and popularized.
 
knewsom said:
Don't forget about ZERO need to back anything up because it's already on redundant servers, and even if you drop your netbook in the river, you haven't lost anything - theoretically, even your basic settings can be cached online periodically. No more defragging hard drives, no more reinstalling OS's, etc. The killer feature is the incredible amount of simplicity it brings. Oddly, the same main selling feature of the Mac. ...except even simpler.
Click to expand...

and dont forget if your netbook/laptop is stolen there's no data to be hacked out of it. one simple phone call or text to a "cloud" server and the stolen device no longer has access to the cloud.

additionally, since the device depends on the internet, then the next time it's turned on by a thief, he'll get no use of it unless it is on the internet, and the moment he does that, the device rats out the location of the thief.
 
KindredMAC said:
But honestly, you know who are going to eat this up??
- Women of all ages.
- Old People, as long as the grandkid set up a WiFi station in their house.
Click to expand...

You got it.. I would love to get this sort of thing for my parents (60+ years of age).. One sure way to avoid a yearly ritual to do a clean install of virus-infested Windows XP on their Dell tower.
 
I like it. It all depends on what you use your computer for or what task you need to get done at some point during the day.
 
nkawtg72 said:
so your laptop stays on 24/7?! you walk through the airport and down the street with the screen up?!
Click to expand...

"on" and "screen up" are two completely different things.

Yes, he probably walks around with his laptop on 24/7. That doesn't mean the laptop is necessarily with the screen up.

Are you suggesting that Google Chrome is incapable of similarly sleeping but must instead be shut down when the laptop screen is down?

Does sleeping qualify as a killer feature for Mac OS X? (... that was meant as sarcasm, but now that I think about it, the last time I saw a Windows computer sleep it was very pokey about doing going to sleep or waking back up... might be like trying to compare apples to oranges though given how old the Windows laptop was.)
 
SydneyDev said:
But don't you remember when Netbooks first came out? They were all running Linux and people weren't happy with it. I remember some retailers reporting a 50% return rate. Then Microsoft extended the life of Windows XP (which they had originally intended to EOL) and now nearly all Netbooks come with XP.

Why will Chrome OS be any different? You could install the Chrome browser on those Linux Netbooks but everyone still wanted Windows. I understand what you're saying in theory, but the evidence of recent consumer behaviour just doesn't match what we might think would happen.
Click to expand...

not sure how what you said applies to my statement. i am discussing markets in general being out there already.
 
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