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Originally Posted by GTO
Can the Tech Pros throw more light on this? |
Alright, let the pro take the stage for a moment
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Originally Posted by GTO 1. Should Microsoft Windows be worried? Should Apple be worried? |
For Microsoft, not worried, but **** scared. Actually, shitting in their pants. To use a crude analogy, our ancient scriptures prescribed a Brahmastra against an all-too-powerful enemy. Google Chrome OS is precisely that Brahmastra.
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Originally Posted by GTO 2. What is the advantage of cloud computing, where softwares are web based? I mean, hard disk space is only getting cheaper. And I'd rather have my data on my own computer than some hackable server out there in the www. If I want to work offline (something I do frequently), the windows system has an advantage. |
Cloud computing (I'm both an enterprise user and a consumer) works in both online and offline modes. Of course, it expects you to be online all the time to access data from the cloud, but it takes care that you can perform basic tasks (read/compose email/memo/presentation/spreadsheet, do basic reports in accounting software, manage contacts in a CRM) even when you are offline.
From a larger perspective, what we are seeing is a battle between two philosophies around Cloud. Google is all cloud, but Microsoft is software plus cloud. MSFT says you must have basic client software on your own system (simple strategy to protect Windows' turf), but the services can be run off the cloud. Google says even the client software can be on cloud. I've been using salesforce.com as our core enterprise CRM software purely on the cloud for last 2 years, and I love the fact that I have one less application to run on my already strained Windows PC.
The biggest personal advantage that I see with cloud computing- you can go back to buying a PC with 128 MB RAM (or whatever it takes to run a fully-featured browser) and still be perfectly happy with its performance- since the client apps are all running off the cloud. Biggest enterprise advantage- my IT team does not need to worry about upgrading/backing up/managing servers for our CRM, they don't need to worry about software upgrades, hang ups etc. All they need to worry about is constant Internet connectivity
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Originally Posted by GTO 3. For most of us, our lives revolve around MS software (my client management system, organiser software, accounting software etc. etc.). If google wants to make this click, they'd make the software adaptable out of the box. If not, why would the masses move? |
This is actually a grey area and we should wait and see how Google works around it, but I reckon they'd definitely have a few aces up their sleeve by the time we can buy a netbook running Google OS. Most people are used to running MS software simply because, how shall I put it, they are addicted to it. But there's no reason why Google cannot revolutionize your daily-use apps like Word, Powerpoint and Excel and make new versions that are even more user-friendly, and run entirely off the cloud. I see Google apps as a Model-T in evolution of SaaS, but IT ain't auto industry (remember the Bill Gates joke, anyone?) and it shouldn't be long that Google apps comes charged as Toyota Prius, or BMW 7 series. Maybe by end-2010?
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Originally Posted by GTO 4. Will it be free? |
Well, the netbooks running Google will definitely be cheaper, if only by hundreds of rupees. Software will be free in the initial months, maybe years. After all, Google has set itself the task of running a charitable, MSFT de-addiction center!
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Originally Posted by GTO 5. How can a browser-based OS be an OS in itself? |
Chrome OS is more than a browser. It builds upon a Linux based kernel, which takes care of basic OS functionality like device drivers, file management, input/output support etc. etc. Of course, you can bet that with the Google tweaks, a full system boot up will take less than 5-10 seconds.