The Cr-48 and Chrome OS: Google's vision of the net

Posted Jan 18, 2011 8:52 UTC (Tue) by dlang (guest, #313)
In reply to: The Cr-48 and Chrome OS: Google's vision of the net by PO8
Parent article: The Cr-48 and Chrome OS: Google's vision of the net

businesses, kids.

folks who need the computers to do work, not for high-end games.

People who want to want to use their machines, not fight with anti-virus anti-spyware, etc

even power users who want something light with a long battery life that they can carry around and use to connect to their other systems

The Cr-48 and Chrome OS: Google's vision of the net

Posted Jan 18, 2011 13:50 UTC (Tue) by sorpigal (guest, #36106) [Link] (6 responses)

With all the objections to Linux-in-the-workplace due to an insufficient amount of suitable apps, is there really any chance of ChromeOS-in-the-workplace given that it is even more limited in that regard?

It seems like you probably can't get much work done on one of these and, even if you could, few businesses would buy them for employees when they could buy an infinitely more flexible netbook for a similar price.

The Cr-48 and Chrome OS: Google's vision of the net

Posted Jan 18, 2011 15:41 UTC (Tue) by jzbiciak (guest, #5246) [Link] (3 responses)

I guess it depends. If the ChromeOS apps are being hosted by the company on a company server, then I could see this becoming a corporate thin-client solution.

Imagine a sales floor or a call center or what-have-you. Any computer will do for what you need a computer for. Sit down at any station (or in the case of a sales floor, pick up a sales tablet) and do what you need to do, and get on with life. Any computer is as good as another, so you don't have to worry about picking up <I>your</I> computer.

UPS and FedEx already have a limited-scope version of such gadgets for tracking packages. It's not an unreasonable model when the computer is not the end itself, but rather a means to an end.

The Cr-48 and Chrome OS: Google's vision of the net

Posted Jan 19, 2011 2:27 UTC (Wed) by xilun (guest, #50638) [Link] (2 responses)

Fully featured corporate thin-client solutions already exists anyway. Retargeting a ChromeOS laptop for that purpose would probably not be the best move. Could have been more interesting if the secure boot stuff could be changed to accept an other root authority than Google, but this is not possible by the design they chose (there are public keys in a true ROM). So despite the "secure for users" / "open for developers" speech, developers in question are still second zone citizens, the only first zone one being Google, and so by design. That's where the openness stops. It is still far better than completely locked devices, but the vision is anyway very similar to the one of apple with their istuffs and of random video game console maker, unsurprisingly.

Neither corporations nor the paranoid geeks that want to build/administrate/maintain and have total mastery of their systems including of course security and privacy are the target of ChomeOs. It's far more suitable for the general public (at least the part that don't really care about privacy and have very little needs beyond web-surfing, and will happily stays in the limited roles the big corporations are willing to put them it, with clear borders).

The Cr-48 and Chrome OS: Google's vision of the net

Posted Jan 19, 2011 2:33 UTC (Wed) by dlang (guest, #313) [Link]

remember that this is a test, proof of concept box.

I'm sure that if you called and wanted to order several thousands of them you could arrange to get the key in the rom changes to something else.

it may even be that the rom is socketed so that you can change it out.

this is assuming that it really is rom, not just flash that requires opening the machine to reprogram. I haven't seen a real hardware tear-apart to know the details of this.

The Cr-48 and Chrome OS: Google's vision of the net

Posted Jan 19, 2011 7:36 UTC (Wed) by Cato (guest, #7643) [Link]

Actually making this a Citrix or similar client would be a good move - I was reading only the other day about the problem of Windows PCs that are only used as Citrix clients which get infected with viruses that could grab corporate passwords.

I think having a really low cost locked-down Citrix client that can also run web apps directly would be quite attractive to corporates, particularly if it can also be configured to only connect via corporate VPN (which avoids the insecurity of open public WiFi).

The Cr-48 and Chrome OS: Google's vision of the net

Posted Jan 19, 2011 1:25 UTC (Wed) by dlang (guest, #313) [Link]

there are LOTS of businesses, and even within a business there are a lot of different requirements.

your power users who need special software aren't the users for this, but your call-center users, shipping/receiving/warehouse people just need a machine that can access the web-based apps that they are using.

adding an extra platform to support does add management costs, but if the reduction in admin effort and cost is enough, it will win out.

The Cr-48 and Chrome OS: Google's vision of the net

Posted Jan 19, 2011 9:50 UTC (Wed) by frazier (guest, #3060) [Link]

> With all the objections to Linux-in-the-workplace due to an insufficient amount of suitable apps, is there really any chance of ChromeOS-in-the-workplace given that it is even more limited in that regard?

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(from the time + proximity perspective of some decision makers)

Absolutely. This is Google-in-the-workplace. Everyone is already using Google in some form or another. This is just more Google. No big deal.

Linux is a big deal. Who's running Linux? I think we might have some Linux servers in IT, but our Microsoft Partner set up the high visibility web stuff on ASP.NET. All is good.
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I'll divide out how I think most people make decisions (from toothpaste to God):
1. Time (amount of time consumed with something)
2. Proximity (how close they are to something. Worth noting, 1 and 2 can swap depending on the person and/or situation)
3. Accuracy

#3 trails hard with many. Linux doesn't have #1 or #2 with many because their Linux time (server) is largely transparent, and for them it's something inside their browser (the web site, not the web platform used). Google though, they've been searching with them for years. They may already have an Android phone that stays with them. For them, it's not a Linux phone, it's a Google Android-based phone. They spend time with it, and it's close by.

I think a big threat for Chrome OS is actually Android. Some cheap netbooks with touchscreens would cater nicely to points #1 and #2. Not saying it'll happen in numbers, but it certainly is possible.

...and yes, I know Chrome OS is Linux-based. That's #3 talk.

The Cr-48 and Chrome OS: Google's vision of the net

Posted Jan 25, 2011 7:42 UTC (Tue) by ceplm (subscriber, #41334) [Link]

... and all those people who are very happy with their iPads, but they hate Apple and they would prefer real keyboard.

Matej