How Google plans to rule the computing world through Chrome • Hacker News Board

Re: How Google plans to rule the computing world through Chrome

#71

Post by VikingCoder » Thu, May 23, 2013, 4:18 PM UTC

jlgreco wrote: post #66

VikingCoder wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, YouTube does solve the problem of playing your videos. And sharing them with your friends. And archiving them, in case of disaster. If you're willing to use YouTube, of course. If not, you can use Smugmug or Flickr or Vimeo or... ChromeOS is inherently an operating system that uses the internet to solve users' problems. Expecting ChromeOS to have BUILT-IN ways to do what you want to, is kind of silly, in my mind…

Viewing photographs and videos is something that ChromeOS does. It is not asking too much of it to do it well . They gave it the ability to play videos and pictures offline because even they know it is absurd to expect the user to upload all their videos and pictures.. at least prior to viewing them. They just did a half-assed job of it. I tried looking for programs on ChromeOS to install to fix these things, the off…

In the analogy, Chrome is Linux.

If you want a full-fledged system, you use GNU/Linux, or probably a distro like Ubuntu.

If you want a full-fledged system from Chrome, you use the Internet.

You can text edit with sed, but that's not how anyone uses Linux, in real life, right?

Re: How Google plans to rule the computing world through Chrome

#72

Post by jlgreco » Thu, May 23, 2013, 4:23 PM UTC

VikingCoder wrote: post #71

jlgreco wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Viewing photographs and videos is something that ChromeOS does. It is not asking too much of it to do it well . They gave it the ability to play videos and pictures offline because even they know it is absurd to expect the user to upload all their videos and pictures.. at least prior to viewing them. They just did a half-assed job of it. I tried looking for programs on ChromeOS to install to fix these things, the off…

In the analogy, Chrome is Linux. If you want a full-fledged system, you use GNU/Linux, or probably a distro like Ubuntu. If you want a full-fledged system from Chrome, you use the Internet. You can text edit with sed, but that's not how anyone uses Linux, in real life, right?

One might argue that a Linux distro without vi, ex/ed, or at least nano/pico, but rather just sed is ludicrous because no user operates like that.

If they included sed and intended it to be your text editor, as ChromeOS has included half-assed local picture and video playing (is this not what those things are for? Am I supposed to be using these things for stream manipulation, not picture/video viewing? Because if that is the case, their UI has failed to convey that.), then I would without hesitation assert that their distro was poorly considered.

Re: How Google plans to rule the computing world through Chrome

#73

Post by VikingCoder » Thu, May 23, 2013, 4:26 PM UTC

jlgreco wrote: post #72

VikingCoder wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the analogy, Chrome is Linux. If you want a full-fledged system, you use GNU/Linux, or probably a distro like Ubuntu. If you want a full-fledged system from Chrome, you use the Internet. You can text edit with sed, but that's not how anyone uses Linux, in real life, right?

One might argue that a Linux distro without vi, ex/ed, or at least nano/pico, but rather just sed is ludicrous because no user operates like that. If they included sed and intended it to be your text editor, as ChromeOS has included half-assed local picture and video playing (is this not what those things are for? Am I supposed to be using these things for stream manipulation, not picture/video viewing? Because if th…

"Their distro" is the Internet.

A Chromebook without the Internet is ludicrous, because no user operates like that.

They might have been better off to not have the local picture and video player. They're the embarrassing "Notepad," if I want to make the analogy to Windows, again.

Re: How Google plans to rule the computing world through Chrome

#74

Post by chadlundgren » Thu, May 23, 2013, 4:27 PM UTC

ZeroGravitas wrote: post #32

AutocorrectThis wrote: post #11

There are a lot of caveats to the stats. First, look at the browser marketshare table. Notice how Net Applications shows Chrome only at 16% while the others are close to 40%? Wonder why? Net Applications attempts to measure what individual users are using, while Statcounter tries to measure how much of browsing is done though a particular browser. That is, if you browse 1000 webpages a day and use Chrome, and your gi…

Net Applications count unique daily users, so if you surf all day you'll be counted as exactly the same as your friend who only surfs a little each day. However, you will both be counted 7 times more than someone who only surfs once a week. So both give weight to more regular web surfers, it's just that Net Applications caps it at the level of daily use.

In addition to counting vistors rather than hits, Net Applications has a global number of 6.22% for Internet Explorer 6. No, that is not a typo, that is the number pulled today, because Net Applications performs geographic weighting of their data, and China has 24% usage. That inflates the global Internet Explorer numbers and is higher than IE7. Last time I looked at ie6countdown.com, the US and European numbers were 0.2%.

Sources: http://www.netapplications.com/newsletter2/20090803/nanl.htm... http://netmarketshare.com/browser-market-share.aspx?qprid=2&... http://www.ie6countdown.com/

Re: How Google plans to rule the computing world through Chrome

#75

Post by jlgreco » Thu, May 23, 2013, 4:31 PM UTC

VikingCoder wrote: post #70

sbuk wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Expecting ChromeOS to have BUILT-IN ways to do what you want to, is kind of silly, in my mind." Why ?

My VCR doesn't have any BUILT-IN movies. I really, honestly don't mean to be crass, but the analogy is apt to me.

Besides mudding the issue by confusing data with function, the Chromebook does have these features, and there is nothing about it that even indicates these features are deliberately second class citizens.

In this analogy your VCR has the ability to write an input source to a cassette, all you've got to do is hit the record button on the front of it but is incapable of writing to the first or last 10 minutes of the tape. VCR company considers cassette consumption to be the primary VCR use-case and is the use-case they are concerned with. Is it reasonable to complain about the substandard record functionality that they shipped? Is it reasonable to question the market viability of a VCR so needlessly crippled?

Re: How Google plans to rule the computing world through Chrome

#76

Post by jlgreco » Thu, May 23, 2013, 4:34 PM UTC

VikingCoder wrote: post #73

jlgreco wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One might argue that a Linux distro without vi, ex/ed, or at least nano/pico, but rather just sed is ludicrous because no user operates like that. If they included sed and intended it to be your text editor, as ChromeOS has included half-assed local picture and video playing (is this not what those things are for? Am I supposed to be using these things for stream manipulation, not picture/video viewing? Because if th…

"Their distro" is the Internet. A Chromebook without the Internet is ludicrous, because no user operates like that. They might have been better off to not have the local picture and video player. They're the embarrassing "Notepad," if I want to make the analogy to Windows, again.

"A Chromebook without the Internet is ludicrous, because no user operates like that."

I don't believe that anybody doesn't. Even android phones have better offline capabilities (Way better, and generally with less offline storage to boot) and people expect their phones to always be online.

Re: How Google plans to rule the computing world through Chrome

#77

Post by jlgreco » Thu, May 23, 2013, 4:42 PM UTC

wslh wrote: post #29

jlgreco wrote: post #16

I don't think I could disagree with the author more, and I am coming from the perspective of someone who also bought a pixel. (Actually we agree there, it is the best put together machine I've ever used... more on that later.) I'm not running ChromeOS on my pixel right now. I tried it for a weekend, it wasn't my cup of tea, and I slapped Debian onto it instead. No big surprise there, I have different needs from most…

I agree that ChromeOS as a base operating system is difficult to imagine but I think that the new rich GUI is moving towards HTML (beyond its use for browsing). Flash, Silverlight, and WPF will be replaceable very soon. Metro has a similar goal but less "standard". I also prefer to have the opportunity to use the browser engine as a rich GUI but develop in any programming language (like Python or C#). It seems like t…

Using HTML to create an entire user interface seems entirely reasonable to me, and a hell of a lot more pleasant to work with as a developer than the traditional way of doing things.

Re: How Google plans to rule the computing world through Chrome

#78

Post by WayneDB » Thu, May 23, 2013, 4:44 PM UTC

VikingCoder wrote: post #55

sbuk wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But you wouldn't use Paint. The Windows Photo View and Explorer actually do a more than adequate job. Windows Media Player too does a reasonable job of playing video. Netflix, YouTube and Google Play Movies don't solve the problem of plying my videos. The Mac, modern desktop Linux distos and Windows support the functionality that the OP and you crave out of the box - as do most tables, including the iPad. I just don'…

Yes, YouTube does solve the problem of playing your videos. And sharing them with your friends. And archiving them, in case of disaster. If you're willing to use YouTube, of course. If not, you can use Smugmug or Flickr or Vimeo or... ChromeOS is inherently an operating system that uses the internet to solve users' problems. Expecting ChromeOS to have BUILT-IN ways to do what you want to, is kind of silly, in my mind…

YouTube or any other Internet Only service does not solve the problem of playing my videos very well.

Why would I want to upload gigabytes of video instead of downloading a small program to play them locally? If I care about archiving things - why would I want to archive just my video files?

I don't think anyone expects ChromeOS to have many built-in ways of doing things - but I also don't expect ChromeOS to be very widely used because it's not solving users' problems very well at all. Unless of course...they add native apps ;) Then it could be something.

Re: How Google plans to rule the computing world through Chrome

#79

Post by VikingCoder » Thu, May 23, 2013, 4:45 PM UTC

jlgreco wrote: post #75

VikingCoder wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My VCR doesn't have any BUILT-IN movies. I really, honestly don't mean to be crass, but the analogy is apt to me.

Besides mudding the issue by confusing data with function, the Chromebook does have these features, and there is nothing about it that even indicates these features are deliberately second class citizens. In this analogy your VCR has the ability to write an input source to a cassette, all you've got to do is hit the record button on the front of it but is incapable of writing to the first or last 10 minutes of the ta…

Is there anything in Notepad to indicate it's a deliberately second-class citizen?

My Roku doesn't have any built-in movies, my DVD player doesn't have any built-in movies...

It's not "needlessly crippled," it's brand new. Windows 3.0 would be seen as needlessly crippled if it were released today.

Look, if you don't like it, that's fine. But you can't convince me that it's not a viable product for many people, in many use cases. It might not be right for you, and I'm not saying you're wrong about that.

Re: How Google plans to rule the computing world through Chrome

#80

Post by jlgreco » Thu, May 23, 2013, 4:48 PM UTC

WayneDB wrote: post #78

VikingCoder wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, YouTube does solve the problem of playing your videos. And sharing them with your friends. And archiving them, in case of disaster. If you're willing to use YouTube, of course. If not, you can use Smugmug or Flickr or Vimeo or... ChromeOS is inherently an operating system that uses the internet to solve users' problems. Expecting ChromeOS to have BUILT-IN ways to do what you want to, is kind of silly, in my mind…

YouTube or any other Internet Only service does not solve the problem of playing my videos very well. Why would I want to upload gigabytes of video instead of downloading a small program to play them locally? If I care about archiving things - why would I want to archive just my video files? I don't think anyone expects ChromeOS to have many built-in ways of doing things - but I also don't expect ChromeOS to be very…

Yeah, at the very least I would expect ChromeOS to be good at playing videos out of that massive 1TB Google Drive offering that the pixel gets you. I mean, what else are you going to burn up 1TB on, if not video?