Google Chrome Operating System
Yesterday Google showed off their operating system Google Chrome OS. I have watched the demonstrations and I just got a warm fuzzy feeling for the good old days.In the beginning computers were used for very specialised functions- the very first electronic computer was used for cracking encrypted German High Command communications during the Second World War and helping the Allies win.
Some of the first computers used by both government and academia were actually slower than humans at doing sums but had two advantages: accuracy and the ability to work 24 hours a day, seven days a week long before the phrase (or is it an equation?) 24/7 was coined.
The first networked computer I used was a VAX at the Polytechnic of Wales. I typed on a green screen (I'm dong that now by the way as I create all my documents using WriteRoom). The screen and keyboard that I sat in front of was called a 'dumb terminal' at the time. Although it felt like I was sat at a computer and working that wasn't strictly true on two counts.
Firstly, most of the time I wasn't actually working but chatting with friends dotted around campus using an early form of Instant Messaging. And secondly I wasn't in constant communication with the 'computer' that was out of sight in a secure computer room somewhere. The computer gave me the impression that I had its full attention but in reality it was mine for only a fraction of a second before looking after someone else, a few hundred others and then coming back to me.
At peak times when the computer labs were full across campus the VAX would slow right down. It could take 15 minutes to log in and when you hit a key on your keyboard it would take a few seconds before it appeared on the screen. It is hard to think that my iPhone is probably more powerful than the VAX machine I used in 1988.
Google's Chrome Operating System is not so different from that old VAX machine. If you get a computer installed with Chrome OS you will be using, in effect, a 'slightly clever terminal' to connect to a computer that does all the heavy lifting. The difference is that some of your files will be stored on your computer and it will do some of the processing - and you will have colour, sound and graphics. You'll also be without the hassle of installing and upgrading software and as Google pointed out, if you loose or upgrade your computer you don't have to install anything as all your documents are stored on Google's servers. And it will be possible to edit your documents even when you don't have an internet connection and then sync them again when you do.
Google won't be making their applications and storage space available for free for ever. At some point in time they are going to start charging. I also wonder how long down the line it will be before they start using their own formats so documents created on Google will only work with Google - unlike now where you can download your documents in many different formats.
For some the ability to sit down at any internet connected computer, anywhere in the world and access your own information in exactly the same way is such a pull that paying the price Google eventually will charge will be justified. Being able to share and collaborate with others using nothing more than a web browsers is also a fantastic selling point. But I still have my doubts that can be illustrated in a simple question:
If you were running a large scale criminal enterprise that spanned the continents, would you plan and share those plans using the Google Platform?
I, for one, wouldn't as I would have no idea to whom my documents, spreadsheets and presentations were available to. Obviously no criminal enterprise would be silly enough to call a spread sheet "Heroin Yields and Supply Chain Forecast 2010" along with a lovely presentation and speakers notes details how 60 tons of Heroin was going to be smuggled, cut and sold through out London. But governments around the world have employed their domestic and foreign secret service agents to gather trade secrets. Editing a document on the Google platform using the free WiFi at Charles De Gaul airport? Contains company secrets for a product that has taken years to bring anywhere near the market? I would lay a bet that the French were snaffling all your data.
Personally I don't upload anything to Google Documents that I wouldn't be happy to write on post card and send to someone. What about you?