Google Chrome OS: What Does it Mean?
The following is based on a post by Clio in its November Newsletter. Read more about Clio here.
Last week Google took the covers off of Chrome OS; the first new, significant operating system to be introduced in the last ten years; and the first to be devoted entirely to web applications. What’s significant about Chrome OS?
- Every app on Chrome OS is a Web app.
- Nothing is stored on your computer.
- The operating system is the browser.
- 10 second startup: boots in 7 seconds; 3 more to login.
- All data is encrypted; even if you lose your computer the data is secure.
- Supports only flash-based drives; not hard-disc drives.
- Open-source (think Linux, but not as geeky)
In other words, Google Chrome OS is the logical conclusion to the shift away from desktop applications to “the cloud” (itself an echo of the decades-old idea of thinking mainframes and dumb terminals). But is Google too late to make a difference in the OS sphere? Only if it tries to unseat Windows. But that was never the idea. Instead, Google wants to provide the OS blueprint for
- Netbooks: Subnotebooks can’t be weighed down with a bulky OS.
- Cloud Computing: Who needs to store and backup data when it’s more secure in the Cloud?
- Convergence: Your subnotebook, office machine, and phone, are merging.
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Decreased privacy.
(+) Data is safe
(+) computer is not overcrowded with stuff, and there seems to be no chaos at a cloud
(+) documents are available everywhere
BUT
(-) well, big brother is watching you more and more