Google has been selling search appliances for awhile: http://www.google.com/enterprise/mini/ http://www.google.com/enterprise/gsa/ I can see maybe a little green box sold at WalMart with the Google logo on it. My guess would be Google Linux inside but as easy enough for a kindergartener to set up at home. Most of the apps and storage will be online.
As a person that uses different *nix flavors at work (bsd , Irix , solaris , MVS and some Linux distros including ubuntumdepends on what server and how old it is) I can honestly tell you that this isn't something you want on your PC , in terms of usability . It's the early 90's at best , compared to WinXP . I will not be installing Vista for as long as I can since I am happy with the XP I have at home though . A user should not know what a port is , what a firewall does , and sure as hell not understand what are drivers . PC = Microwave . I don't fully understand how a microwave works(in terms of physics) , but I am warming up a pizza . I want this kind of PC for my parents . Linux is a decade behind in terms of usability (even though most driver issues are not the fault of the developers , but nobody cares about excuses).
I wouldn't be surprised if they developed (or are already developing) their own Google version of Linux.
No, but, a friend of mine was using it, and I think you are right - there were several annoying(!) problems..I'm starting to remember now... Yes, definitely! I couldn't agree more. Just like most of the internet users shouldn't care what HTML or say..PHP is. They just want an easy and functioning website.
If google did release a new OS, all Unix/Linux apps would need to be ported across so developers can in effect make or break it's success. When PC users right now can install Linux for free, I can't see how google would be able to improve on that. Plus most PC sales in the UK include Windows or Linux pre-installed, I think it will take Google years to grab even a small portion of the market.
How will they make money without ads? Its really easy to answer... Incorporate many features in the OS that launch a browser to googles site and then there are the ads This would increase peopls use of example, google maps, google videos, whatever else... instead of going to mapquest say a user will click start and then click on maps and go to googles site auto :x
It is possible but Microsoft Windows will still be on top unless Google does something very unique that something Microsoft didn't think of.
May be it is like this. Search Engine --> Email --> Portal ---> Notebook ---> Spreadsheet ---> Document ---> Presentation ---> ??? ----> ??? -----> ???? at last OS. An OS that can be booted online. Means u need a PC and a Net connection.. that;s all . OS, and all other softwares are online and can be used for free.
Yeah and monkeys might fly out my butt!! Without an OS you won't be able to boot your pc. how will you open a net connection if you don't have the right drivers installed for the adsl/modem you are trying to use? How can you install drivers without an OS controlling your disk drives? That is afterall, why you need an OS. All other softwares online?? So everyone needs an internet connection even if they just want to write a text file on their pc? In MHO excel is the only decent piece of software microsoft have ever created, so I'll give you that.
You remember some years ago Bill Gates said. “640K ought to be enough for anybody.†Now what is the situation... Like that all these can change over the time.. One day you can be operate a PC without the things u mentioned.,.,
It was an Idea in the mid 90's (backed by Oracle If I am not mistaken0 , the NC (network computer) . Everyone hated the idea , and it went away . Thank agod .
Seriously dude, you have no idea what you are talking about. 'Those things' as you so elegantly put it, are system components integral to every system in use and need an OS to function. no matter what apps become available to use via http (and something like Photoshop being so hardware hungry would never work over the web, nevermind http aka a joke), you are always going to need an OS on the client, to manage local memory, disk swapping and oh thats right, in your future world these will all be sitting on a google system, and we'll be using dumb terminals. yeah right, and monkeys will fly out of my butt!!
After I saw this thread I got thinking about the Google OS thing and tried to glue a few ideas together to see if I could come up with a plausible theory. You can read my posts about the new Goog Os here.
They already have one - whether it is in finishing stages, completed or just started I am not sure. What I heard is they don't plan to release it that soon however. However I do know for a fact they started one. It will be great when it comes out.