Google Chrome OS: Epic Fail or Epic Success?

[Defiant Rat]

I'm not sure, but it's great to have such a big company like Google promoting Linux. I hope that as soon as people realise they don't need Windows, they will start trying alternatives.

Also, with Linux getting more marketshare among normal users, more software companies will give more attention to it. (Adobe, I'm looking at you and at your Flash plugin!)

+1, even if Chrome OS isn't up to the hype, it should do wonders for the publicity of open source and Linux. Maybe now people will have to take notice.

[joey-elijah]

1.) it's not finished

2.) It's not intended to compete with mainstream OSes.

3.) it's not released.

[gnomeuser]

I think it has potential to be an epic success for certain usecases, it makes computers into appliances which is certainly suitable for a great number of people. E.g. my mother would be perfectly happy in this environment. I might not but I am not the target.

[jrusso2]

Sound like epic fail take Ubuntu and make less out of it.

[Marlonsm]

Sound like epic fail take Ubuntu and make less out of it.

You forgot the "and market the hell out of it" part.

Seriously, though, for most people with netbooks, it can do everything they want and it will be much more practical.

Just look at Google Chrome (the web browser) it does nothing fancy: doesn't have tons of addons (Firefox), neither tons of built-in features (Opera), neither comes installed in computers (IE). It just browses the web, and is very fast doing so. With the right marketing, it's a nice combination.

[arnab_das]

for one it will have awesome google apps. but all of them will be sending every private info about me to google servers, until google claims to know what i like to wear, eat, etc. oh yeah, and it'll know my browsing habits as well! in short google will know more about me than my parents! and of course, i'm not joking.

i simply fail to understand why people tend to appreciate dodgy products with abysmal privacy records!

chrome os will be an epic success of course! simply because there arent many who are bothered about sharing private stuff with google.

[lykwydchykyn]

It remains to be seen what the market will look like in 2010 or 2011, but I think frankly the general public doesn't currently "get" the idea of a netbook.

The evidence is the fact that (1)Windows XP took over the netbook market and (2) netbooks keep getting bigger. Basically, the original netbook concept morphed into a small-form-factor laptop.

I mean, other than increased speed and Google's marketing, what does Chrome add conceptually that the original eeepc didn't have?

[aysiu]

i simply fail to understand why people tend to appreciate dodgy products with abysmal privacy records!

What abysmal privacy record does Google have? You mean when the US government subpoenaed Google, MSN, Yahoo, and AOL for user search information and MSN, Yahoo, and AOL all refused to hand over that information but Google did hand it over?

Oh, wait... it was the other way around. MSN, Yahoo, and AOL all handed over their search info, and Google refused to hand over that information.

I simply fail to understand why people who use the internet imagine they have privacy.

[arnab_das]

What abysmal privacy record does Google have? You mean when the US government subpoenaed Google, MSN, Yahoo, and AOL for user search information and MSN, Yahoo, and AOL all refused to hand over that information but Google did hand it over?

Oh, wait... it was the other way around. MSN, Yahoo, and AOL all handed over their search info, and Google refused to hand over that information.

I simply fail to understand why people who use the internet imagine they have privacy.

well i never said the others had a better privacy record! but just that google collects so much of personal info!

hope uve read this:
http://coderrr.wordpress.com/2008/09...han-you-think/

maybe google was tight lipped this time around, but how do i know if google hasnt handed over any private info to any third party folks? even google has confessed to storing user info. why cant google chrome be a solid browser like firefox (no user info collection by mozilla at least AFAIK) and still retain all those superb features?

[squilookle]

I won't completely write it off till its out... but from what I read about it today, it looks completely and utterly pointless.

If the network connection goes, it looks like you're going to have a rather expensive paper weight!

I predict a lot of sales when it is released, and that it will very quickly fizzle out - and that the people who have bought it will put it to one side and go back to their main computers: just like my mate has done with his netbook. (Running Linpus Lite)