Comments on: notes: what should be the real plan for the chrome os? http://blog.severeanomaly.org/2009/11/21/notes-what-should-be-the-real-plan-for-the-chrome-os/ I try to say a lot while saying very little. Get used to it. Fri, 12 Mar 2010 19:33:04 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: SEV http://blog.severeanomaly.org/2009/11/21/notes-what-should-be-the-real-plan-for-the-chrome-os/comment-page-1/#comment-10314 SEV Tue, 24 Nov 2009 00:17:11 +0000 http://blog.severeanomaly.org/?p=1571#comment-10314 Yes, it is cruel. I apologize to Rahul, but am also thankful - he has afforded me a classic example of the world today when it comes to cloud computing. 'Today' is a key word in that sentence. As far as "is there any other way cloud can take off?" goes, unfortunately it <i>has</i> to begin with storage. <i>Eventually</i> you will have so much online, constant syncing online/offline will become pointless and we will trust more in online applications in running services. That world is slowly peeking out all around us: already I use Mint for my money management, my lab uses Google Docs for collaborative project planning/documentation, Google Bookmarks and so on. Ironically, the dropping in price for storage is responsible for the cloud as well as slowing its adoption. I get a WD 1TB for $100 (which is one reason cloud storage is taking off). It also means that Google's 20 GB for $5 (or $256 for 1TB) is not cost-effective. This argument will become moot as web-apps develop though - I currently prefer Gmail Web to Thunderbird. And web-apps will come even more into the limelight via Chrome OS (for e.g. the use of Excel 2010 Web in the Chrome OS presentation). Making Chrome more accessible via every single laptop pre-boots and not just "Chrome laptops" may ensure this happens faster, methinks. Complement today's paradigm, not supplement it prematurely. The whiplash can prove deadly to a nascent idea. Yes, it is cruel. I apologize to Rahul, but am also thankful – he has afforded me a classic example of the world today when it comes to cloud computing.
‘Today’ is a key word in that sentence. As far as “is there any other way cloud can take off?” goes, unfortunately it has to begin with storage. Eventually you will have so much online, constant syncing online/offline will become pointless and we will trust more in online applications in running services. That world is slowly peeking out all around us: already I use Mint for my money management, my lab uses Google Docs for collaborative project planning/documentation, Google Bookmarks and so on.
Ironically, the dropping in price for storage is responsible for the cloud as well as slowing its adoption. I get a WD 1TB for $100 (which is one reason cloud storage is taking off). It also means that Google’s 20 GB for $5 (or $256 for 1TB) is not cost-effective. This argument will become moot as web-apps develop though – I currently prefer Gmail Web to Thunderbird. And web-apps will come even more into the limelight via Chrome OS (for e.g. the use of Excel 2010 Web in the Chrome OS presentation). Making Chrome more accessible via every single laptop pre-boots and not just “Chrome laptops” may ensure this happens faster, methinks. Complement today’s paradigm, not supplement it prematurely. The whiplash can prove deadly to a nascent idea.

]]> By: raghu http://blog.severeanomaly.org/2009/11/21/notes-what-should-be-the-real-plan-for-the-chrome-os/comment-page-1/#comment-10313 raghu Mon, 23 Nov 2009 22:31:15 +0000 http://blog.severeanomaly.org/?p=1571#comment-10313 That is cruel! I think the 'potential market' loses out, because the cloud is ,still, presented as a storage option. Even Ubuntu does that. Until someone comes to appreciate the capabilities of the cloud to run distributed and always-available applications/services potentially capable of servicing millions of customers no one will be interested. Ditto, users - who wants a storage option god knows where, if a WD external HD is less than 100 bucks. That is cruel!

I think the ‘potential market’ loses out, because the cloud is ,still, presented as a storage option. Even Ubuntu does that. Until someone comes to appreciate the capabilities of the cloud to run distributed and always-available applications/services potentially capable of servicing millions of customers no one will be interested. Ditto, users – who wants a storage option god knows where, if a WD external HD is less than 100 bucks.

]]> By: SEV http://blog.severeanomaly.org/2009/11/21/notes-what-should-be-the-real-plan-for-the-chrome-os/comment-page-1/#comment-10311 SEV Mon, 23 Nov 2009 15:55:31 +0000 http://blog.severeanomaly.org/?p=1571#comment-10311 Duly updated post with possible change in direction for Chrome OS. Your point is valid that the cloud is here to stay, its just that the potential market doesn't know they want it yet :) See prev comment to yours for a classic example of this :P Duly updated post with possible change in direction for Chrome OS. Your point is valid that the cloud is here to stay, its just that the potential market doesn’t know they want it yet :) See prev comment to yours for a classic example of this :P

]]> By: raghu http://blog.severeanomaly.org/2009/11/21/notes-what-should-be-the-real-plan-for-the-chrome-os/comment-page-1/#comment-10310 raghu Mon, 23 Nov 2009 15:14:49 +0000 http://blog.severeanomaly.org/?p=1571#comment-10310 Some points which came in after the post. One: Google plans to merge the two flavors of its oses. No timeline indicated of course. Secondly: cloud is here to stay in a big way. There will be incentives, amazon did not provide many because they were going after businesses who needed capabilities to pull up as many cpus as possible. Most of us do not care about storage anymore, but a lot of people do care about 'accessible' storage. The cloud will be significant, sooner than later. You said it - we saw the internet take off like crazy in what 10 years? With crappy hardware? And remember, thirdly, most of the world would take this as their primary computing device - I don't mean chromeos, but netbooks come to mind - its way too cheap, comes with either fancy oses or windows 7, connects to the internet, potentially offers storage online (or some tie up with some cloud app to store images - lets face it, its all about photos eventually). Its a second, or a third or a toilet access point only for a fraction of the potential population. Thats the business plan isn't it - target the potential, not the tech bloggers. Some points which came in after the post. One: Google plans to merge the two flavors of its oses. No timeline indicated of course.
Secondly: cloud is here to stay in a big way. There will be incentives, amazon did not provide many because they were going after businesses who needed capabilities to pull up as many cpus as possible. Most of us do not care about storage anymore, but a lot of people do care about ‘accessible’ storage. The cloud will be significant, sooner than later. You said it – we saw the internet take off like crazy in what 10 years? With crappy hardware?

And remember, thirdly, most of the world would take this as their primary computing device – I don’t mean chromeos, but netbooks come to mind – its way too cheap, comes with either fancy oses or windows 7, connects to the internet, potentially offers storage online (or some tie up with some cloud app to store images – lets face it, its all about photos eventually). Its a second, or a third or a toilet access point only for a fraction of the potential population. Thats the business plan isn’t it – target the potential, not the tech bloggers.

]]> By: Rahul http://blog.severeanomaly.org/2009/11/21/notes-what-should-be-the-real-plan-for-the-chrome-os/comment-page-1/#comment-10305 Rahul Sat, 21 Nov 2009 14:18:30 +0000 http://blog.severeanomaly.org/?p=1571#comment-10305 Interesting man.. I kinda lost the plot midway into it though.. I guess that shows how tech un-savy this engineer is :) Interesting man.. I kinda lost the plot midway into it though.. I guess that shows how tech un-savy this engineer is :)

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