Thread

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/2010557747_chromeos21.html

...seriously, are they?

It sounds like a really great idea, which I won’t be able to use anytime remotely soon and which I don’t see why anyone would want. ...ok, it actually is now starting to sound like a terrible idea.

If you can have an OS that does online and offline, why would you want one that does online only? After all, who wants one that does offline only?

It took, what, 20 years for Microsoft to get a relatively decent operating system like XP, and perhaps now Win7. There’s Mac that has a lot going for it, and Linux for the geek in all of us (perhaps Debian for the hardcore type folks, and Ubuntu for the ‘just work already!’ crowd). Chrome OS selling point seems right now to be its lack of ability to do anything else, like download a game, or use iTunes, or…oh, I don’t know, create anything that Google Docs can’t handle (pictures, big photos, web applications, music, videos that aren’t on youtube…).

It seems to me they need some whizbang “this is why this is so awesome” measure, and right now they don’t even seem to hint at what that might be. I’m using Chrome the browser because it works and is crazy fast, and works with almost everything I want to do - and when it doesn’t work I just fall back to IE or Firefox. It plays well with others, which I like.

I usually like Google offerings, but so far this one seems tone-deaf, ill-advised, and very poorly marketed.

This might work very well. In the netherlands a few cities are starting to offer free wireless in the city center. Those (lucky) people could just use some old pc or laptop to do whatever they want.

True, it is online only but most users I know only use a PC for email, web, photo’s and the occasional letter.
For those people, which will be most users, this is very good news.

With dvelopers, gamers and anyone that uses a computer beyond mere beginners capability, this would not catch on fast.

There are those who think cloud computing is the future…

Chrome OS is a great for netbooks, and also for Laptop/Desktops. With netbooks you arnt going much more than going online. For laptops and Desktops it give you a practically instant boot for the times you need to check something really fast online like email.

and online apps are improving:
http://www.pixlr.com impressed me..

just a toy for me at least at this moment..(although the idea sounds really nice

I just can not imaging taking JS as the main language for process, despite google raises a new solution for the RIA with appreciate performance ,the chrome OS can not be popular

I tested Chromium OS on my VirtualBox, basically, Chromium OS is a browser.

I don’t need to install Chromium for checking my email, I can check it from my cellphone, and for ‘run in the browser’ application, Firefox-Safari-IE can do the same jobs.
Slow booting in other OS? no problems for me, I can wait 5-20 seconds 😉

In my humble opinion, SLAX or Damn Small Linux in a Netbook or flashdisk are far better and useful than Chromium OS.

for nevsie: I’m impressed too… nice…!

HTML 5 is the precursor for all of this because it has local DB storage for your web apps.  This means that apps like Gmail keeps a local store of your most recent messages, as well as any messages you have written (drafts/outbox).  Basically just like having a regular email client that connects to the Internet to send the message.

The advantage is that Google can update the Gmail codebase without having to send out patches.  They could completely redo the interface at the drop of a hat and not feel the pain of people running on many multiple versions of their software.  This is because it is a web app that can run offline for them.

That’s my understanding anyway.

I guess what I’m missing is the advantage of a web-only OS. I don’t get boot times, as for a netbook its more about standby resume times that matter, and for a desktop PC I think it’s a non-issue (at least for me personally).

I don’t see what additional features it gains for the trade-off of no offline apps.

and online apps are improving:
http://www.pixlr.com impressed me..

You’d better hope so. Considering we are some of the people that create them.

This OS suitable for netbooks like eePC, ChromeOS will use Google Gears technology to store applications data in the machine for those applications that supports it.
Moreover, there is a-l-o-t web application that are very decent for every day use.

I think its right for Google, and its great for us.

But Google’s business model is a bit scary.

Maybe Google have a plan to release a brand new device, a device/PC like OLPC XO-3 tablet, but just for browsing only, lighter, touchscreen and less power consumption. Because if Amazon successfully sold Kindle Reader ($250 just for reading ebook), selling a device/PC for browsing only sounds not too crazy at all, at least for Google.