Marco F.
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All works by Marco Frissen are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 Netherlands License.
ChromeOS - BeOS in 1999: see a similarity? ChromeOS can be everywhere
ChromeOS seems to be redefining computing for many users. The concept of a "cloud-only" environment is new and really takes some effort to understand. With ChromeOS, the user won't need to worry about files and folders anymore. Users only need to worry about content. Photos, Movies, Documents, etc. Hopefully with a sensible name.
I'm not sure how Google wants to go forward in managing this without the legacy concept of folders and files, but we'll see.
[edit] @luclodder indeed commented that Google is already doing this in gmail using tags and search.
Back in 1998, 1999 there was a small company called Be Inc. Their success on the desktop was not what they expected and Jean Louis Gassée, the CEO of Be came up with the "brilliant" idea to start making so-called internet devices. Lightweight devices running BeOS. The iPad, archived on Scot Hacker's site here: http://www.birdhouse.org/beos/byte/07-IPAD/ was one example. Be wanted to be inside every device. From your fridge (ordering milk if needed) to TV (web experience).
The idea never took off, and eventually Be Inc was bought by Palm and we never saw anything from BeOS or iPad again.
It does seem though that the time is now right for these devices. ChromeOS seems to be made for lightweight devices.
Most people now think that ChromeOS will be for lite netbooks, a laptop like computer that you carry around. But Google could take this much further. ChromeOS can essentially run in any device.
Imagine having a small touch-enabled screen in the kitchen. Connected to the internet, you are just a few clicks away from ordering groceries. Or check your email while waiting for the oven, or load that latest recipe from that cooking forum.
ChromeOS can run in your TV set. Streaming the latest movies. Playing the latest games. Chatting with friends and relatives. Or even in your car. Guiding you towards that new restaurant you want to try. Streaming your favorite radio channel.
Just regarding ChromeOS as a means for an even lighter netbook is shortsighted. It looks as if Google is reaching beyond this, it wants to be everywhere.
1984 and 1999 all over again?
Posted 3 months ago
Playing with Chrome OS - not very functional - a few screenshots
I downloaded a VM image of ChromeOS and booted it in Virtualbox.
There's not a lot there. ChromeOS essentially is Chrome running fullscreen on top of a linux distro. As you can see, they haven't done much in the preference department yet. Everything points towards the local drive, no sign of real "cloud" power. It boots ok, just in 10 seconds. It browses ok. Works fine, youtube also plays ok-ish. However, try to save a file and it will. Try to open the downloaded file, and it won't do anything. I even got it to hang on this. Nice browsing OS for now, not much better than the Wii web experience though. Low resolution, low functionality.Of course, once there are advanced webapps, like http://280slides.com that functionality will increase drastically. Once the resolution gets increased as well ;-)
What's wrong with this picture??
The Palm Pre was announced in early 2009. The apps will be created with web techniques, using cloud services to store and sync your stuff.
Now this article: Gmail sidesteps the appstore
Let's go back to the introduction of the Original iPhone. Steve jobs stated that apps should be created using web techniques and use cloud services to store and sync stuff. All hell broke loose! That was insane! You can't create a decent application with only online storage and tools!
So, what has changed by then? The web techniques were available then already. So why don't we hear anyone complain about Palm? And why is this GMail webapp so important all of a sudden?
As an answer to the article linked above, I don't think webapps will be a thread to the appstore. They're an addition to. Some apps you still want to run locally.
Someone smarter than me please enlighten me about the conflict above though!?
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