During his keynote speech at the Worldwide Partner Conference, Steve Ballmer has dismissed Google's announcement of Chrome OS. "There's good data that says 50 percent of the time that someone's on their PC, they're not doing something with the Web browser," Ballmer said, suggesting that an ideal operating system would provide both rich online and offline integration. It is not sure yet what Chrome OS will exactly offer.
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Member since:2005-07-06
- It's going to be a Linux distro
- It's going to have only Chrome as an application
Basically it's going to have even less features than existing Linux distros that have arguably failed (with hardly 1% usage share). What does Google expect? Sticking a "Google" logo to the boot screen won't be enough to make it successful.
Nice to see that you ignore the fact that one can have locally hosted applications using web based technologies; there is nothing stopping Google from offering that and connecting it to their services when the user wants to synchronise between their application and services.
Who does that? I'd love to meet these 'millions of people' - I'd love you to point out where Google has said this is a device for everyone for every occasions.
Again, how many end users do that? I can't think of a single person in my whole family and friends who do such things. I've deleted the rest because you're making unrealistic assumptions about end users and what they use their computers for. In the 10 years I have been supporting end users I've yet to see an end user use their computer for even half the stuff you're talking about.
Heck, New Zealanders tend to have a very quick adoption rate when it comes to mobile phones, computers, internet, online banking, pay television - and I've yet to see what you claim that the average person does.
Member since:2007-03-04
Ok, my wife, who is truely a noob, the kind of person who would reply "the Internet" when asked what a web browser is, well, she will not use a browser-based OS for simple reasons:
- She prefers Windows Live Messenger to Meebo (and to any other IM clients, BTW)
- She prefers the good old MS Word to Google Apps (she used it only once, a long time ago, she doesn't like OO.o either, BTW)
- She resizes her photos from her digital camera to fit Facebook/Orkut's size limits, using Photoshop
- She uses Windows Media Player to listen to her MP3s
- She uses an application to learn how to type quickly
- She has Skype minimized connected all the time
This is for a person I particularly consider *non* tech-savvy. In my case, I would add the following apps that I can't use with just a web browser:
- Dreamweaver
- Photoshop
- TextPad
- 7-Zip, WinISO, WinRAR
- Apache, PHP, MySQL
- Backup Magic
- CDBurnerXP
- CutePDF
- DVBViewer
- WS_FTP Pro
So, the usage is really restricted (checking your mail on a trip, basically). Why changing if you lose features? No.
If Google wants to expand from the netbook to the desktop, it will have to make all these popular desktop apps available easily, not poor web apps and a browser.
Member since:2006-08-03
I do agree.
I'll talk about what happens here in brazil, mostly on lanhouses:
People read web email (hotmail, gmail, ...), check news at Orkut (FaceBook, MySpace, ...) and connect to Msn (Google Talk, Aol,...).
The only thing they use that is offline is Microsoft Office, mostly because it is the only thing they know. If there was a openoffice hack to imitate the menu and options position and names, like gimpshop does, most people would simply do not care.
So Google has only to provide a offline office app - probally google docs with gears - and convice people to use it to replace windows. And this is while Microsoft itself does not release Online Office 2010!
The other ones can be used online, even throught Microsoft sites, like Outlook (OWA), Live Messenger, etc.
In the end it is kind of funny, but Microsoft can be helping Chome OS by releasing it's products free on the web 
Member since:
2007-03-04
To be honest, we have enough information about Google OS to draw conclusions:
- It's going to be a Linux distro
- It's going to have only Chrome as an application
Basically it's going to have even less features than existing Linux distros that have arguably failed (with hardly 1% usage share). What does Google expect? Sticking a "Google" logo to the boot screen won't be enough to make it successful.
People want to edit their videos before sending them to YouTube, they want to watch DVB-T television on their computer while retouching their vacation photos before sending them to their Facebook profile, they want snappy full-featured and desktop-based office suites (not Google Docs). The web has its pros but it won't replace well-established desktop applications. I'm taking a look at all applications on my computer, and many of them can't be replaced by a web browser...