Despite the fact that practically nobody is reading this or any other blog as the Noughties draws towards its close (in another years time!), and that no-one who does come to this blog expects reliable comment or timely advice on things geekish, except in the negative sense of following the discontinuous narrative of my reports on things that are fucking up on me, I am going to make a brief comment about what I understand of the upcoming Google OS.
Doomed. To. Niche-dom. Why?
a) no-one trusts 10% cloud computing let alone 100% cloud computing. I use Evernote for writing things like this these days as everything I scribble on one computer is automatically backed-up on up in the clouds (or so I believe), plus on every piece of physical hard-ware I have - iMac, Laptop, Netbook, iPhone. Hard-disks crash. Even big ones. (I'd use OneNote, but it doesn't work on the iMac.)
b) not everyone can connect to the internet all the time. We are NOT all living in Amerika! I can't use Windows Live for example unless I am hooked up, and even then it is SSSsssoooo slow as to be unworkable. Even more crucially, if you are not connected to the net when you use Google OS, nothing will work. Nothing at all. If you're sitting on some lonely beach at Koh Samui (lonely? ha!) trying to pen the next "The Beach" or "Losing The Plot" on your little screen, trying will be the operative word. You'll have nothing to do.
If you love paying for everything all the time (and who doesn't?) and you can you can keep forking out WiFi or 3G expenses, presuming that there is WiFi or 3G coverage where you are (on the beach in Koh Samui? - maybe WiFi from the lobby of your hotel, but there is no 3G in Thailand), then, and only then, can use your tiny Google NetBook to write your thesis, create your masterwork, or surf for suitably ejaculogenic porn (not on the beach in public, please!).
If you want to just type, forget it. You'll have to buy a real OS. Or keep the one you've got.
E@L
Happy Charliemas
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10 comments:
We're all being forced to use the "cloud", whether we like it or not. How else can they keep control? Your thoughts are no longer private. I 10 years time ALL of your activities will be known to the powers that be. 80% is now monitored. Orwell was correct in every aspect except the date!
(And why did it take 3 attempts to post this?)
HKM: it's taken me over 12 minutes to boot up and log-on here at the BKK airport...
Maybe you're not meant to travel.
You gonna tell my boss that or am I?
i did not renew the cloud thingy for the 3 macs under my control. xoxoxo
I checked with Alex Garland. He's staying with Windows he says. Why take chances?
Sav: I paid for Plaxo to keep my dates synched.
DH: I appreciate you making that effort. Buy you another beer one day.
Just for the record: a lot of modern web apps are perfectly capable of running when there's no internet connection. The app gets cached by your browser, as does your data, and they sync back to 'the cloud' whenever you do have a connection available. Typing on the beach for a few hours, then syncing up once you go back to your room and have power and internet access is exactly the model for these devices...
Yes, Richard with windows and Mac that's right; with Evernote of course too, that's why I use it. But not for Google OS as it was described in the powerpoint video - everything, including that app you want to use, is in the cloud. When you save a file it only goes to the cloud. At least that's how it looks to me like they're planning on making it "work". The idea is to completely isolate your computer from the risk of web-borne viruses and local crashes. What, I say, what happens when some teenage anomic fucker writes a virus that TARGETS the cloud?
Microsoft has already crashed its cloud once, taking a US mobile phone called Sidekick's user data with it - just last month.
Check the quote from Richard Motteram on my side-bar, is what happens!
p.s thanks for dropping by.
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