Google is only fooling themselves if they think people want to live in a totalitarian computing paradigm. Network computing is obviously the future, but it will be democratized, decentralized, and multi-platform. Google may supply applications for this environment, but they will in no way be the gatekeeper of all our I/O.
You are implying that Google wants people to have a "totalitarian computing paradigm", that they oppose network computing being "democratized, decentralized, and multi-platform", and that they want to be "the gatekeeper of all our I/O". Where in the article exactly do they make these claims?
Offering these services != locking you in, or locking competitors out. You can pick all, any or none of them. Competitors can and will offer alternatives.
No you can't. In ChromeOS you cannot replace the filesystem, native applications, and web browser with non-Google alternatives. This is the exact opposite of an open platform.
The platform, is the web. Which is completely open - you can install and run any webapp you wish.
I think you're still thinking in the 'old' terms, where computers have local filesystems and native applications. Forget about those, they're just firmware like the BIOS.
Just to be fair his point is valid on the browser (though I agree with you that everything else he said is utterly false). But I'd defend Google on even that. The browser is the core of ChromeOS so I don't think they can allow it to be replaced. But what they can do is make Chrome the most standards compliant browser out there and that's exactly what they've been doing.
So while you are locked into the Chrome browser in ChromeOS you could easily go back to Windows and Mozilla and take anything you created there with you
(not to mention the Chrome browser is built on an open source browser engine)
The platform, is the web. Which is completely open - you can install and run any webapp you wish.
The web is open, agreed. But you're going to have to explain to me how I can read or write a file on a ChromeOS without Google knowing what is read or written.
Then, if Google's infrastructure is required for I/O, please explain how this is not totalitarian computing.
> "But you're going to have to explain to me how I can read or write a file on a ChromeOS without Google knowing what is read or written."
Well you can use HTML5 local storage, cookies, db etc, or you can store stuff on 'the cloud'.
If you don't trust google, then that's another matter.
How do I know that my linksys router isn't tracking everything I do? Because I trust linksys not to do that. Same here. If I buy a ChromeOS device, I'll just have to trust Google aren't going to be evil.
you have to trust the chip makers, the BIOS maker, the network interface card maker
So, what you're saying is we might as well just give up, and purposely store all our data on Google's file servers and give up all data and information privacy, because all network chip manufacturers and internet providers are already sniffing all our data?
