Users and maintainers [LWN.net]

Users and maintainers

Posted Nov 19, 2009 22:39 UTC (Thu) by dmarti (subscriber, #11625)
In reply to: Who might use Chromium OS? by drag
Parent article: Chromium OS source released

Users and buyers aren't necessarily the same. If you're the Family Computer Person, having your web-centric users on a machine that won't run malware or p2p takes a burden away from you. "I know I promised you a computer for your birthday, but after your brother got us fifteen viruses, two identity thefts, and an RIAA lawsuit, you're getting a Google box."

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Users and maintainers

Posted Nov 19, 2009 22:53 UTC (Thu) by drag (guest, #31333) [Link] (3 responses)

Maybe.

I am just not convinced. In order for this to have merit it's going to have
to be hella slick. It's going to have to be so nice and so intuitive that
people are not going to want to run familiar software they already know and
understand.

It's going to be exceptionally difficult for them to pull this one off.

Users and maintainers

Posted Nov 19, 2009 23:46 UTC (Thu) by anselm (subscriber, #2796) [Link] (1 responses)

I don't think that, realistically, Google's goal is to replace every single PC in existence with a machine running Chromium OS. (They probably wouldn't mind if that happened but hey, I'd like a pony, too.) There are still loads of people around who haven't touched a computer for their entire lives so far, and so have no preconceived notion of how software should look like and behave. If Google manages to rope in just an appreciable fraction of those they'll be more than comfortable for a user community.

Also, people are moving in droves from their local mail programs to Google Mail in a browser already. As it turns out, Google Mail is kinda slick. And if e-mail and web surfing are the main things they do on their computer, which again holds true for a fairly significant number of people, Google's approach will probably be just fine for them.

kids today

Posted Nov 20, 2009 0:41 UTC (Fri) by dmarti (subscriber, #11625) [Link]

These kids today are riding bikes with only one gear, using the one-channel Twitter instead of IRC, drinking PBR -- why not a one-application computer?

Users and maintainers

Posted Nov 20, 2009 20:45 UTC (Fri) by asherringham (guest, #33251) [Link]

I don't think the bar is that high really.

My mum is very computer illiterate and has trouble with the concept of a "window" or "desktop" and finds the trackpad and keyboard hard. I have to repeatedly remind her how to use the "Enter" key ("the BIG key!") to break up long lines.

But guess what? She runs Linux!

This is an older laptop - web browsing and web mail only. She really doesn't need anything else and I don't have to worry about viruses, trojans and assorted malware. No need for slick - just very basic functionality.

Alastair