[devarshi84]

Originally Posted by kpbhatt

Call me pessimist or even outright stupid. I see Judgement day coming up soon later followed by the Rise of machines, if this is the rate of progress, i for one would be scared -- correct that very very scared.

The cloud appears to me like one big skynet application controlling everything we do or want to do or wish to do and then it can turn it against us.

I am in the IT field for more than a decade and nothing scares me more than the speed at which technology has become the center around which our life has started to revolve. There are many positives to the adoption and growth of newer and better technologies, however this one facet of technology controlling our lives can outweigh all of them.

dont get me wrong, Google's theme is dont be evil. so was skynet, all it wanted to do was connect everyone at a global level at one platform to harness the interconnectivity and we have seen a movie depiction of what things done with the best intentions can do to mankind.

my reminders and alarms are on my laptop which is always on. I use zoho which is an online office client. I have an online backup HDD. I talk to my friends and relatives on the computer. I use E-mail to communicate important messages. I game on the computer. I watch movies and music on the computer. my life has been so dependant on the computer, I decide N number of times to chuck it out the window. Now I dont use it for more than an hour or two everyday. It would be a big hit if PC makers started providing Dish and glass holders like in cars. :P


The main problem with Google's concept is. Android was a hit because there are tons of developers and hardly any competing linux distros in the market. The Pc market is different. There are thousands of developers for different distros and users are mostly loyal to their own OS's. Getting the whole Linux industry into one direction would be a devastating loss for google. And as I said before cloud computing is neither needed, nor ready for the mainstream.

[jaygeetee]

We have a live example with us to show that Google's plan can be a hit. The IPod/Iphone. They came in and changed the whole scene, be it with the players or the phones (I personally hate it but even then I have to accept it's a brilliant product).

Google is able to see the future better. Netbooks will be the next big thing, or something even smaller. Wouldn't each of us personally like our whole computer to fit in the palm of our hand so we can use it wherever, wherever.

Yeah, we have been brought up with desktops not the present generation of kids, they will have netbooks and hand-helds and PMs and that is where google sees the future. They are trying to bring a paradigm shift in the way we use computers, the hardware is shrinking by the day and now is small enough to carry in your hands.

Tomorrow, you will buy a new gadget even more often, you will have 5 gadgets instead of the 2 that you have now. Would you be sitting down to sync all of them on your Xp machine? or would you just put everything into the "cloud" and access it as needed from any of the gadget?

Think of how easy it would be to record a video, mail it to your friend, have him watch it on his 40" LED TV directly. Think of the possibilities.

[aburagohain]

If an affordable bandwidth was in place, lots of other things would have been possible apart from a faster booting netbook..

[carboy]

Originally Posted by BaCkSeAtDrIVeR

I thought somebody else would mention it.

The concept of sending an OS and supporting applications through the WWW / internet was first mooted by Microsoft. Too bad they did not patent the concept. ;-P

Of course, thin client computing has been in vogue for a loooong time.

What does this have to do with thin client computing. Chrome OS is a Linux based OS - it's not a thin client.

[Surprise]

Originally Posted by Samurai

Even Microsoft is into SAAS, have you heard of Microsoft CRM? But the dependency on Internet connectivity is the biggest threat to SAAS.

Yes Microsoft is getting into cloud computing and they need to win the market against existing vendors. They cannot charge the same thing what they did with Office, its a market up for grab for the vendors who offer excellent reliable products & cheaper prices.

[pranavt]

Originally Posted by carboy

What does this have to do with thin client computing. Chrome OS is a Linux based OS - it's not a thin client.

Not quite, but almost everything except the OS itself is on a remote server in a cloud. Assuming Google make it very very light, you'd need network access for even the smallest things.

If they're thinking of putting this on Home/Office desktops, hopefully their offering works well with Google Apps, and they let you run Google Apps on local intranets soon.

[carboy]

Originally Posted by pranavt

Not quite, but almost everything except the OS itself is on a remote server in a cloud.

Once the OS is on the machine - it's not a thin client anymore, atleast as
per the original definition of the term coined by Negris.
However, even if you want to consider Chrome OS as a thin client - it's
not new, there are been many netbooks in the last few years which are
as thin.

[Gandhi]

Cloud computing has been very popular amongst enterprise customers where most of the appliances/servers are in one cloud sometimes shared between different customers and sometimes dedicated. This saves a lot of costs on power/administration/infrastructure etc for the service provider as well as customers.

However, I don't find concept of cloud computing to attractive for desktop users. I wouldn't accept that my machine/OS/application is inaccessible because some fool did something stupid in the cloud that I share.

[Surprise]

Originally Posted by Surprise

They cannot charge the same thing what they did with Office

Microsoft Office to go online — for free - Big Tech

Microsoft – the king of paid software – will announce today that it is going to give a version of Office away for free online. Both the online and desktop versions are scheduled to arrive in the first half of next year. Yes, you read that right.