Google's Chrome OS: A Wispy Desktop Adversary?

TechNewsWorld ^ | 07/09/09 11:39 AM PT | Erika Morphy

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Google's Chrome operating system may initially have modest aspirations -- to allow speedy Web-surfing on low-cost, lightweight netbooks -- but with the migration of a vast array of computing services to the cloud, there may be reason for desktop OS developers to get a little queasy.

Google's (Nasdaq: GOOG) announcement of a Chrome operating system, coming just nine months after its launch of the Chrome browser, has the tech sector buzzing over the possibilities. Google is targeting netbooks, claiming to have agreements with several OEMs already inked.

How will the option of a Chrome OS be received by the desktop-using masses? Are they ready for a PC experience that will rely heavily on applications hosted in the cloud? Or would they rather stick with the tried and true desktop model, be it Windows, Macintosh or one of the many flavors of Linux?

Google makes the case for the cloud very compelling: Desktop systems were designed during the pre-Web era -- certainly long before Web 2.0 took over.

This is something anyone who has grappled with a glitch-prone OS (I'm looking at you Vista) can understand.

Another potential Chrome plus: Security may wind up being better. Right now, Internet security is entirely dependent on user behavior -- whether someone installs a patch and keeps the AV or firewall updated. Such maintenance, though, can be handled easily from the provider side in a cloud-based scenario.

The Tradeoffs

Nothing, though, is free -- not even on the Internet. An OS running applications primarily hosted in the cloud will entail certain tradeoffs.

[perfect_rovian_storm]

I doubt they outnumber the people who watch their wallets. You can buy a desktop for pretty cheap. A lot cheaper than paying every month to use everything. Most regular users don’t even use programs that they would need to lease, with the exception of MS Office. And I still predict that if MS takes Office cloud only, they’ll lose their market share overnight. It will be an epic fail the likes of which hasn’t been seen since New Coke. I mean, sure it’s convenient, I guess, but how much more convenient is it to actually justify taking on a monthly fee and not ending up with anything tangible for it?

And this is coming from a guy who works in the industry, in many types of recurring payment business models. I love recurring payments. They’ve made me successful. But I just don’t see people paying monthly for ‘Outlook in the cloud’ when they can have it at home and pay once.

[Jeff Chandler]

I just don’t see people paying monthly for ‘Outlook in the cloud’

Google's email and calendar system has already replaced Outlook for many people. I only use Outlook to have a local backup of my online data.

[Wooly]

I really agree with the statement from the article about Operating Systems that we have today were designed before the Internet and this is one of the major reasons for security problems. All operating systems that are in use today share this problem. You may want to argue that OSX and Linux are not vulnerable, but I will argue back that is you reversed the market share of these operating systems with Windows, here would still be a security problem.
Right now, thanks to the way computers work opening a picture, web page or E-Mail can lead one to having their computer compromised.
To often people confuse the real world with the cyber world and think that they are the same. A letter you get out of your mailbox outside is the same as an E-Mail, A picture from a roll of film is the same as a jpeg, browsing a newspaper or advertisement is the same as browsing a web page. The reality is that in the cyber-world all of these things are nothing more than a set of instructions that tell your computer and the graphics process or what to do and display. You click on a web page and the instruction tell the Operating system what program to use to open and display the page so that it appears as the designer meant. At the same time the instruction set also tell the computer to execute little embedded programs that are downloaded with the web page so that the animations start working. And with the demise of AOL and the virus kit jerks, this is the main security problem, which is the embedded program or script.
Hopefully the next generation of Operating systems will be embedded to nonvolatile red only memory and when you start your computer the OS will load to a virtual environment so that except for deliberate changes like new programs, and documents, when you turn the computer off everything disappears.

[perfect_rovian_storm]

Sure, Google’s providing it for free, so lots of folks use it. But charging for it? Dunno about that. It does get people used to the idea of using ‘the cloud’, but then they didn’t have much of a problem using Hotmail either.

[Jeff Chandler]

Hopefully the next generation of Operating systems will be embedded to nonvolatile red only memory and when you start your computer the OS will load to a virtual environment so that except for deliberate changes like new programs, and documents, when you turn the computer off everything disappears.

Like using cable television. It's the next logical step.

[MichiganMan]

I doubt anything based on Linux will ever work for your typical home user. It is just too complicated - can we expect them to hand edit configuration files and compile programs from source?

What's the weather like back there in 2001? Sounds like cloudy with a good chance of FUD.

[ShadowAce]

[ShadowAce]

My 14-yo son installed Linux from scratch without ever doing it before--and without any assistance at all.

He set up users, and was up and running in an hour.

It's not as difficult as you think.

[Tribune7]

You may want to argue that OSX and Linux are not vulnerable, but I will argue back that is you reversed the market share of these operating systems with Windows, here would still be a security problem.

I think only a fool would say OSX & Linux are invulnerable but the difference in safety between them & Windows is the difference between a screen door and one that is of reinforced steel with a double-key deadbolt lock.

Security by obscurity is something cooked up by MSFT marketing types (and IT staff more concerned about keeping themselves needed than efficiency and safety.)

[Tribune7]

I got my Dad a Dell Inspiron running Ubuntu for $350. It’s great.

[martin_fierro]

Google makes the case for the cloud very compelling: Desktop systems were designed during the pre-Web era -- certainly long before Web 2.0 took over.

Except that without a web connection your computer becomes a brick.

[tubebender]

Screw Google! I find a pop-under when I clear my desktop that I suspect comes from Google. I clear it before I read it because I am usually in a hurry but it says Eureka News at the top like a banner and I think there are some google links. I'll print the dam thing next time and study it more...

[perfect_rovian_storm]

That can be done right now with a ramdisk. Why have the added latency of having it all online? And if it’s such a logical step, how come nobody’s done it even though the technology exists to do it right now and ram is cheap as hell?

Cable lacks fundamental competition. If you want to watch the Food Network, you’re going to have to pay for a service. There’s no other way to get it than paying for satellite or cable. However, there aren’t 30 other companies providing exactly the same thing as the Food Network, like there are in software. So, why would people pay a monthly fee to use something that they can get for a one time fee or for free from someone else? There’s always money to be made from the clueless in the marketplace (the AOL business model), but that, as AOL has shown, isn’t sustainable.

[Still Thinking]

Google makes the case for the cloud very compelling: Desktop systems were designed during the pre-Web era -- certainly long before Web 2.0 took over.

Bullshit, or at least the implication is bullshit. Networks have been around almost as long as computers, certainly much longer than desktop "personal computers". Current hardware/OS's were a kind of power-to-the-desktop revolution from a system with distributed dumb clients where the apps and data were hosted on a single central system. The internet is just a meta-network that certainly provides access to a lot of information, but would suffer from many of the same issues and limitations older systems did.

[Still Thinking]

The problem is the network. It needs to be constantly available and as fast as a local hard disk. Good luck.

And not disconnect-able based on you not paying your monthly bill or on your political affiliation (Google are infamous lefies). And not vulnerable to the guy who owns the storage leafing through YOUR files. Etc, etc, etc.

[Still Thinking]

I understand that they want to release programs like MS Office this way. When they ditch end user installations and go cloud only, watch the stampede to Open Office go so fast it’ll make your head spin.

I don't think Open Office is quite ready yet, for reasons discussed in another thread. But that doesn't mean we're stuck with Microsoft-in-the-Cloud. I've never liked Office 2003 and finally got sick of it and upgraded back to 97 (the best Office yet, IMO), and that's where I'd probably stay if Office became a web app.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Just posted this:

Microsoft to offer Web-based version of Office applications

[perfect_rovian_storm]

I think Open Office is ready, willing, and able. I know regular folks (non Linux-geeks) who very much prefer it to Office. My neighbor’s used it for a couple of years now and much prefers it to Office. He started a new job a couple months ago and told me that everyone there used Open Office as well. It’s big in education circles, from what I’ve seen. Particularly after the Office 2007 debacle. It’s not the only competitor, but I think it’s the closest that I’m aware of. My favorite is Office XP, but I think that’s just because I’m so used to it and it installs easily with WINE, but I think 2003 installs with WINE now too.

[Still Thinking]

I don’t remember exactly which ones, but there were quite a few features I use in Office constantly that OO didn’t have or didn’t implement nearly as well. Plus I hated that the recently used file list was common between all the apps in OO. Oh, one example I remember was searching on non-printing characters. Easy in every version of Word since DOS, and I do it all the time. Can’t find a way to do it in OO. And quite a few other things that were a real PITA not to have.

[perfect_rovian_storm]

The recent docs I don’t know about, but I think there’s a way to change the non-printed character thing on the forums.

It’s always difficult to change what you’re used to and if you’re happy with what you have, there isn’t any reason to. That doesn’t necessarily mean that the product isn’t ready.