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gentrone wrote on 2010-12-08 09:10
Google 24/7
Searching for answers
Posted by Seth Weintraub
December 7, 2010 11:08 PM
ChromeOS is weaponized for business with Citrix, and encrypted storage.
Last week, Google (GOOG) Engineer Linus Upson made a stir when he said that ChromeOS computers could replace 60% of corporate Windows desktops out there at launch. The assertion at the time may have sounded pretty outlandish. But Google has a few secret weapons at its disposal.
Today, Citrix (CTSX) got on board with Google's ChromeOS. When Notebooks running ChomeOS launch in the middle of next year, Citrix Receiverâ„¢ will be available as a Web App in the Chrome Web Store for free. Citrix is used by 230,000 businesses to run virtualized Windows OS applications on devices including iOS and Mac devices from Apple, Windows, Linux.
Microsoft (MSFT) Windows is the lion's share of Citrix clients and will be the majority of installations targeted by Google. It is interesting that Citrix never created its own thin clients running on a thin version of Android. Citrix thin clients like those made by Wyse may also be impacted by ChromeOS laptops.
In a statement, Sundar Pichai, Vice President of Product Management for Google said, "The web has become an incredibly powerful platform for innovation, allowing users to do much more online than ever before. We're happy to work with Citrix to give Chrome notebook business users a way to enjoy all the benefits of the web, while still having the flexibility to access important business applications in their work environments."
Google also touted ChromeOS's encrypted local storage as a boon for enterprises worried about the security of a lost laptop. Most Windows laptops can be compromised if physical access to the machine is granted.
Google's Cloud print may also make it easier for businesses to set up and use printers.
All in all a pretty impressive offer, if Chrome can do what Google says it can. If I am an enterprise CIO, I'm signing up for a demo.
:2thumb: You know this means?! Best news ever. EVER:
Oh God, I'm such a Google fan.
TL;DR:
[video=youtube;Xjb5kFLOz_Q]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xjb5kFLOz_Q&NR=1[/video]
Fast forward 24:45
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BobYoMeowMeow wrote on 2010-12-08 09:13
but can it run nexon games?
or any other worthy PC games
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gentrone wrote on 2010-12-08 09:18
I don't think you can. haha
Well that's a small price to pay for such an awesome software.
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Phunkie wrote on 2010-12-08 09:38
Educate me. What's so good about Citrix?
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gentrone wrote on 2010-12-08 10:05
Oh just watch that vid. Fast forward to min 24:45 and you'll see...!!
Well, essentially ChromeOS was built to be just a browser that runs apps (much like in Ipads) and that would be pretty much what you need from a computer considering all we do is basically browsing the web. We have Google docs and Cloud Print now for creating documents, spreadsheets, etc -with no need of installing a software in your hard drive-, it's all about cloud computing hehe (that's what makes it awesome). Such a light weight software makes ChromeOS boot really fast and practically guarantees a virus free environment with no blue screens lol. Google is changing the web as we know it for the better, it's so mind-blowing.
Anyways, this leaves room for questions like "What happens if I want the full power of Excel or Corel Draw? A web App just won't cut, right?". That's why the Citrix announcement is so exciting, it lets you "virtualize" those programs in your web browser, granting you the ability to run Excel with full capabilities in a tab. Isn't that awesome? And that's the beginning of course... who knows what else is coming.
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Taycat wrote on 2010-12-08 16:23
My chrome hates my computer.
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Athde wrote on 2010-12-08 16:47
My chrome search doesnt work for me >.>
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Teaberry wrote on 2010-12-08 17:07
Sounds great for businesses, but doesn't sound like it's going to radically change the way home users use their computers. Unfortunately for Microsoft, most of their profits come from businesses.
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Tokiko wrote on 2010-12-08 17:16
Isn't ChromeOS a Tablet PC OS like iOS for iPad?
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Cucurbita wrote on 2010-12-08 17:34
If they can create a tag system for files, I'm in.
I'm so sick of looking through multiple folders to find a file. I name and organize my files properly, but sometimes a file just belongs in multiple folders due to the category, and I'm not going to make copies. If we could make tags it would be so much easier.
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gentrone wrote on 2010-12-08 17:47
I SO agree with you. Tags>Folders, it's smarter.
Well, Win7 has Libraries which is basically tags disguised as folders so users don't freak out.
Btw, I don't see why people complain about them.
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Cucurbita wrote on 2010-12-08 17:58
Quote from gentrone;241041:
Well, Win7 has Libraries which is basically tags disguised as folders so users don't freak out.
Btw, I don't see why people complain about them.
WHAT
*looks at library*
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TA wrote on 2010-12-08 18:15
I'm disinterested. It seems very useless for end home users, especially gamers.
It does seem useful for businesses with all of the cloud technology it has, and it being easier to setup, maintain and whatnot. But, I don't see normal people using this at home for some time.
From what I can tell, it's just the web. It doesn't really do the other things we'd probably want it to do.
Also, you have to question the hard drive space. I personally have TB's of anime, movies, music, pictures, etc... Are they really going to cloud that to every single PC? Most won't even remotely be capable of so much data. But if you ask me, it doesn't even seem like they're capable of storing data like this. It just seems like a browser and temporary computing. It was like they never really showed any real computing... their entire OS is basically a web browser with some web apps. The one thing they did show that ran real programs, didn't actually run on the actual computer... it ran from a data center and it was virtualized. Good luck running games like that... or even memory intense stuff like Photoshop, 3ds Max, etc. And you have to think, for buisnesses... you aren't going to be able to run 250,000 copies of Photoshop just from a datacenter... you can't virtualize that many instances of CPU/RAM intense programs like that... you need the hardware support from the actual PC's.
Cloud technology is good... and I do think that's the direction we're moving. But, I think they're going about implementing it wrong... they're way too focused on their browser. Most of the stuff they're talking about on there can already be done with a program called Dropbox and it's nowhere near as popular as the hype these guys are touting make it sound like it's going to be. It's kinda nice, but for single computer private home users that play games and the like... not very useful.
I also worry about security. I don't want all of my data constantly streaming across the internet, encrypted or not. We've already seen how badly Google performs in its protection against Chinese hackers. If they could steal Google's source code, hack into hundreds of thousands of e-mails and other things already.... I really doubt their ability to protect all their users, especially when they're making it all online and through them.
Their mobile business model or whatever it was sounds really **** too. $9.99 for a single day..? Good joke.
They also treat us like idiots, taking off caps lock and function keys. Who do they think they are? Good luck playing games or using advanced programs and shortcut hotkeys without those. No copy/paste, no ctrl+t (new tab), no hotkeys used in Photoshop or other applications... no ctrl+b, ctrl+i, ctrl+u for word processing and forums... It's just garbage. That will cut down heavily on productivity and ease of use.
Google also really needs to start getting native English speakers to do their presentations and not people with heavy Indian accents. It's just a bit offputting and makes them look bad.
Anywho... that's all I have to say about it.
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gentrone wrote on 2010-12-08 19:03
Well of course, gamers won't enjoy any of this but let's just say productivity is more important than playing games on-line. I don't think all we do is play Mabi or Vindictus, we gotta go to college or work and a tablet is lighter and easier to carry than a notebook. You don't really need a gaming computer for your everyday work, do you? Normally, people have two computers, one for heavy work and another one for the go which does simple tasks. But what if it could more with less resources? I don't think Google intends to replace traditional OS's and the way they work, they are just taking a different approach.
Think about it, we spend most of our time on the web because it's grown stronger over the years. We have powerful web apps everywhere that can easily replace a desktop software. On top of that, cloud computing further reduces dependence on the hard drive and can even be more reliable. A virus can easily wipe your entire data if you don't take the right measures and it's a nuisance to try to access that photo or video you really wanted to show to a friend away from home. You could access your information from anywhere, anytime and it would load instantly (given a fast internet connection and Google is working on that already with Fiber Communities, so it's gonna get really big).
For pictures and movies you have Picasa (even Facebook) and YouTube, which are both Google services. Music takes a lot of space but can be stored in a smaller device which you can easily plug to your computer for streaming. Also, internet radios like Pandora are rapidly replacing the traditional concept of 'download and listen'. Who needs to download anything anymore when you can just store it in the cloud? Last.fm scrobbles your music so it's like a 'virtual' music library. Pandora effectively saves and plays only music you like. You have Netflix for movies and Hulu for TV. Google has launched Google TV as well, sooo.
Photoshop already has a web app which is rather simple but it certainly is not the only one you can get (and it will definitely improve). There are several choices like Aviary which Google bought about a year ago. I found the Citrix announcement quite mind-blowing, did you see how fast that thing was?
I personally wait for ChromeOS with expectation. Evidently, this is just the beginning of a new world in technology, I can imagine ten years from now people saying 'and that is how it looked back then' like when people compare Win 1.0 to Win7. Btw, you should try SugarSync for backing up your files, DropBox is good for sharing but not so much for batch uploading.
Security is an issue indeed and it worries me as well, but hey, even an encrypted Wii-Fii connections could be risky. Granted, maybe they're just glorifying a bookmark calling it an app, but web pages are actual stand-alone applications running in your browser. Maybe they're rushing things a bit but that's the only way they can improve.
Also, the fact that they choose the Indian guy (who is the vicepresident of something) denotes a big step towards integration and, at least for me, represents exactly what Google is right now: the web, no nations or frontiers. Maybe he has to work on his accent a little bit, but that's that.
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Kueh wrote on 2010-12-08 19:26
Sounds cool bro, but I still want to play games.