So I read a great post the other day about the commodification of the client operating system. I surprisingly agree with the author. I think that's the way we're headed.
In Amazon style, Amazon would like us to get our commodities from Amazon. Several months ago Amazon released Amazon Workspaces.
Amazon WorkSpaces is a fully managed desktop computing service in the cloud. Amazon WorkSpaces allows customers to easily provision cloud-based desktops that allow end-users to access the documents, applications and resources they need with the device of their choice, including laptops, iPad, Kindle Fire, or Android tablets. With a few clicks in the AWS Management Console, customers can provision a high-quality desktop experience for any number of users at a cost that is highly competitive with traditional desktops and half the cost of most virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) solutions.
Pretty cool really. Cloud-based desktops were really unheard of before Amazon's release of Workspaces. Virtual desktops? Sure and they're terrible. Hosted desktops? Sure, and they're even worse. True cloud-based desktops before Amazon Workspaces? Nope.
With Workspaces a small business could have always up to date, always secure Windows computers at their beckon call. The device being used by the end user can be a system like Chrome OS which you can't really break. Starting Chrome OS up from scratch takes a few minutes at most.
Around the world today millions of hours will be spent messing with operating systems. Large corporations have entire teams dedicated to desktop support. Our idea of the operating system will soon be a distant memory, no more special or important than the black pen that runs out of ink, quickly interchanged with another without a second thought.
Simple is the opposite of complex and as famed technologist Ray Ozzie notes in his Dawn of a New Day memo, complexity is not cool.
Complexity kills. Complexity sucks the life out of users, developers and IT. Complexity makes products difficult to plan, build, test and use. Complexity introduces security challenges. Complexity causes administrator frustration.
As someone who often plays the roll of administrator, or managing others playing this roll, I have a particular appreciation for the awesomeness that is simplicity. Ray Ozzie feels the same way as Leonardo da Vinci did some 500 years ago as he stated, “Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.” Some things never change.
I've been testing Google Chrome OS now for about 2 months. Chrome OS is a new Linux-based operating system based on the open source Chromium project. The goal of Chrome OS is to deliver the web to the user as fast and easily as possible.
Anyone who has spent anytime in technology knows, without question, that a vast majority of people are not "computer people", never will be and could care less how things work - just as long as they do.
There are many opinions regarding Chrome OS but one fact is clear. Chrome OS is the world's simplest operating system. If you can browse on the Chrome browser, you're already a Chrome OS power user. For a Chrome browser user, any Chrome OS device is ready to go as "their device" in about 10 seconds. Anyone installed a new version of Office lately? How about upgrade a Vista device to Windows 7? How long did that take? An hour? Two, four, five, overnight? That's not even to make it "your device", that's just to make it capable of becoming your device.
In my work with Umzuzu I have access to multiple Chrome OS devices so I get to enjoy the potential enabled by the simplicity of Chrome OS first hand.
Writing this post actually provided a perfect example. I was working on a Chrome OS device from the comfort of my couch. The devices' batteries last for about a day's worth of work so I don't think of plugging them in that often. The particular device I was using prompted me with a low battery warning. "Darn," I thought, "I'm super comfortable and really don't feel like being tethered right now." ... because I would no longer be laying down. Then I noticed the other Chrome OS device within arms reach. Nice! This is a brand new device.
Turn it on, prompted with login, enter Google username and password, done. Not even 10 seconds. What did I get?
My extensions ... stuff like Pandora, Bit.ly, Blogger, Picnik, Chrome to Phone, Hootsuite, Google Voice, Google Translate
My bookmarks ... you can use your imagination here.
My Apps ... Gmail, Google Apps, Salesforce.com, Box.net, Squarespace, Freshbooks, Blogger, Google Voice, Instant Messaging for 2 work accounts and 1 personal account, 5 calendars - work and personal, Picnik, Linkedin, Facebook, Hootsuite ... you know, the Internet.
I have more and can do more on this brand new Chrome OS device in 10 seconds than most people even realize is possible or exists. What does this mean? This means Windows 7 is bloated. It's a waste of money and more importantly a waste of time, especially at scale. A retail copy of Office can cost almost $300 ... it is possible when Chrome OS devices hit the market some could cost less than Office.
Cloud computing is not a TV commercial. The cloud is the complete commodification of the client operating system. The browser is already the most used and useful application on a computer. The browser serves the Internet, in the Internet we find the Cloud, the Cloud is powered by millions of computers ... we can choose to use the power of 1 computer or we can choose to use the power of thousands of computers.
Larry Page, Google's CEO, is the son of a late computer scientist and computer science professor at Michigan State. Google's mission is to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful. The point of Chrome OS is not to enable the potential of 1 computer - it is to enable the potential of thousands of computers. If you think Google is not going to follow through on Chrome OS, you're nuts.
As my friend Leo says, "Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication." I'll bet Larry Page knows Leo too.
"Every computer has a browser" ... yes, and every human has a heart but if 70% of everything else is bloat you're hardly running at optimal performance. Chrome OS is fit and it stays fit - starting every time from a clean version, called Verified Boot.
5 years ago we didn't have iPhone, 3 years ago we didn't have Android, 1 year ago we didn't have iPad ... the pace of innovation and change in technology is accelerating. The thought that Apple would one day be worth more than Microsoft once seemed crazy. Today's its worth $100,000,000,000 more. Google will pass Microsoft by the middle of this year and IBM will pass them by the end of the year.
NOWHERE in technology is more stale than the desktop. They range from the rare "sweet Mac" to the more common "oh my god, you work on this everyday? I'd f'ing kill myself. You know computers aren't supposed to work like this, right?" We will see massive changes here in the next 5 years. Chrome OS will catch Windows in the next 5 years. Mac sales will continue to soar at triple digit paces, 300%+ in the enterprise, as well and will play a much more significant role in the Enterprise.
The Internet is the most disruptive innovation in human history. To think it will continue to influence every aspect of society and business and yet our soon to be secondary point of access will keep its form of the pre-Internet era is insane. Today the Web rules.
Apparently the power is out for a large area in North Kansas City. Good thing I just moved into an office with a bigger window and it's sunny. With the natural light I wouldn't even have noticed the outage had it not been for my Internet connection. "What if the power goes out" is a common refrain from cloud computing critics.
Personally, for the last 10 years or so of my career I've always been dependent on power to work. If the network was down, we were down. This is the first extended power outage I can remember since Kansas City had a huge ice storm probably 8 years ago or so.
Something was different today though. I actually hadn't realized the power went out and thought they were just messing with the wireless connection for the office. I could have gone and asked what they were working on but I really didn't care and I was in the middle of something. I reached over to my Nexus One and turned on the hotspot - I have a button on my home screen. One tap of my finger and I was up and running again - Pandora didn't even miss a beat.
My point is that "a lack of an Internet connection" is becoming less and less of an issue. What if I'm in a plane? Read a book? Write down some thoughts? OK, you can't possibly take advantage of the opportunity to work on something else besides your computer. Offline access varies by application but I'm betting airplanes will all have WiFi in the next couple of years regardless. We're also seeing devices like Google's Cr-48 which has wireless built into the device.
Internet? No problem. Battery life? That's another issue ... I noticed the power was out as I noticed my aging MacBook Pro's battery was running low.
I received a nice surprise this morning while I was preparing for a conference call with a client. UPS stopped by the house and dropped off a package. I'm constantly buying books from Amazon but this box was too big to be a book. A part or some gear for mountain biking? I didn't remember ordering anything. I jokingly thought, "Google probably sent me a ChromeOS notebook" but dismissed the thought as overly optimistic. The box did have some weight to it so I knew it had to be something interesting. I opened the box and sure enough, there it was, the Cr-48.
The device runs Google ChromeOS, a Linux-based operating system designed to deliver the Internet as fast as possible - intended to be as pure a web experience as possible. If you've used the Chrome browser on a PC, Mac or other Linux device then you're already very, very familiar with ChromeOS. Cr-48 is a reference to the periodic table, specifically to the element Chromium. I am a particular fan of this element as it also plays a primary role in my body, serving as one of my largest joints. Chromium allows me to move around the virtual and physical world.
There are hundreds of posts on the specifics of the device so I won't go into those details, which you can also review on Google's official site, very extensively. I'm not sure they're particularly important as this specific device likely won't hit the market in its current form. The Cr-48 is very similar in size to a 13" MacBook without the polish of the black glass, back-lit keyboard or aluminum. Google has also made some changes to the keyboard to optimize it for web-based applications which makes sense since there are no desktop applications. It has a rubberized and very sturdy feel.
It starts up in about 10 seconds and prompts you with a login screen. From my experience you can use your personal Google Account or a Google Apps account that has been transitioned to the new infrastructure. On start up I went with my Google Account. Logged in, set my language and that was pretty much it, 2 minutes maybe. I have been using the Chrome browser on a MacBook Pro for much of the year and I have sync enabled so ChromeOS looked almost exactly like Chrome on my Mac. I went to the Chrome Web Store and grabbed Pandora, Google Voice, Google Translate and Chrome to Phone, Picnik, and HootSuite and now ChromeOS looked exactly like Chrome on my Mac. The goal of ChromeOS is to bring you to your web applications as quickly as possible. It delivers.
ChromeOS is basically just a web browser. What's the big deal? This morning I turned on a brand new computer and in less than 5 minutes had access to all of my personal and professional email, all of my personal and professional contacts, all of my calendars, all of my voicemail, chat and all of my chat contacts, video chat, all of my documents, our customer relationship management application, our expense tracking application, project management software, access to all of my social networks and all of my bookmarks from my other computer. Pretty sweet. I could actually pull this off from any PC or Mac - the Chrome browser's sync functionality would allow me to access my information from any computer and I "live in the cloud" 95% of the time. The point being the operating system doesn't matter, I need the web to work. I realize this is more the exception than the rule currently but this is changing faster than most people realize. What would you give up first, your desktop or the Internet? Android 1.1 was released in February 2009 - that's less than 2 years ago. The Chrome browser itself is just over 2 years old. The rate at which technology advances continues to accelerate.
Android adoption was driven by consumers and is now finding its way into the enterprise but I suspect the trajectory of ChromeOS might be different.
The OS is great for the consumer because it gets rid of the whole "computer person" mentality, now you only have to know how to use a browser. Any one who has spent any time in support knows the number one enemy is user error and some people can make even the simplest of tasks complex. Ray Ozzie wrote in his Dawn of a New Day departure memo to Microsoft that complexity kills, well ChromeOS kills complexity more than any OS in history.
Complexity kills because it is expensive. Expensive in capital and more importantly in time. I don't know the exact numbers but the Cr-48 pilot looks to be more weighted towards enterprises like InterContinental Hotels. Managing one machine running Office and Windows can be a pain in the ass, managing thousands of them is exponentially worse. The potential of ChromeOS to deliver value to the enterprise is tremendous BEFORE software product licensing costs are even taken into account.
Admittedly ChromeOS is still a work in progress and obviously not for everyone. I haven't tried to print anything but based on what I've read and my 5 year old printer I'm assuming I would be unable - this is a feature that's coming. The one application I use for work that I'm unable to use is GoToMeeting. The trackpad is not as responsive as it should be. You can't view more than one tab/window at a time which, in my view, is a must have. If you're a developer or hard core computer user you won't like not having the typical OS landscape at your disposal. Perhaps you're tied to a video editing software on the desktop and don't live on the web. ChromeOS isn't intended to replace all other operating systems, it's intended to defeat complexity. Sometimes a standard OS is needed, most of the time it is not.
I used the Cr-48 all day today and will utilize it as my full time machine throughout the pilot period. I wrote this post on the Cr-48 while rocking out to Pandora, watching a couple of YouTube videos, checking other sites like Wikipedia to verify information all while using WiFi from my Android-based NexusOne.
