Google Chrome OS: Epic Fail or Epic Success?

[jeb800e]

With the new (finally!) news of Google Chrome OS today, do you think it will be an an epic fail, or an epic success? Why?

[Tristam Green]

Silly poll - hasn't even been released yet.

[RiceMonster]

Silly poll - hasn't even been released yet.

/thread

[jeb800e]

*fixed*

[wojox]

Undecided. I need to get my hands dirty with it before I can make a real decision. I think it's a step in the right direction.

[Tristam Green]

aww, you showed me.

Still a silly poll because the end product (a year out) will resemble what we saw today, but today's slideshows it will not be.

[Praxicoide]

I don't know. I'm very wary of all this cloud-computing talk, but there's definitely a market for it, a huge market, really.

[phrostbyte]

It looks significantly easier to use then Windows. I think it will be successful on netbooks and laptops in general.

[Simian Man]

It's better than Ubuntu 10.10, but not as good as Windows 8.

[Skripka]

It's better than Ubuntu 10.10, but not as good as Windows 8.

E18 on HURD rawks your foice.

[Sealbhach]

I want to be able to do stuff offline, I want to be able to keep stuff on my computer. So for me, not interested.

.

[clevin]

i vote fail

an OS that has no hardware supported local apps with any real power
an OS that way too depended on "CLOUD"
an OS that can do 1/1000th of a real computer can do
an OS that can't be used on 99% of the computers in the market
an OS that basically is just a browser
an OS that can probably work with 1/1000th of the peripherals
an OS that has no real games available


Speed? what speed? you can turn it on in 10 seconds means nothing when you will never be able to finish any work that are remotely professional.

security? what security? keep your data encrypted so you dont need to worry when you lost it? how useful is that when you put nearly all your data in the hand of some big guy and up in the cloud, security? lol

simplicity? what simplicity? smartphones are simple enough, why would I buy a $400 computer to just do Internet? Heck, even Nokia N900 probably let me do more than a google chrome OS powered computer.

[RiceMonster]

E18 on HURD rawks your foice.

Best platform for Duke Nukem Forever

[Tristam Green]

Best platform for Duke Nukem Forever
E18 on HURD rawks your foice.
It's better than Ubuntu 10.10, but not as good as Windows 8.

Run that on your iTablet and you got a winrar!

[Defiant Rat]

Undecided. I will probably try it, but i do wish they would create a COMPLETLY new OS, as unlikely as it may be :). If anyone has the power and resources to do it, its google. And heck, i like playing around with new things ;)

[Psumi]

I want to be able to do stuff offline, I want to be able to keep stuff on my computer. So for me, not interested.

.

I have to agree, I would rather keep most of my possessions close to me rather than with someone else.

[phrostbyte]

You can put stuff on Flash drives in Chrome OS, not everything is in the cloud. A lot of stuff will get cached locally also, so there is some kind of local storage in a Chrome OS netbook, although not files/folders in the traditional sense.

[Hugh Mulqueen]

On the plus side google inc. will hopefully contribute to the linux kernal; therefore contributing more hardware drivers. Perhaps better filesystems etc.

On the negative side this particular big company has a hit and miss record with the open source community recently, so I would be wary of them.....

Only time will tell....

[Marlonsm]

I'm not sure, but it's great to have such a big company like Google promoting Linux. I hope that as soon as people realise they don't need Windows, they will start trying alternatives.

Also, with Linux getting more marketshare among normal users, more software companies will give more attention to it. (Adobe, I'm looking at you and at your Flash plugin!)

[Hugh Mulqueen]

I'm not sure, but it's great to have such a big company like Google promoting Linux. I hope that as soon as people realise they don't need Windows, they will start trying alternatives.

Also, with Linux getting more marketshare among normal users, more software companies will give more attention to it. (Adobe, I'm looking at you and at your Flash plugin!)

I wholeheartedly agree with you. Adobe flash is fast becoming a way to hack into your computer. I think Adobe will have "to wake up and smell the coffee!" and release flash as a free/open format.

[Defiant Rat]

I'm not sure, but it's great to have such a big company like Google promoting Linux. I hope that as soon as people realise they don't need Windows, they will start trying alternatives.

Also, with Linux getting more marketshare among normal users, more software companies will give more attention to it. (Adobe, I'm looking at you and at your Flash plugin!)

+1, even if Chrome OS isn't up to the hype, it should do wonders for the publicity of open source and Linux. Maybe now people will have to take notice.

[joey-elijah]

1.) it's not finished

2.) It's not intended to compete with mainstream OSes.

3.) it's not released.

[gnomeuser]

I think it has potential to be an epic success for certain usecases, it makes computers into appliances which is certainly suitable for a great number of people. E.g. my mother would be perfectly happy in this environment. I might not but I am not the target.

[jrusso2]

Sound like epic fail take Ubuntu and make less out of it.

[Marlonsm]

Sound like epic fail take Ubuntu and make less out of it.

You forgot the "and market the hell out of it" part.

Seriously, though, for most people with netbooks, it can do everything they want and it will be much more practical.

Just look at Google Chrome (the web browser) it does nothing fancy: doesn't have tons of addons (Firefox), neither tons of built-in features (Opera), neither comes installed in computers (IE). It just browses the web, and is very fast doing so. With the right marketing, it's a nice combination.

[arnab_das]

for one it will have awesome google apps. but all of them will be sending every private info about me to google servers, until google claims to know what i like to wear, eat, etc. oh yeah, and it'll know my browsing habits as well! in short google will know more about me than my parents! and of course, i'm not joking.

i simply fail to understand why people tend to appreciate dodgy products with abysmal privacy records!

chrome os will be an epic success of course! simply because there arent many who are bothered about sharing private stuff with google.

[lykwydchykyn]

It remains to be seen what the market will look like in 2010 or 2011, but I think frankly the general public doesn't currently "get" the idea of a netbook.

The evidence is the fact that (1)Windows XP took over the netbook market and (2) netbooks keep getting bigger. Basically, the original netbook concept morphed into a small-form-factor laptop.

I mean, other than increased speed and Google's marketing, what does Chrome add conceptually that the original eeepc didn't have?

[aysiu]

i simply fail to understand why people tend to appreciate dodgy products with abysmal privacy records! What abysmal privacy record does Google have? You mean when the US government subpoenaed Google, MSN, Yahoo, and AOL for user search information and MSN, Yahoo, and AOL all refused to hand over that information but Google did hand it over?

Oh, wait... it was the other way around. MSN, Yahoo, and AOL all handed over their search info, and Google refused to hand over that information.

I simply fail to understand why people who use the internet imagine they have privacy.

[arnab_das]

What abysmal privacy record does Google have? You mean when the US government subpoenaed Google, MSN, Yahoo, and AOL for user search information and MSN, Yahoo, and AOL all refused to hand over that information but Google did hand it over?

Oh, wait... it was the other way around. MSN, Yahoo, and AOL all handed over their search info, and Google refused to hand over that information.

I simply fail to understand why people who use the internet imagine they have privacy.

well i never said the others had a better privacy record! but just that google collects so much of personal info!

hope uve read this:
http://coderrr.wordpress.com/2008/09/03/google-chrome-privacy-worse-than-you-think/

maybe google was tight lipped this time around, but how do i know if google hasnt handed over any private info to any third party folks? even google has confessed to storing user info. why cant google chrome be a solid browser like firefox (no user info collection by mozilla at least AFAIK) and still retain all those superb features?

[squilookle]

I won't completely write it off till its out... but from what I read about it today, it looks completely and utterly pointless.

If the network connection goes, it looks like you're going to have a rather expensive paper weight!

I predict a lot of sales when it is released, and that it will very quickly fizzle out - and that the people who have bought it will put it to one side and go back to their main computers: just like my mate has done with his netbook. (Running Linpus Lite)

[Tibuda]

hope uve read this:
http://coderrr.wordpress.com/2008/09/03/google-chrome-privacy-worse-than-you-think/
Yeah, I have read that FUD. It says:

I should point out this feature can be disabled by going to Options -> Manage -> Uncheck “Use a suggestion …”
I should also note that I installed the Omnibar extension on Firefox to have exactly this feature.


If the network connection goes, it looks like you're going to have a rather expensive paper weight!
http://gears.google.com
to install it on karmic Firefox, install the gears (apt:gears) package (including 64bit)

[indiandruid]

fail

[BuffaloX]

I read that Chrome OS should be 100% safe, because you can't install ANYTHING on it!
I don't get it, AFAIK you can install apps on Android, why make a netbook OS less powerful than a Phone OS?

To me that is a complete and total FAIL.

Smartbooks should start to come out early next year, I hope they succeed with REAL versions of Linux.

Moblin has failed to attract much attention, but I hope Intel will be able to attract some supporters for that too.

[PhoenixMaster00]

I think Chrome OS will be a success on SmartBooks which will come with 3g, wifi and the like but i dont see why i would choose this over Ubuntus Netbook Remix or Intels Moblin when that really gets going.

Im reserving judgement until 1/ It actually comes out. and 2/ to see what people do with the system now the source code has been released.

[aysiu]

I like the idea of a dual-boot. For most people, 90% of the time, they'd boot into Chrome OS to just do "internet" (that's what I do, to be honest). And then they could always boot into Windows for more desktop-like applications that aren't available through a web browser.

Of course, I'd love it if it were a Chrome OS and normal Linux distro (e.g., Ubuntu) dual-boot, but if you want it to sell, it'd make more sense to make it a Chrome OS/Windows dual-boot.

Didn't Dell do something like this?

[Tipped OuT]

I can not judge a product that isn't finished and I haven't even used.

[doorknob60]

Still way too early to tell. Wait until a netbook comes out with Chrome OS on it, or Google releases some official ISOs of the whole OS (completed).

[shark1997]

I built chrome os.

It is now running on my laptop. The one problem is that it cant do wireless. Other than that it is good

[RabbitWho]

It will be an epic success. Everything they do is ether really great or pretty good. It doesn't matter which because they are absolutely fantastic at marketing.

Marketing without you even realizing it's marketing.. "We cycle around our office on bicycles! WOOOO! DON'T BE EVIL!" God I love seeing something done well.

[jeyaganesh]

It wont be that much success. Because most of the people are still using hotmail than gmail.

[zagz]

It wont be that much success. Because most of the people are still using hotmail than gmail.


Some things, they have to change, somehow!

[dragos240]

It's better than Ubuntu 10.10, but not as good as Windows 8.

Wow! Windows 8?! The unreleased version of windows!

I also think that this is a triumph.
I am making a note here.
It's a huge success!