10 mistakes Google is[n't] making with Chrome OS
I’ve just read this piece on eWeek about ten mistakes Google is already making with Chrome OS. Some I agreed with, some I disagree with, but I felt stroungly enough to post my answers here… I advise you to read the eWeek article first, otherwise none of this will make any sense…
- A Chrome OS netbook
So Google may – or may not – be planning its own Google-branded netbook, running Chrome OS. Partners who are working with them will probably gnash and wail – except whomever it is that actually gets to build the thing. Everyone else will just get nice big Google stickers to put on their netbooks. In the meantime, there’s that unconfirmed carrot that you might just get to be “the chosen one”. In the short term, it’s probably a good marketing rumour, and in the long term it allows Google to release their own hardware (should there not be that many takers) without industry insiders being too shocked and awed… - The focus on netbooks
Unlike the desktop, the market segments for netbooks isn’t clear yet. And the netbook is designed solely to do all its work on the web, so a clear focus on delivering what the netbook market needs was obviously a design goal for Chrome OS. Chrome OS isn’t (yet) a multi-purpose operating system, because there isn’t any other obvious market for it to compete in (yet). - How do third parties factor in?
This is desktop thinking, and needs to be seen from Google’s web-centric Chrome OS viewpoint: you’re doing all your work online, so why introduce the security headaches of potential malware by allowing third party applications (other than, perhaps, using Google Gears?) - Locking users into Chrome
Perhaps the biggest problem of all, and yet one that is diminshingly less important. The three main rendering engines – Trident, WebKit and Gecko – are coming ever closer to rendering the same pages in the same way. If, say, users were locked into NCSA Mosaic, this would be an order of magnitude more irritating. But this is 2009, not 1999. - User understanding
Now I so agree on this question. Why would you choose Chrome over Ubuntu or XP? Personally, I’d rather have a netbook with Kubuntu, as that’s my KDE bias showing through, but I can’t really see a solid case Google have made why I as a consumer should opt for Chrome OS. - It’s about hype
Perhaps, by quieting things down since they originally announced Chrome OS, Google are actually playing it smart: they built enough hype to get some open sourcerors working on the open source version of Chrome (called Chromium OS), and are planning to feed those free-of-charge (to Google) improvements into the launched product… - What about the enterprise?
It may be ten years before Chrome OS is ready for the enterprise, but that doesn’t mean to say Google won’t launch an enterprise-focused desktop operating system in the meantime, does it? - A long delay
Firs of all, how about my explanation for number 6? Or trying to get hardware partners on board, of course. Either way, I suspect there was a reason behind it, even if it was only to kill off rumours that promised more than they intended Chrome OS to deliver… - Vendor support
Well, if they were having trouble finding hardware support, it looks like they still are. - Security
It’s perhaps a little early to be worrying about security concerns in unreleased (and unfinished?) products. But given the nature of malware attacks, most of the concerns with Chrome OS look set to be browser-based – and that’s an area that Google is pretty competent in. But how about the network stack? Bluetooth? These questions still need answers…
Tags: Chrome, Chrome OS, eWeek, Google, News