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Trivial Example: Stop for gas. Go to update MPG spreadsheet. Oops! Netbook's a brick.
Or what if I want to stop at a rest area and verify the wording of a document sent to a client, because I can't quite remember whether I included or left out a point? Lot's of little things.
I'm about ready to head out the door and will be staying in a town that does not have broadband coverage. My netbook would be a brick from tonight through tomorrow morning if I were running Chromium OS.
And no. There is no way to use a netbook and drive at the same time.
The point is that being so completely dependent on "The Cloud" is a disadvantage, and not an advantage for common netbook use patterns. Google is trying to claim it is an advantage. A real OS with a browser gives you *more* than their thin client OS does.
This post by user "drag" on LWN.net hits the nail on the head:
http://lwn.net/Articles/362890/
Edited 2009-11-20 15:16 UTC
Google gears or HTML5 will provide offline support.
Anyways I think these devices will be dirt cheap .. 100 to 300 dollars (with ARM and a small battery) and be slim and slick.
At the moment they are intended to be care free IAs and I guess a lot of geeks that now tell family to buy Mac or install Linux will tell people to get a Chrome OS machine. With a full size keyboard and a big screen they will do about 95% of users need. Sure no video editing or Itunes, but also no backup-, malware-, upgrade-worry.
And we are looking at this from a first world angle. Cheap Chrome OS netbooks will be a heaven send for people in poorer countries. They get a great web experience without the steep learning curve.
Most people still are not on the internet.





Member since:
2005-07-27
I'm quite concerned that you are using your netbook while driving - I sure hope interstate highways specifically don't have wireless broadband for this reason.