Okay, I’ll admit that title is a bit of hyperbole, but no more so than a recent article from eWeek. In an article published December 20, 2010, Don Reisinger listed his 10 reasons “Google Chrome OS Faces Serious Risk of Failure”.1 I think he’s missed the point, and here’s why:
Chrome OSs capability is perfectly adequate for the majority of computer users. Reisinger admits users of Chrome OS will be able to surf the web, use e-mail and create and edit documents. He correctly points out that users will have a hard time encoding HD video, but how many users do that routinely?
A sub-$300 laptop that allows users to surf the web, use e-mail and manage their documents is exactly what most home users need, whether they know it or not. Most computers are seriously over-powered and under-utilized. Your grandmother doesn’t need dual Xeon cores or 8 GB of RAM. She also doesn’t need the frustration of dealing with malware, viruses, and complicated setup. A laptop she can turn on to get near instant access to the web for not much money makes perfect sense for her.
Chrome OS for Education
Another group for whom Chrome OS is a great idea- students. Low-cost laptops would allow children to have laptops as tools in the classroom, take notes, do home work online, and when they get home, they’re reconnected to their work as soon as they get online. Even college students should find a Chrome OS laptop to be more than adequate.
Chrome in the Workplace
Businesses need to find savings to survive and prosper. Right-sizing and leaning are the buzzwords of the day. Chrome OS is a perfect fit for a lot of enterprise solutions.
The cost of an average laptop, Windows 7 OS, and typical office suite will run around $1,260.002. Again, assuming a sub-$300 pricepoint, Chrome OS provides all the basics at a savings just short of a thousand dollars per user, more, if those users would otherwise use Adobe Acrobat to create pdfs.
No Local Disk to Access: Good or Bad?
Fantastic, I say. Putting storage into the cloud instead of on the local machine does several things for us:
An Indestructible OS
If Chrome OS ships burned into read-only chips much like firmware, you have an OS that can’t be altered by malicious means or user mistakes. As previously mentioned, worries about malware, viruses and the like go away entirely. This isn’t just a savings of psychological resources, it saves real money when you factor in the costs of anti-virus, anti-malware, data recovery and the man-hours spent to restore a compromised system.
The eWeek article I mentioned listed as one of its arguments “Beating Windows is a tall order”. That may be an assessment, but it’s not an argument. The same was said of Internet Explorer in arguments against Firefox or the Chrome browser.
I don’t expect Chrome OS to completely supplant the locally installed OS model anytime soon, nor do I expect it to dominate the market, but the opportunity is there, and I think its growth will surprise many doubters. When that happens, remember- I told you so.
1. http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Mobile-and-Wireless/Google-Chrome-OS-Faces-Serious-Risk-of-Failure-10-Reasons-Why-363244/
2. Dell Latitude 2610, 2 GB RAM, 250 GB hard drive, Windows 7 Professional, Windows Office Home and Business 2010, TrendMicro Titanium Antivirus+
Chrome OSs capability is perfectly adequate for the majority of computer users. Reisinger admits users of Chrome OS will be able to surf the web, use e-mail and create and edit documents. He correctly points out that users will have a hard time encoding HD video, but how many users do that routinely?
A sub-$300 laptop that allows users to surf the web, use e-mail and manage their documents is exactly what most home users need, whether they know it or not. Most computers are seriously over-powered and under-utilized. Your grandmother doesn’t need dual Xeon cores or 8 GB of RAM. She also doesn’t need the frustration of dealing with malware, viruses, and complicated setup. A laptop she can turn on to get near instant access to the web for not much money makes perfect sense for her.
Chrome OS for Education
Another group for whom Chrome OS is a great idea- students. Low-cost laptops would allow children to have laptops as tools in the classroom, take notes, do home work online, and when they get home, they’re reconnected to their work as soon as they get online. Even college students should find a Chrome OS laptop to be more than adequate.
Chrome in the Workplace
Businesses need to find savings to survive and prosper. Right-sizing and leaning are the buzzwords of the day. Chrome OS is a perfect fit for a lot of enterprise solutions.
The cost of an average laptop, Windows 7 OS, and typical office suite will run around $1,260.002. Again, assuming a sub-$300 pricepoint, Chrome OS provides all the basics at a savings just short of a thousand dollars per user, more, if those users would otherwise use Adobe Acrobat to create pdfs.
No Local Disk to Access: Good or Bad?
Fantastic, I say. Putting storage into the cloud instead of on the local machine does several things for us:
1. It keeps the local machine safe. If malware can’t save their nasty little scriptlets to the local machine, they can’t persist. Viruses become a non-issue. Shut off a Chrome OS laptop and you’re back to pristine condition.
2. It keeps data safe. Cloud storage skeptics worry about data continuity, but I don’t think the likes of Google (or Microsoft or Amazon for that matter) are going away any time soon.
3. It keeps data secure. A lost or stolen laptop running Chrome OS doesn’t have sensitive information on its drives. It’s merely a lost appliance, and can be replaced without worrying about data falling into the wrong hands.
An Indestructible OS
If Chrome OS ships burned into read-only chips much like firmware, you have an OS that can’t be altered by malicious means or user mistakes. As previously mentioned, worries about malware, viruses and the like go away entirely. This isn’t just a savings of psychological resources, it saves real money when you factor in the costs of anti-virus, anti-malware, data recovery and the man-hours spent to restore a compromised system.
The eWeek article I mentioned listed as one of its arguments “Beating Windows is a tall order”. That may be an assessment, but it’s not an argument. The same was said of Internet Explorer in arguments against Firefox or the Chrome browser.
I don’t expect Chrome OS to completely supplant the locally installed OS model anytime soon, nor do I expect it to dominate the market, but the opportunity is there, and I think its growth will surprise many doubters. When that happens, remember- I told you so.
1. http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Mobile-and-Wireless/Google-Chrome-OS-Faces-Serious-Risk-of-Failure-10-Reasons-Why-363244/
2. Dell Latitude 2610, 2 GB RAM, 250 GB hard drive, Windows 7 Professional, Windows Office Home and Business 2010, TrendMicro Titanium Antivirus+
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