If the history of the PC industry teaches us anything, it is that the best technology does not always win. The annals of computing are filled with superior products that promised paradigmatic change only to fizzle in the marketplace, such as the Xerox Star, Apple Lisa, and NeXT computer, to name a few.
Google is hoping a more promising fate awaits the Chromebook, a new line of Linux-based lightweight laptops to be offered, starting June 15, by Samsung and Acer. With no hard drive or local file system, these low-cost machines are geared for a single purpose: running the Chrome browser.
By introducing such a radically simplified device, Google is hoping to coax users away from the familiar world of desktop operating systems and toward a more Web-centric model of computing.
The idea is hardly a new one. Larry Ellison first introduced the concept of a network computer in 1996. Since then, a number of manufacturers—including IBM, Sun Microsystems, and Hewlett-Packard—have launched thin clients, so far with little success.
Google is betting things will be different this time, thanks to a confluence of promising trends: the near-ubiquity of network connectivity; the low cost of cloud storage; and, perhaps most importantly, the apparent willingness of millions of PC users to do most of their computing via a Web browser.
By abandoning the conventions of the desktop operating system, however, Google is placing a heavy conceptual burden on the Web browser interface. "They are trying to jam a lot of operating system elements into the browser," says Gartner analyst Ken Dulaney, who worries that many users may find the transition jarring. "The browser was never meant to be a file system."
In lieu of local storage, Chromebook will force users to manage all of their data through Web-based products and services, although certain apps—including Google Apps and, crucially, Angry Birds—will be able to run offline in a native client environment with restricted access to the host.
Although Chromebooks won’t satisfy hardcore gamers or other users of processor-intensive software, Google will offer a solution for running many popular desktop applications in partnership with virtualization vendor Citrix, allowing users to run remotely hosted desktop apps within their browsers.
While the use of caching and local data storage may help boost performance, those gains will likely come at a cost. "When picking where code and data live, there is a continuum between the cloud and the local machine," says programmer Greg Linden. "Network latency, availability, and performance are problems if homed in the cloud, and maintenance and potential data loss are problems when storing data locally."
(Linden also writes for the BLOG@CACM, and shared his ideas about Chromebooks in the post, "Who Needs a Chromebook?")
In principle, Google’s "walled garden" approach should offer significant advantages in terms of software maintenance and security: minimizing the need for software updates, while preventing malicious code from installing on the system.
Linden remains skeptical of Google’s security claims, however, pointing to the recent data losses at Sony as a prime example of how cloud data can be hacked and accessed. "The cloud is a useful tool," he says, "but it is not a panacea."
Alex Wright is a writer and information architect based in Brooklyn, NY.
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