By The Angry Drunk
No sooner do I comment on the overly credulous commentary being offered up by the techno-sphere regarding the ChromeOS announcement than I notice this wretchedly mis-titled article over at TechCrunch: “Google Is Keeping Chrome OS Simple. Maybe Too Simple.”
Now, to be fair, this is Erick Schonfeld, and his deep abiding love of the Google-cock is well documented, so I shouldn’t be surprised. But quotes like this really take things to a new level:
Rather than support Android apps and other sorts of apps, there is only one kind of app Google is interested in: the Web app. Chrome OS is all about making Web apps the only apps you will ever need. Which kind of makes you wonder how long we’ll need Android apps, or iPhone apps for that matter, because you know it is only a matter of time before a phone comes out running on Chrome OS.
Seriously, Chrome web apps are now going to eradicate standalone Android or iPhone apps? The same web apps that Steve Jobs proposed two years ago and was widely, and rightly derided over? Web apps certainly have their place, but to even suggest that a phone running
Continue reading Case in Point
By The Angry Drunk
Yesterday Google unveiled their browser-as-operating-system concept, ChromeOS, in greater detail. I’m still processing the information and I may, or may not, write up my thoughts on the announcements later. For the moment though I’m finding myself, as is often the case, more interested in the reaction of the greater techno-sphere to the announcement.
I’m somewhat bemused, although I really shouldn’t be, at the credulity of some of my fellow travelers. I don’t doubt that Google is capable of marketing ChromeOS. Google certainly has the money on hand to force themselves into whatever market they so choose, and the adoption of Android shows that they certainly have the capability to produce a serviceable operating system (even if it does largely leverage Linux).
I also don’t hold with the segment that dismisses ChromeOS solely on grounds that it only runs web applications. I personally think that, at the moment, web apps are inherently inferior to a well-built desktop application, and I don’t see that situation changing in the near future. But if decades of Windows dominance has shown, your average consumer is perfectly willing to use an inferior product as long as it is cheap and convenient enough.
What I do
Continue reading ChromeOS Reactions
