

Google's New OS Will Offer Remote Desktop Capabilities  - sound
http://www.nytimes.com/external/readwriteweb/2010/06/11/11readwriteweb-googles-new-os-will-offer-remote-desktop-ca-79671.html

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stcredzero
Google is clearly making a play for the enterprise using small to medium
businesses as a beachhead.

It has been noted here that the world's most widely used database is Microsoft
Excel. This is because enterprise software is about top-down control of
workflow and processes -- it's solidified corporate policy/politics! As a
result, enterprise software sucks. In order to work around maladapted
restrictions imposed by enterprise software, the most productive workers take
their processes and automation into spreadsheets like Excel, where they can
adapt quickly to changing conditions. Often, the most successful of these
processes are then built into enterprise applications, to become the new
status quo.

Google wants small and transitional medium sized businesses to outsource much
of their IT to them and to run their spreadsheets on Google's apps. Google
hopes that this will allow them to do with ad-hoc processes in spreadsheets
what they did with web links: organize and unify a huge collection of
disparate linkages to create value. When a company has all of its spreadsheets
in Google apps, users will be able to link data in disparate spreadsheets.
This network of links will be subject to analysis. New business processes will
be absorbed from the ad-hoc spreadsheets into the enterprise more quickly and
efficiently. This will have tremendous value to companies, especially small
and medium sized ones, some of which will grow into giant conglomerates. If
this works, Google stands to dwarf the achievements of Microsoft.

EDIT: This remote desktop stuff is just a selling point in support of larger
goals.

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ryanhuff
I don't subscribe to your theory that the wide adoption of Excel as a database
system is due to corporate politics. My experience (mostly in smaller
companies of <1000 people) has shown that people use Excel because of low
barriers (easy to learn), quick results, empowerment, and ownership. Corporate
politics certainly plays a role in some environments, but if you eliminated
politics, Excel would still dominate.

~~~
stcredzero
_I don't subscribe to your theory that the wide adoption of Excel as a
database system is due to corporate politics._

Well good, because that's _not my theory_. I never said Excel wasn't good on
its own merits. What I am saying is that Excel is used for ad-hoc process and
automation.

The phenomenon I actually described happens all the time on trading floors in
the energy industry. Whatever trading system is in use gets in the way of
something new. The processes to support the something new are run largely off
of spreadsheets. If the something new is a big hit, higher-ups start a project
to enable the new processes on the enterprise software where they can be
better controlled.

 _My experience (mostly in smaller companies of <1000 people) has shown that
people use Excel because of low barriers (easy to learn), quick results,
empowerment, and ownership._

If Excel didn't have all of these attributes, it could never be used by non-
programmers to support ad-hoc processes.

~~~
ryanhuff
The trading example you mention illustrates how organizations can benefit by
allowing people to innovate within the business units, see what works, and
implement the successful ideas in a more scalable form.

One of the challenges is whether the person/people who developed the
spreadsheet version and the enterprise development team can successfully
manage a transition to a formal enterprise project. Sometimes, the people who
build these spreadsheets see the job as their domain, and see outsiders as
treading on their turf, while the development team is not always sensitive to
the ownership issues.

~~~
stcredzero
_The trading example you mention illustrates how organizations can benefit by
allowing people to innovate within the business units, see what works, and
implement the successful ideas in a more scalable form._

Most often, the organizations I've seen see this more as a problem of _lack of
control_ and wish they could stamp out spreadsheet use entirely.

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arethuza
If I install Ubuntu today (and probably other Linux distros) I get the option
to do a RDP connection to apps or a desktop on a Windows server.

How is this different?

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losvedir
With your Ubuntu solution, does the computer you're logging into remotely have
to be on? Do you have to know its IP address? I haven't used it before.

The advantage with this is to connect you probably simply visit
chromeos.google.com (or something) and log-in. You don't have to worry about
the IP address of the machine you're using or firewalls or anything like that.

~~~
arethuza
Usually when I've seen people using remote desktop connections it is to access
internal ERP or LOB applications - things which Google are not going to be
able to provide access to.

For "normal" desktop apps (e.g. MS Office) - wouldn't providing access to
these kinds of things undermine Google's strategy of doing things in the
browser?

I guess they could provide a LogMeIn/GotoMyPC kind of product - but that is
hardly revolutionary.

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jsz0
Isn't Google just giving all these win32 apps a new lease on life? Forget
HTML5. Just buy some Windows servers and move your win32 app to the cloud
instead. It's the most practical thing to do if Google wants their OS running
on lots of desktops but is it good for the future of the web? All I see here
is more ad views for Google and more Windows licenses for Microsoft. We get
stuck running win32 apps for the next decade because it's easier & cheaper
than developing a native HTML5 app.

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tybris
That's a fairly standard linux feature (X+SSH), isn't it? Seems like Chrome OS
going to be the long awaited commercialization of Linux for the desktop.

~~~
pjscott
A small note: X+SSH isn't very fast. Other software like VNC or NX generally
work better, and Google wrote an open-source NX-compatible server:

<http://code.google.com/p/neatx/>

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moolave
To be honest, I am actually looking forward to install this OS into my system.
I saw their feature video on this stating that turning Google Chrome bypasses
the BIOS startup. A few of my colleagues said this is impossible, but for what
it's worth, this is Google we're talking about.

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w1ntermute
Original post on RWW:
[http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/googles_new_os_will_off...](http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/googles_new_os_will_offer_remote_desktop_capabilities.php)

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peterwwillis
it sounds somewhat like a vnc plugin in addition to their native chrome
applications (if these 'legacy' apps indeed run 'in the cloud'), but could
also include wine for windows apps or perhaps a nested X server for native
linux apps. but the majority of the article is speculation and a review of
recent tech history, so who knows

