One of my favorite local singer, Mohamad Asri Ibrahim (pictured above, sitting second from right) has passed away on Thu, Aug 13 at 10.30 am local time. He is the leader cum lead vocalist of the religious music (nasyid) group Rabbani. For me, he is the irreplaceable vocalist of Rabbani as he has a unique voice not found in any other local nasyid singer. His Arabic-esque voice was notable ever since the group was still under the Al-Arqam Islamic movement. Rabbani was formed in 1997 after the original nasyid group, Nada Murni (whose members was comprised of the present members of both Rabbani and Hijjaz) was disbanded following the declaration of Al-Arqam as illegal due to the movement's religously-corrupted actions. Before that, Nada Murni's songs were always used in local TV religious shows and has gained massive popularity.
Friday, August 14
Saturday, August 1
The Melancholy of Google Chrome OS
(The image above is the snapshot of the Google Chrome browser, not the OS)My, my why must the word 'Chrome' is there when there's already a browser with the same name of which they developed both (the OS & the browser) themselves? Somehow, it's kinda annoying as if the OS have something to do with that browser. I think I have an explanation (assumption) on this. Read on...
I'm not expecting much on the newly announced Google Chrome OS, although I've predicted years ago that Google would make their own OS someday (of which I dubbed as 'Google OS' on that time), given the tech skills they got. Why?
1. Perhaps because it is too late for any new OS to appear to make a change? I think things would be different if it was released 2 or 3 years ago when a new OS release would make a major impact not only on computing but also user experience as well. Apple is going to release Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard soon (or already?) and Windows 7 is just around the corner while Linux, particularly Ubuntu keeps being better and better each passing days. That makes Chrome OS almost irrelevant according to today's computing standard.
2. Not everything is connected today as Google assumed. True, cloud computing is the 'in' thing today but good and affordable internet connection is still scarce like oasis in the desert. I mean internet connection is everywhere but not that many people are lucky enough to enjoy it, especially in the 3rd world nations that consisting the largest group of people in the world today. I'm currently using 3G; sounds hi-tech but then even that one shucks terribly (terrible, because port forwarding on 3G is like a taboo. Can you imagine that?). For many people, computing is still something that is better offline most of the time. In fact, many people still prefer doing their work offline as they only see the internet as nothing much but an extension to the existing phone networking/connectivity. Honestly, I see the advent of Chrome OS is like Google's (evil) attempt to make people switching their computing way from offline to online. In other words, to force people to rely on onlineservicesfor all their computing needs. It sounds bad in some way or another, at least for me. Evil? Maybe not really but Google itself can be considered as an online (virtual?) company that relies on people's usage/utilization of online services to make money, which means the more people use online services, the more money they can get (even though most of their software are free). In this case, offline computing is like a bad thing to them.
3. It is Linux-based. I've tried several Linux distros and I must say they're ain't that bad but Chrome would be a BAD OS if it still feels like Linux when using it. Although Mac OS X is Darwin-based (a POSIX compliant, Linux-Unix flavored OS core) but they managed to churn-out something innovative and visually attractive from it. Unless Google can do something similar to what Apple had done, Chrome OS would become another lame OS.
Still, I'm looking forward to the OS as well since I'm the long time (veteran?) Google search engine user.
From Google official blog, I learned that Google Chrome OS is targeted primarily for netbooks, and netbooks are designed primarily for internet browsing, nothing else.
BTW, also from their official blog:
"Google Chrome OS is an open source, lightweight operating system that will initially be targeted at netbooks."
Look at the bold-ed word. The word 'initially' clearly states that their intention won't stop at just netbooks. Besides, it was Android that intended to power both smartphones & netbooks but somehow Google dropped the idea and go for a separate OS instead. The thing here is, Google did not see the web as 'web' but as a 'platform'.
Now back to the earlier point; why use the word 'Chrome' when they can just use 'Google OS' instead? Somehow it feels like the OS is like a fullscreen version of Google Chrome browser that sits on top of Linux kernel and can be boot-up as a standalone OS. Now that makes me wonder is it really a new OS or just a new version of the Chrome browser or even a new Linux distro? Or should I say it's the Google Chrome browser in the guise of an OS? LOL
That surely sounds funny for me. BTW Google has the reputation of turning ordinary apps into killer apps in their class. While not every Google Labs graduate knocks it out of the park, the batting average at Google is extremely high. Google Earth, Google Maps, Picasa, Google Desktop Search - these are all category killers. Remember MapQuest? Remember Adobe Photo Album? These applications were quite dominant and Google shoveled dirt on them. And it wasn't power that brought them to the fore, it was simply that they were better applications. Google Earth is practically miraculous considering the volume of data and processing that it must require, yet it runs more smoothly than iTunes. Android may not great to compete with Symbian for now but it's new yet powerful presence already enough to make Apple sweating to boost their iPhone OS to be more appealing among users. Let just hope that Chrome OS will retain that reputation too.
Google may be a 'new evil' on the block but at least for me they are more tolerable than the Big Blue. If Apple is the king of innovation when it comes to hardware, then Google is undoubtedly the undisputed king of innovation in the software land.
Don't be evil? Hmm... Forcing people to rely heavily on the web 2.0 services... Definitely sounds like a new evil. Storage made available online, media player made available online, office suit made available online... what's going to be stored offline then? That makes the development of larger capacity PC local drive seems pointless if they are going to be only for the installation of the OS & hardware drivers alone; or even no HDD at all since the OS may comes in the form of Live CD or Live USB. Cool or st00p33d?
With this one, our future computing may only be possible if they are connected to the internet or else it would be a useless piece of metal box. Today we are happy with offline computing, as long as everything we need is installed in the local disk. Now Google is going to change that; again, forcing us to pay exorbitant monthly broadband bills in order to keep our computer 'alive' while they are making money when we access our media files stored online. WTH
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