Comments on: Thoughts on ChromeOS http://nigelwarren.com/blog/2009/11/thoughts-on-chromeos/ Thu, 04 Feb 2010 19:47:37 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.1 hourly 1 By: Nigel http://nigelwarren.com/blog/2009/11/thoughts-on-chromeos/comment-page-1/#comment-803 Nigel Mon, 23 Nov 2009 22:47:32 +0000 http://nigelwarren.com/?p=896#comment-803 I think you're right about internet connectivity in and around tech company campuses leading to an overly optimistic view of everyone else always being online. Someone made a comment recently that the one positive side effect of AT&T's terrible network is that it is forcing the same people that are accustomed to being online anytime to deal with and design for offline access. AT&T's network is worst in places that traditionally have the highest rates of connectivity because the utilisation is so high they are being overloaded. I think you’re right about internet connectivity in and around tech company campuses leading to an overly optimistic view of everyone else always being online.

Someone made a comment recently that the one positive side effect of AT&T’s terrible network is that it is forcing the same people that are accustomed to being online anytime to deal with and design for offline access. AT&T’s network is worst in places that traditionally have the highest rates of connectivity because the utilisation is so high they are being overloaded.

]]> By: Jolin Warren http://nigelwarren.com/blog/2009/11/thoughts-on-chromeos/comment-page-1/#comment-802 Jolin Warren Sat, 21 Nov 2009 11:21:23 +0000 http://nigelwarren.com/?p=896#comment-802 Very insightful post, and the offline storage is one that I though would be a real problem when watching the demo video. It's not the first time I've thought that a product was designed under the assumption that internet connectivity throughout the country and the rest of the world is as pervasive as it is on the Google/Apple/Microsoft campuses. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ANMrzw7JFzA Also, I think your point about the infrastructure not being there is spot on. Not only is personal storage space an issue (which is very true), but there aren't that many high quality web apps out there (and one's that support even some offline storage are even rarer). The demo was typical in that it used a series of plausible but contrived examples so it looks like everything will work well. I think you're right that this is the vision of how things could work in 5-10 years time. Finally, your point about the UI not being even close to ambitious enough is exactly right. The main thing that I was thinking when watching the demo is how badly the OS will scale as people want to do multiple things. Again, the contrived demo made it look good, but off the top of my head, I can imagine several of my everyday use cases that would be awful on the Chrome OS UI. They should really re-think the whole idea about how people can interact on a small (but bigger-than-phone) screen. After seeing the demo, I came away thinking, "Chrome OS will be the ultimate web browser." But as the OS of a small, portable computer? I think that very quickly the UI will be overwhelmed. Very insightful post, and the offline storage is one that I though would be a real problem when watching the demo video. It’s not the first time I’ve thought that a product was designed under the assumption that internet connectivity throughout the country and the rest of the world is as pervasive as it is on the Google/Apple/Microsoft campuses.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ANMrzw7JFzA

Also, I think your point about the infrastructure not being there is spot on. Not only is personal storage space an issue (which is very true), but there aren’t that many high quality web apps out there (and one’s that support even some offline storage are even rarer). The demo was typical in that it used a series of plausible but contrived examples so it looks like everything will work well. I think you’re right that this is the vision of how things could work in 5-10 years time.
Finally, your point about the UI not being even close to ambitious enough is exactly right. The main thing that I was thinking when watching the demo is how badly the OS will scale as people want to do multiple things. Again, the contrived demo made it look good, but off the top of my head, I can imagine several of my everyday use cases that would be awful on the Chrome OS UI. They should really re-think the whole idea about how people can interact on a small (but bigger-than-phone) screen. After seeing the demo, I came away thinking, “Chrome OS will be the ultimate web browser.” But as the OS of a small, portable computer? I think that very quickly the UI will be overwhelmed.

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