Comments
I think this OS is forward thinking enough that it’s not something they can concern themselves with. It’d be like not making a laptop because “what if your battery runs out?”
Furthermore, I think the goal for this isn’t full-fledged workhorse desktops or mobile workstations, but things like netbooks and portable devices. Just look at the hardware supported…
All in all, though, I think they totally have the right idea. The first video there that introduced the concept — it’s dead on. Granted, it’s not an OS for me. I still use my operating system a great deal. But my Mom doesn’t. My boss doesn’t. Most people don’t. They use their web browser. They don’t need a whole computer. They need an internet machine — an idea someone at Sony thought up a decade ago but the broadband wasn’t as prevalent and web apps didn’t really exist and “the cloud” was just starting, so it failed.
And this is just an OS. It’s on someone else to build the hardware. Hopefully someone with the design chops that Apple has, cause obviously Apple isn’t going to build one.
Wow this is such a cyclic pattern: One operating system has many programs, one program has many Web apps, one Web app has many?… I wonder what’s next.
Or would that be a sort of 4th dimension that we can’t “see” because we don’t live in it?
Hehehehe, I like that point of view, but at it’s heart, I think that’s sort of a false way of looking at it. Essentially, people are using their computers just trying to get shit done. The major shift that has taken place over the past decade is that, partly because of the wide adoption of broadband internet, partly because of the ease of developing cross-platform apps for the web, and partly because of the failings of Microsoft in building a usable OS with usable apps, more people get shit done online now. Like, 90% of people.
Which leaves unused all those wonderful new apps Microsoft and Apple keep building into their operating systems. So if you don’t need the full OS; if all you need is a web browser, the next logical step is to just drop the OS and boot straight into the browser.
This, and a lot of other news I’ve been reading in tech forums, has only made me even happier with my decision to buy an Android phone. This Chrome OS thing sounds a hell of a lot like Android for the PC to me. Pretty sweet.
It’s quite possibly my next phone will be an Android phone. But I don’t think it’s quite there yet. Much like this Chrome OS, I think it’s a great, forward-thinking idea with a shit-ton of potential. It’s just gonna take a few years.
Apple, on the other hand, is really going to end up either being forced into being more open, or they’re finally going to start cresting this wave of repeated successes they’ve been riding. Frankly, unless Jobs and and croaks tomorrow, I’m banking on the latter. It’s almost like their role was getting us back up to the point, interface and design wise, that we should have been had Microsoft not stymied progress for so long. So we’re just about where we should be. What Google’s doing, though, I think really represents the future. The only thing standing in their way is polish. Maybe they can steal Jonathan Ives from Apple or something.
You are definitely right about the polish part. HTC definitely put the shine on Android with their Sense UI though. I’ve never been big into cell/smart phones at all but this thing has turned me into a full-fledged fan boy.
TOTALLy doing this when I get home.
my oldish (but still pretty great) PC has refused to properly boot-up for months now, always shutting off right after the lovely Blue Screen. i wonder if i’d be able to just start fresh on it with Chrome OS – yes, no?
No. It’s not intended for desktop computer and won’t run on any machine with a traditional hard drive. It has to be virtualized just to get it to run in these developer previews.
If you’re looking for a solution to just get your home machine up and running, get this:
http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/download
If I had a PC, it’s what I’d be using.
nice, thanks. on a related note, kev and i are both up for new phones with verizon and i was definitely eyeing-up those Droid phones. hmm…
Keep this in mind… you missed the deadline:
http://venturebeat.com/2009/11/13/verizon-boosts-smartphone-cancellation-fee-to-350/
John said:Keep this in mind… you missed the deadline:
http://venturebeat.com/2009/11/13/verizon-boosts-smartphone-cancellation-fee-to-350/
i’m not too sure how this relates to me. i’ve never canceled a contract except when i moved to the UK (and it cost me nothing). i’m also pretty good about being happy with my chosen phone model for 2 years at a time.
But the thing is, even if you cancel AFTER the two years, it still costs $110. That’s crazy. People are flipping out.