Comments on: Google Chrome Operating System – Able to Promise Big Because it Delivers Small?

By: How Many Google Services Do You Use? Which Ones Have You Abandoned? | 40Tech

Tue, 23 Aug 2011 13:31:15 +0000

[...] ChromeOS — or Chromium OS, if you like — has been something I’ve played with off and on for over a year. I enjoy it. I like the whole “browser as your OS” concept. I don’t know if it will ever fully replace native apps for me, but my curiosity is definitely piqued. Web apps are fast approaching the power and flexibility of installed software, offline capabilities are getting better, and the integrations with cloud storage services like Dropbox are getting more and more intricate. The world is heading back toward the days of the mainframe and dumb terminal — except the mainframe is now worldwide (see: Skynet). ChromeOS is a very large step in that direction, and Google is all about it. Just think of all the ads they can serve and information they can collect if everyone does all of their computing in the cloud. Makes your eyes pop a little bit, doesn’t it? [...]

By: Evan

Evan — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 19:29:33 +0000

I agree, and would venture to say that in most cases at some point in the future, computers will be general purpose machines. I'm sure this keeps hardware manufacturers awake at night. It is some niche apps, though, that will require specific purpose machines, and will be their future.

By: Evan

Evan — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 19:26:05 +0000

You hit on the big issue there- it is a bit frightening to think of all that Google controls. Another issue concerns the reliability of cloud computing. Gears does back things up locally in Gmail and Google Docs, but there are other apps that would be completely useless without an internet connection.

I've heard the same thing about Microsoft, Bobby. I'm sure they've seen the writing on the wall, too. Who would have thought a few years ago that they'd be the underdog?

By: kosmo @ The Casual Observer

kosmo @ The Casual Observer — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 19:12:31 +0000

When I was in college, I learned that general purpose machines needed operating systems and specific purpose machines did not. I think they intended for specific purpose machines to refer to less sophisticated devices than computers, but have computers shifted toward being general purpose machines – simply being a platform for the browser?

In many cases, I think the answer is yes.

By: Bobby Travis

Bobby Travis — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 07:24:02 +0000

Google has always been moving toward cloud computing. They firmly believe it is the future of the web. They may be right, but there will always be a need for offline access, even with Gears.That could realistically be accomplished as more programs adopt Gears (a likely (planned) side-effect of the OS), or with platforms like Adobe Air that are extremely lightweight. The fact that they are investing in partnered rollouts of the OS onto hardware says to me they are attempting to saturate the market a bit with the concept and so embed it into the minds of both developers and the general public, thereby furthering their goal of a cloud computing world — and, of course, inevitable world domination. On a sort-of side-note, I am sure I had heard, a while back, that Microsoft was working on a cloud OS as well…