I’m a big fan of cloud computing. About 50% of the stuff I do these days is in the browser, and 100% of what I consider “mission critical” data is either directly (Google Docs/Gmail/S3/FTP) or indirectly (Dropbox/Mozy) stored in the cloud. That’s probably why I’m so enticed by projects like Chrome OS. I hate desktop operating systems. The malware, the hardware, the corrupted file systems and application errors.
I want my computer to work. All of the time. No exceptions. (Who doesn’t?)
I don’t care whether you use Windows, a Mac, or Linux; you’ll encounter show-stopping problems, and probably a lot more frequently than you care to admit. That isn’t to say the web isn’t without it’s problems. Datacenters go down, tables get corrupted, and worse of all things get hacked. The difference is, if a site goes down I can come back to it later. If my desktop OS goes down, I’m screwed… and potentially my data is screwed along with it. A reliable web service won’t suffer the same fate.
An all too common sight.
Now, Google unveiled quite a bit of new information on Chrome OS today, and officially opened the code for the first time to developers. I have a mostly positive impression coming away from the webcast, but I do see a couple of problems that Google hasn’t really addressed.
The Good
#1, The OS is self-repairing. That is, if a byte goes bad, or someone develops a piece of malware that circumvents the sandbox and eats your OS, the machine will revert to a good copy patch itself to a fresh state. No lasting harm done.
#2, Dead simple. I could see slapping this on an old laptop and giving it to a grandparent (see Bad #1.) No file system confusion, or worries about viruses, or needing to ensure they have the latest updates. It’s a set it and forget solution for the tech-clueless.
Chrome OS UI (Mockup)
#3, You can login to your Google account on any Chrome OS-based netbook and instantly have access to an identical looking “desktop” as you have on your own machines. Your bookmarks, browser history and even theme are synced and displayed. Fantastic. This also means, of course, if you drop your netbook and kill it, you can buy a new one and be right back where you left off in no time.
#4, It’s free. Netbooks running the OS won’t have to worry about Windows licenses, and thus keep the cost of their hardware cheap. Granted, Linux has always been an option for the same reason, but this is no standard Linux OS. I don’t care if it’s Ubuntu or Fedora or Gentoo; there is no such thing as a user friendly desktop Linux environment. It appears Chrome will be the answer to that problem.
The Bad
Solid State Drives. I understand why Google is going that route– the performance advantage is huge over traditional drives– but requiring them to use the OS is absurd. I get requiring a SSD on new devices that ship with Chrome OS. I think if someone walks into Walmart and buys a Chrome OS-loaded netbook, they would expect tip-top performance.
But let’s say I’m not going to walk into Walmart and buy one. Let’s say I have a perfectly fine laptop sitting next to me that I want to give to Grandpa. Chrome OS is an easy choice, because all he does it check email and browse the web, and I don’t want to have to worry about him getting viruses. Alas, unless Google changes it’s mind on this, that isn’t going to be an option- because that old laptop doesn’t have a Solid State Drive. Who cares if Grandpa’s OS takes 7 seconds or 7 minutes to load? It’s a free PC, and it’s running your OS, Google.
If I’m savvy enough to install Chrome OS my own hardware, then I should be free to do so. Don’t lock me into your ideas of what a netbook should be.
The Ugly, and questions left unanswered
Privacy. I’ve always been a proponent of the “privacy is dead” argument when it comes to the Internet… or in any context, really. There isn’t such a thing. Still, having every aspect of my OS… my bookmarks, my customizations, my browser history… housed on Google’s servers is a little concerning even to me. I’d like to see us able to define a different sync-point than Google’s servers. Like Mozilla Weave or Xmarks, let us use our own FTP server as a place to store this cloud data as an option. At the very least, give us an indication of what sort of encryption you’ll be using to secure OS data.
Is there room for gaming on a Chrome OS device? Of course we aren’t going to be playing World of Warcraft on these things, but Google hasn’t mentioned if they’re going to support hardware acceleration at all, or whether OpenGL support will be bundled. NVIDIA’s Ion netbook platform is growing in popularity; will there be support for that? They demoed a Flash game; considering the sandboxed environment, will they be open to partnering with companies like Unity and OnLive to deliver cloud-friendly plugins for gaming?
Likewise, considering Chrome is all about HTML5, and a major aspect of HTML5 is it’s local storage capabilities; how is Chrome OS going to handle this? Will there be a finite amount of local storage for these things, or is Google imagining a way of syncing this data to their cloud and somehow still maintaining offline capacity? Perhaps there will there be no such thing as offline capacity, considering Google’s buyout of the 700MHz frequency spectrum, or are these devices going to be sold by cell carriers with built-in modems?
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