ChromeOS, the Cloud and Civil Liberties

Being short on funds, I'm forced to resist the urge to buy new electronics (I'd really love the Boxee Box and a home theater to go with our new flat screen TV). What to do? I decided that, instead of buying new toys, I'd play around with different Open Source OSes.

After a month of beta testing Ubuntu 10.04 (that was kinda fun), I upgraded to the stable LTS on my laptop. (I'm a big fan of the Lucid Lynx, by the way). I've also got this netbook (Acer Aspire One—very crappy, I think it's easier to type on my iPhone). So I thought, what can I do with that? There's not much exciting about running Ubuntu's netbook remix—it's great, but it's just a respun version of the desktop edition.

I thought: Let's try and run ChromeOS.

I went to the Chrome project website, and they want me to build it myself. They have instructions, but it seems pretty intimidating. So, I did a little searching on the web, and discovered Hexxeh's build of ChromeOS. He calls it “Flow.” I can make a bootable USB drive. Cool.

So, I boot up, and am instantly (it's almost like turning on your T V) in to the login page. It's kind of like when you first turn on a new Android phone, it wants you to use your Gmail account to sign in. It's all part of the master plan.

So I'm in, and the browser (I mean, the OS) opens immediately. Only problem is the damn thing boots faster than my wi-fi connects, so I get an annoying error message that goes away when I hit refresh. (Note to Google, maybe you want to have some sort of welcome screen that keeps people distracted while the wi fi connects.)

So I start screwing around. Imagine if the one program you could run on your computer were the Chrome browser—no desktop, no start menu, no trash icon, no clock, nothing. Just your browser. That's ChromeOS.

I first go to my e-mail. Check. Then calendar. Check. Nothing revolutionary here. I've checked Gmail from the Chrome Browser before.

They have a sort of “favorites” page where it allows you to click on “apps.” But, these “apps” are really just links to web pages: YouTube, Gmail, Twitter, etc.

At this point I start feeling a little claustrophobic. ChromeOS has completely obliterated the desktop metaphor, and I'm literally stuck in my web browser.

Because it's a netbook with an Atom processor, I can't really stream video (so, no Hulu or YouTube). I've got no DVD drive, so no DVDs. I supposed I could download some content and watch that... but wait, there's no place to download to and all the “apps” are web based, so my content has to be in the cloud. (Of course, there is storage in Chrome, it's just hidden from view—apparently everything is cached for offline use. But, again, there's no point in downloading anything, since there are no programs that would allow me to do anything with the downloaded content. )

I go and post some Tweets. But, again, nothing revolutionary here. I open Google docs, but this is useless to me, since I hate using Google Docs. Can someone actually tell me they'd prefer to make a spreadsheet on Google Docs, over on an old-fashioned, desktop-tethered program like Excel or Open Office? And for sharing, wouldn't you rather use Dropbox?

Bottom Line?

I applaud Google for sponsoring a major open source project. I also applaud their efforts to integrate the OS more fully with the web. But I think Chrome suffers from two big superficial problems: 1.) It's still ahead of its time—not enough cloud-based, consumer-oriented services to replace your desktop 2.) The bigger problem, for me, is that I just like the desktop metaphor. I'm not ready to put my entire digital existence into a browser.

I want stuff I can download and possess—and I want the ability to create my own content and not have to surrender it to the cloud. I think that's why Amazon's Kindle service doesn't bother me—I don't really own the books or magazines, in fact, Kindle takes my old New York Times issues away from me after a few weeks and disappears them into the cloud. But, that's content I acquired through their service. I'm not creating my own content (papers, pictures, videos) and then turning it over to the cloud.

The bigger issue for me, is that this is an example of Google (a company I really admire) going way further than their mission to "organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful." They're rendering more and more information proprietary by making storing and accessing the information totally Google-dependent. ChromeOS will only be successful when all content is delivered through the cloud as Software as a Service (SaaS).

Think about that: the notion of “private” could be completely obliterated. Not only are we communicating over private channels but the content will be stored privately. To me, that feels like surrendering a bit too much. I'm thankful to Google for helping me better organize data, but I don't want them owning and delivering all my data.

Finally, while Google's mission is to organize the world's information, they are not a non-profit, social purpose business. Their business mission is to produce a return for shareholders. Organizing and making information accessible is the means by which they drive user-clicks to Google's advertisers which, in turn, makes a profit for distribution to shareholders. This is by no means evil. It's just important to keep in mind that they are not your local library.

From a user-experience perspective, I'm much more a fan of a web-integrated desktop and OS. I think Ubuntu has made some significant strides in that direction. When I click on my calendar on the desktop, it's linked to my Google calendar, and updated in real time. I can post a tweet from the “me menu” on the desktop, and when I purchase songs from the Ubuntu One music store, it's stored in the cloud (Ubuntu One) and immediately synchronized to all my desktops. I'm alerted to new e-mails and IM's when the mail icon on the me menu turns green. Tomboy notes are synchronized across desktops and backed-up in the Ubuntu One cloud. And Evolution keeps my contacts synchronized with Gmail and stored on my computer's hard drive. And this all syncs nicely with my iPhone (or your Android-based phone).

So, I guess I'm saying no to ChromeOS on two grounds:

1.) From the user's perspective, there's not Software as a Service available yet to make it a rich experience, and I like the desktop metaphor—I don't like being stuck inside a browser,

2.) But the bigger issue is about how proprietary I want my digital existence to become. The civil libertarian in me just isn't comfortable with that level of private control over my online experience, information and sensitive, personal data.

(Ooh, that reminds me, got to pay my dues to the ACLU!)