ChromeOS and Why Google Won’t Succeed in the OS War
7:52 Jul 13th, 2009 | 0 notes
Look at the laptop market ten years ago. What do you see? You see Windows dominating the PC arena, a Mac OS that isn’t anywhere near its current glory and a Linix base still wondering why people aren’t using it in the masses. Essentially, you have one market dominator and a few stragglers hanging around. Jump forward to today and you see a very different market for laptops. Windows is (still) dominating, but Mac OS X and Linux distributions, like Ubuntu, are growing like never before. The biggest difference you see in today’s market is that there is choice. You can walk around a store or browse the internet and find quality operating systems ranging from $500 to absolutely free.
But this is just the laptop market. Next to these well developed operating systems and machines a new bud is growing out of the idea that you don’t need a 17”, quad core processor to do everyday computing tasks like checking emails and browsing the web. That bud is the netbook, and with their smaller screens and slower processors a new need has arisen. That need is for an operating system to match the machine.
A few days ago Google announced their entrant into the netbook OS (operating system) market named ChromeOS. It promises to be a light weight, open source operating system designed with one thing in mind: cloud computing. Google says the OS will have no preinstalled applications and that computing can all be done on the web using services like the Google Apps suite and more. Originally, the idea for netbooks was that most of the work to be done on them would be done using cloud computing. It looks like Google is trying to return to this original idea.
But here’s the problem for Google: nobody will use ChromeOS.
By nobody I mean that the ChromeOS will fail to gain any sort of substantial market share. Why? Because Google has chosen to enter the budding netbook market when flowers are already starting to appear.
Look at Windows for example. Microsoft already acknowledges that the netbook market is going to be big with what they’re doing with Windows 7 (coming out in October). They looked at the netbook market, saw that the current Windows Vista doesn’t work on netbooks and that people were happy buying them with Windows XP installed, and decided that they needed to focus on getting Windows 7 to work perfectly to fill the gap they created with Vista. Their netbook solution: Windows 7 Starter Edition. While I can say first hand that Windows 7 Ultimate Edition runs brilliantly on a netbook, there is one very good reason why Starter Edition is Microsoft’s solution. Microsoft has said that they plan to essentially give Starter Edition away for free to manufactures just to make sure your next netbook will be running Windows. With the behemoth from Redmond giving away the most popular OS in the world, why would manufacturers even think about using a newcomer like Google’s ChromeOS on the same scale as Windows?
On that same point, look at what the Linix base has been creating for netbooks. Ubuntu Linux Remix has been out for a while now, ask any average user and they won’t even know what Linux is, let along Ubuntu. Even the likes of Dell, HP, Acer and Asus have offered Linux alternatives for their netbooks, but every attempt has been outsold by Windows XP. This shows that people like the familiar, even if that means the familiar is slower and older than the new alternative. For Google, ChromeOS presents an entirely new way of thinking about computing as well as being far different to peoples’ safe Windows haven. This will prove to be part of its downfall.
Restrictions in Linux OS’s and netbook OS’s have led me to use Windows 7 on my netbook. As an average consumer (well kind of) I don’t like the thought of my experience being restricted in any way. If you look at the ChromeOS, Google plans for you to do all of your computing over the internet. That means no storing your music, photos, documents, contacts, email or calendar on your netbook. Google wants that all online. It is this type of restriction that will be a major reason why ChromeOS will fail. What if you’re in the middle of nowhere? What if you’re on the subway? What if you’re on a plane? You won’t have internet access to get to your files. That is restriction number one. Restriction number two is online services. Google Docs, Flickr, Photoshop.com and iMeem are all great internet services, but none of them are at all comparable with their desktop counterparts. For example, Google Docs has nowhere near the functionality of Microsoft Office. That means the scope of your computing is restricted by the limitations of what the internet can offer you. With ChromeOS relying on you doing all of your computing online, you would be downgrading to a more limited experience by using it.
Similarly, Google themselves claim that all of the web apps usable on ChromeOS are available on all other operating systems. After all, ChromeOS is essentially just a web browser. Google’s struggle to market ChromeOS will come when people ask why they should choose it over Windows, which has much, much more to offer than just a web browser. People will have this choice: buying an OS that is a web browser, or buying an OS that has a web browser.
The final reason ChromeOS will fail is this: Google has chosen to enter ChromeOS into a market where comsumers are already confused. Judging from the reaction of my peers to my HP Mini, it’s clear that the average consumer doesn’t understand the purpose of a netbook. People don’t ‘get’ what a netbook is, even when it’s running Windows. Such a far out concept like ChromeOS and its way of interpreting netbooks as just a web browser will only further confuse people.
Google’s mantra has been about simplicity and ease of use. But in the case of ChromeOS, I believe they’ve made things too simple. Google has failed to see that netbooks can run full operating systems to a high standard. They’ve failed to recognize people’s needs and normal computing habits. Most importantly, Google has failed to recognize that are attempting to bring what looks like an inferior product into a market with much better alternatives.
Google has come into the netbook game with too little, too late.
Update on the Australian Student… Netbooks
5:56 May 14th, 2009 | Notes
The latest news from the Department alludes to some big plans by Microsoft and the future of this whole scheme in New South Wales!
Just an update from my ‘sources’. The Student Lenovo Netbooks will be running Windows 7 Release Candidate! Well I can only presume it’s the release candidate, because they wouldn’t be running the full version right? Or would they? There is no doubt that the push for the RC to be put on these computers could only have come from Microsoft themselves. That means that the Education Department must have made a deal with the folks from Redmond (well, the folks from Redmond, in Sydney). It would seam that Microsoft have most likely promised the Education Department the full version on it’s release.
But wouldn’t that mean reinstalling thousands of copies of Windows 7 on computer spread all over the state? Yes it would. Here is where I can draw some interesting conclusions. There is no way that Microsoft would push out the RC on thousands of laptops if it meant a huge logistical nightmare in the near future. The same can be said of the Education Department. Neither of them would want huge hassle of installing new operating systems a few months after they handed out the laptops. In that case, it is not a big jump of logic to assume that the Windows 7 Release Candidate is closer to the final version than we might think. What if the final version only meant a small patch to the release candidate? What if I and many other people with the release candidate would only need buy a product key online, hit Windows Update and be running the final Windows 7 in a few minutes?
From my perspective, there is the only one posibility. If Microsoft wanted each and every student laptop running Windows 7, but knew that it wasn’t to be realeased for several months, what would they do? They wouldn’t install XP or Vista then send out Windows 7 a few months later, as I said previously, too much of a headache. What else would they do? They would send out the release candidate, knowing it was a small task to update to the final release.
It raises the possibility, the Windows 7 RC is very close to final release.
Update on the Australian Student… Netbooks
6:10 May 4th, 2009 | 1 note
Yay sources! Today I found out that testing of the student laptops would begin soon, with selected teachers from New South Wales pilot schools to be receiving them in the near future. I also managed to get this helpful pamphlet about the laptops detailing more of their specs and pre-installed software.
It has finally been confirmed that the laptops are not laptops. They are netbooks. I don’t think the government realize just how significant the difference is. Note the quote on the first page:
“Considering the device size these are impressive specifications.”
Sorry to burst your bubble Mr Deputy Director-General of Schooling, but they’re not. An Intel Atom processor? Are you kidding me?! What happened to these laptops costing $2200 each to make, or being “powerful enough for the IT needs of today’s students”? You’re handing me bronze and tell me its gold! If you honestly think that such a slow processor is powerful for what you want it for then you obviously haven’t look at computers since the late 90s.
The netbooks are the Lenovo IdeaPad S10e. Fine as a secondary computer, terrible if you want students to use them stand alone.
Here’s where the big problems arise: the installed software. Well, it’s not the software itself. It’s the combination of the resource demanding software coupled with the incredibly low power netbook hardware. Here is the installed software:
- Adobe Photoshop Elements
- Adobe Premier Elements
- Adobe Acrobat Professional Extended
- Adobe Flash CS4 Professional
- Adobe Dreamweaver CS4
- Adobe Presenter
- Adobe Captivate CS4
- Adobe Fireworks
- Adobe Contribute
- Adobe Device Central, Version Cue and Bridge CS4
- Microsoft Office 2007 Professional
Now that’s quite an impressive list I admit. I wish I had all of that. What I love is how stingy Adobe were with Photoshop and Premier! Undoubtedly the two most used Adobe applications and they give students the dumbed down versions.
Truth is, it doesn’t matter. If the Government think that those machines will run Photoshop (let alone Premier) and the rest of CS4 at an adequate standard then they are sadly mistaken. In the end, this is another attempt by the Australian government to play catch up with some of the education systems across the world. These netbooks won’t sustain students through their schooling. These netbooks are not the latest most powerful technology, they have specifications from computers nearly 5 years old. These netbooks won’t be able to keep up with the IT needs of students and they most certainly won’t solve any of the problems they set out to achieve.
I’m not saying that these machines are useless, far from it. They are a fantastic device for email, web browsing, listening to music but by no means were they built to run Photoshop or or edit video. What I’m saying is that what we as students were promised was technology that will meet our needs. The government outlined those needs by installing CS4 on the them. Unfortunately, a netbook just doesn’t cut it.
What we’re left with is just an expensive exercise in PR.
So in the end it’s true. The fantastic dream of high powered technological classrooms will stay just that, a dream. Instead, politics and rhetoric have gotten in the way of reality. Again.
No MacBook Mini? I'm Sad!
7:34 Apr 30th, 2009 | NotesIt seams like my dream of a Mac netbook is becoming less and less of a reality. With all the rumors now revolving around this ‘media tablet’ I might as well give up and just buy the HP netbook.
So no Apple netbook.
And after all that time I spent fantasizing about carrying one around as well!
