Read Google’s original blog post about it.
That’s right, my conspiracy theory about Google (orignally posted a good month back) has come true, and it’s going to be out there around late 2010.
Brief summary: Google is making an operating system (Linux-based too) with help from the open-source community that focuses on getting the user online and into a browser as quick as possible. The browser is now the ultimate tool on the system. It is currently mainly meant for stuff like netbooks (note this is a separate project from Google Android) but will apparently also be able to provide a good experience for any desktop setup.
Since it’s too late to grimace at Google during their drawing board sessions, I like to ask myself what would an OS be in a time when many of our activites are web-centric.
Most of the main problems I outlined for Google in my conspiracy theory was how they could convice people to change their workflows. Apparently Google has decided to give them an operating system. This interface can easily be optimised to make it feel natural to shift their workflow completely into what they can do in a browser, some tabs and the new shabang HTML 5 will come with.
I took a look at Moblin, another netbook Linux-based OS – one thing instantly popped through my head: this doesn’t look like any window manager, it looks like a website or single application. Something you might expect similar to MythTV. (If I am wrong please correct me).
The first decision I would make on designing a UI for Google’s purposes is not to have any start menu. Something similar to Apple’s dock with modifications (also with an auto-hide) would be great for optimising screen real estate. I would also integrate what I now see as KDE Plasmoids as part of the entire interface (as in within applications itself too instead of only the desktop shell). I would also ask myself what applications could be and should be replaced by web applications. Such examples are email, document editing, chatting, and social networking. What could not and should not be are graphics and multimedia editors, games, and system management tools. It seems very much now that we can split our activities into 2: if you want to make technology, do it offline. If you want to use technology, do it online.
Personally, I can easily now see how easily I can adapt my workflow to this internet-centric pattern.
What about you? What do you expect from Google’s OS?
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I agree with your worries regarding Google in general and regarding Chrome OS, but reading about it made me realise another stupiditiy:
Why on earth would anyone want to use a netbook to put their data in a cloud?! The practicality of Google Docs and other Google apps is/was that people who have no mobile device or have to switch between many computers (e.g. in cybercafés).
There are some cases when having data in a cloud makes sense if it’s made right (e.g. backups if they’re secure, colaboration, social networking), but everyday usage on a mobile device is most definetly not it.
P.S. Have you read http://whilos.blogsite.org/?p=139 on the same topic?
[...] you read my initial post about Google Chrome (the OS, not the Brow- wait a minute, is there even a clear distinction anymore?) you would have [...]
Yes, I have read that blog post too
Thanks for the link. Hopefully the article I wrote today should shed more light on this issue.