Ever imagined a computer system without a hard disk drive? Well, soon there will be such systems that will need just a few gigabytes of storage, allowing users to store their documents, photos and videos on remote servers through Internet.
At least, that seems the vision of Internet giant Google, which recently demonstrated its new operating system — Chrome OS.
The operating system, which Google believes will revolutionise computing, effectively acts as a gateway to the web, allowing users to store their filed and documents on remote servers rather than storing in hard disks.
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Users can access their emails, documents or social networking sites by clicking on application tabs in the browser— like interface and use panels at the bottom of the desktop to send an instant message or view a video, The Telegraph reported.
Computers can boot up faster and get connected with web in just seven seconds through the operating system, termed the “cloud computing” approach, it said.
“We want Chrome to be blazingly fast,” said Sundar Pichai, Google’s vice president of product management. “We want it to be like a TV — turn it on and it’s booted up.”
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“Chrome will run only on computers that use flash memory solid state drives instead of conventional hard drives.”
“Over the past few years, people have been spending more and more of their time online doing more and more powerful things, and we wanted to build a fundamentally different computing experience built for the way we use the web today,” says Mr. Pichai.
“With Google Chrome OS, we’ve made computing faster, easier and safer than ever before.”
But some experts say Google could find it difficult to persuade consumers. Users will not be able to install their own software or applications on Chrome OS devices — so that means no iTunes, no Skype and no Tweetdeck.
“There’s no doubt that Chrome OS looks fast, but it’s fairly limited in terms of its functionality,” says Annette Jump, an analyst with Gartner. “A lot of work needs to be done to convince consumers that this operating system will be useful to them.”
Another problem Chrome OS faces is its reliance on always-on web connectivity, which might be possible in large cities, with good mobile phone network coverage and plenty of Wi—Fi hotspots, but in rural areas, or on a flight, Chrome will be hobbled.
Google has also released the code to the operating system in the hope that developers would build new products, services and applications, in much the same way as they build apps for the iPhone, or Google’s mobile phone operating system, Android.