“Google likes to say that Chrome OS is an operating system that lets you do everything on the web,” Jared Newman writes for TIME Magazine’s Techland. “Don’t believe it.”
“At the Google IO conference [this week], the search giant made a rather disappointing announcement: After months of feedback from beta testers, Chrome OS would finally get a file browser for locally-stored data.
Google should never have listened to those people,” Newman writes. “What Chrome OS really needs is a web-based file manager that’s fully integrated with the operating system, so although it looks like you’re storing files locally, what you’re really doing is putting them on Google’s servers.”
Newman writes, “Instead, Chrome OS expects users to store all their data in individual services. Your photos go to Picasa. Your spreadsheets go to Google Docs. Your music goes to Google Music.
I’m not convinced people are comfortable having their files tied up in specific services… Users need a central repository for all their precious data so it can be easily transferred to any number of web services. Chrome OS doesn’t provide this service. Until that changes, you won’t be able to do everything on the web.”
Read more in the full article here.
Related article:
Google launches Chrome PCs in bid to take on Microsoft and Apple – May 12, 2011