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Chrome OS


Zephyr
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Google just announced some more information about their revolutionary web-based OS.

If this takes off, computers will never be the same. I can't do without my desktop programs yet, but it's exciting to see more things moving to the cloud.

I'm pumped to be able to log in to my computer from anybody's hardware too, although I suppose I'll need to call it something else now, my personal cloud I guess. Check out the videos.

Did I mention it's open source?

http://www.engadget.com/2009/11/19/googles-chrome-os-revealed/

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Yeah, it's a neat concept.. but it's not practical for me (either). I'll probably appreciate the development of Chrome resulting from the development of the OS more than the OS itself.

IMO, for most users I think this would best be suited as being complimentary to/integrated into a larger OS. Make it a sort of pit stop along the way to loading the more powerful OS (which you can choose not to load up if you don't need to use desktop-focused applications in your session), and then transfer your Chrome OS session into a Chrome browser loaded in the more powerful OS. Like the video on the main Google blog post suggests, most people turn on their computer and want to get to the internet as fast as possible -- that's true, but it's not like I don't want to do other things too.

Regardless, standards compliance will mean a lot if this browser gone OS were to be a success... which, if I may predict, won't be the case.

wow thats really interesting

id definitely be willing to give this a try on my laptop which i pretty much only use for web browsing anyways

Except Google has stated that it will support only certain reference hardware.. at least from what I gathered, I don't think you'll be able to put it on just any computer.

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Putting everything in the cloud is a horrible idea. A couple of weeks ago Google decided to lock me out of my Google account for a couple of days without any kind of warning. I couldn't access Gmail, Reader, Calendar, anything. The reason? I still don't know. The only thing I could think of was maybe some IMAP gone wonky? They never told me why, just "sorry for the inconvenience." I'm not interested in a company being able to hold my data hostage like that.

Also, kind of tangental, but I really hate that people don't differentiate between an Operating System and a Shell anymore. I know that this is both because it's based on Linux, but still.

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Cloud computing can't replace the desktop computer. There are far too many things that can't currently be done feasibly through the internet (video editing, graphics editing (beyond MS Paint level, anyway), gaming, and countless other tasks.

What cloud WILL do is open up possibilities for old, cheap technology to be repurposed into useful machines; specifically in mobility. I think you'll see this taking off on netbooks, since they can pretty much can the hard drive beyond a gig or two of slow flash rom, and toss in absolute bare minimum specs without any major performance hits.

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Cloud computing can't replace the desktop computer. There are far too many things that can't currently be done feasibly through the internet (video editing, graphics editing (beyond MS Paint level, anyway), gaming, and countless other tasks.

What cloud WILL do is open up possibilities for old, cheap technology to be repurposed into useful machines; specifically in mobility. I think you'll see this taking off on netbooks, since they can pretty much can the hard drive beyond a gig or two of slow flash rom, and toss in absolute bare minimum specs without any major performance hits.

I agree with a lot of this, but things are seeing changes now. I'm thinking specifically of graphics editing, Flash is becoming a valid option for larger programs.

Check out pixlr.com, it's a decent photoshop clone that runs in browser via flash.

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Cloud computing can't replace the desktop computer. There are far too many things that can't currently be done feasibly through the internet (video editing, graphics editing (beyond MS Paint level, anyway), gaming, and countless other tasks.

What cloud WILL do is open up possibilities for old, cheap technology to be repurposed into useful machines; specifically in mobility. I think you'll see this taking off on netbooks, since they can pretty much can the hard drive beyond a gig or two of slow flash rom, and toss in absolute bare minimum specs without any major performance hits.

I absolutely disagree. While it's only my opinion that could computing is where we're all headed at some point in the near future, it's fact that graphical work for certain types of projects has been done effectively through an internet connection. I used to run fluid dynamics simulations from Maryland on computers in Arizona. Transferring the hundreds of gigs of data back and forth for processing and pretty-pictureizing just wasn't feasible. The people at the University I was working with wrote a visualization and graphical editing software (similar to TecPlot, if anyone is familiar with that) that was virtualized in the same way that we're talking about here. If "could computing" can handle processor intensive graphical computations on large datasets, it can handle replacing heads in Photoshop.
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Cloud computing can't replace the desktop computer. There are far too many things that can't currently be done feasibly through the internet (video editing, graphics editing (beyond MS Paint level, anyway), gaming, and countless other tasks.

Agreed. While I think this is an interesting experiment, and it's probably gonna lead to some useful developments (I like the flash memory!) if the OS is browser based, you're essentially gonna be limited by your internet connection. Right now, most cable internet providers, for example, either charge by bandwidth usage or begin throttling customers who go over an (invisible, unknown) set amount. This would cramp my style with Google's OS. :/

It's true you can do some graphics work in browser-based programs, but you definitely can't do it all. Sometimes my boss asks me why I work primarily off my own computer. "Can't you just leave it on the server?" I could, but while it's doable it's noticeably slower. I can't imagine doing hi-res graphics or like...editing video with a browser XD

It's still really cool though. If they marry the OS to a very reasonably priced laptop, I'll pick one up in a heartbeat. I could use it to check this forum >_> It really makes you stop and think about the difference between what you'd use a laptop for and what you might only do on your desktop.

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Just read a good article on why Google should slow down on this OS..

http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2009/11/google-chrome-os-2/

Blah, he says the same thing I do: mini OS (though I think my idea of handing off Chrome to the main OS hasn't been discussed yet). I need a blog (again).

If only wireless carriers didn't charge so much for tethering or data-only plans for laptop modems... maybe Google should consider selling their own USB/expresscard modem that offers cheap mobile broadband access or offer some sort of solution for accessing their cloud when on the go (similar to how the Kindle come with free access to the internet to download books (or does it?)). If only.. well, I can think of a lot of those if only statements, because I don't think the status quo is ready for this kind of cloud transition either.

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