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Original material is licensed under a Creative Commons License permitting non-commercial sharing with attribution.
11/19/09
11/19/09
Oh, I know how. Ads. Your computer will not have to have an adblocker. Your computer will boot up and shut down the latest deals from Foot Locker. In the middle of writing a paper? A pop up will remind you to get a new McCafe since you have been working really hard.
I see people saying someone wants to own their own media, I think there are people who like owning their own software, so to speak.
I was so in favor of the Chrome OS till I read the news and drew my own conclusions. Back to Ubunt-land I go.
11/19/09
But, personally I believe this kind of misses the point. I don't think the initiative of Chrome OS is to simply move everything to the web. I mean, take video editing for example. Why? Video editing isn't typically a very "portable" task. Either a video edit is a big project that could use a dedicated workstation (or an internal local network, as in a small production house), where uploading hundreds of gigabytes of data would be a waste of time, or it's a live, happening-now kind of video taken from a phone where maybe some basic trimming tasks would be done real quick then uploaded. I'm open to suggestions, but I can't think of a video editing job where you would benefit from uploading video to a server then editing it from any and all computers you could log into. It's just unnecessary.
Honestly, I really don't think Chrome OS is intended to be the game-changing replacement OS people were expecting it to be. Much like the netbooks themselves. When I first heard of a laptop without an optical drive and minimal (comparatively) amounts of storage space, I laughed. But they caught on, and for good reason. Namely, they were targeted devices that didn't aim to do everything, but what it does do, it does well. And cheaply.
Chrome OS, from what we've seen today, flat out does not have what it takes to dethrone Windows, OS X, or any Linux flavor as a desktop OS. And I doubt it ever will. But given the right amount of support from web app developers (because really, it's mostly in their hands), Chrome OS has everything it takes to make one kick ass netbook. For some people.
11/20/09
They don't particularly want to use it, but if they threaten MS with it, well, MS'll have to drop it's prices, they'll switch back, and everyone is happy.
11/20/09
If they were to switch over to a product they thought was good, that'd be one thing. Folks start buying non-Windows computers, MS loses money, then they start getting more competitive with their prices. But if device manufacturers start putting an OS they have zero confidence in, MS would be all "Good luck, suckers!"
You actually can compete with free. And if free sucked, if free didn't move computers off the shelves, MS prices would stay right where they are.
Free may be a helpful motivating factor, but it is not the only reason manufacturers would consider supporting it.
11/19/09
I am. and the bandwidth caps and overage charges living in the 'cloud' will bring.
not everyone is lucky enough to get unlimited internet.
the choice for this house is cable, with a bandwidth cap, or dial up at 56k. thats it. and no moving is not an option.
11/19/09
11/19/09
11/19/09
Decent wireless broadband is important, but not a huge jump over what we have today. Fundamentally, Google is creating a very smart dumb-terminal. You don't necessarily need an ultra-fast internet connection to edit large data-sets (like big image files) because the dataset lives on a server off in a datacentre somewhere, and ChromeOS is simply a presentation layer. It doesn't need the full 100GB dataset to work with, just enough to present to you a working view. If you want to apply some sort of filter to the dataset it gets applied on the remote server, rather than on your local hardware.
And even then, how often are we editing large datasets? Are you really going to do a lot of image editing on a little portable device, or would you rather do it on a proper machine with a big, calibrated monitor? I don't even do work on laptops, I find them woefully insufficient for my needs... mine is relegated to just webbrowsing these days.
The workstation will never die, but I see something like this stomping the life out of the notebook and netbook markets.
11/19/09
I must download this and try it out.
11/19/09
I however am a geek. I tinker, build my own PC and play games and leave media player running in the background. I use my PC as a DVR and stream it to my XBox. I personally have very little interest in Chrome OS as anything other than a dual boot but I am in no way the typical American. In a way that makes my heart sad.
11/19/09
11/19/09
That said, I know better than to bet against Google. They always have a google of tricks up their sleeves.
11/19/09
Yes we ALL know that IE cant edit video like Final Pro but what if it could? That is what Google is trying to provid here.
11/19/09
11/19/09
11/19/09
Now, Google is like the Roman army. If they want to march towards HTML+JavaScript powered thin-but-smart-clients, I'm happy and excited to follow along behind. They have a vision and they have a history of success under their belt. ChromeOS itself is a little boring, but it's the potential ecosystem that could exist to support it that excites me.
Now, I'm not sure exactly what they'll build, but I think there's a good chance it'll be really fucking cool.
11/19/09
Since this update, she has no sound whatsoever from her laptop. Apparently this is not uncommon from this update, and not fixed according to her.
Unfortunately it also shows that while it's great if everything works - if it stops working, good luck fixing it without increasing your knowledge of the OS a hundredfold...
11/19/09
''ALL data in Chrome OS is in the cloud.''
My biggest fear has been confirmed. No Chrome OS for me.
11/19/09
11/19/09
11/19/09
11/19/09
the main question then is hardware support and how are they going to get manufacturers to support it?
11/19/09
11/19/09
11/19/09
11/19/09
11/19/09
11/19/09
@Slightly Bigger Than Wee Jock But Not So Big as Middle-Sized Jock Jock: Yeah I think I'll wait until 10.04 for my next upgrade.
11/19/09
Seriously people, read the comments before you fire one off, mmmmkay?