The Dark Side of Chrome

Yes, I am a Chrome and ChromeOS cheerleader. Maybe even a bit of an evangelist. You hardly ever see me complaining about any aspect of the browser or the OS framework. But all is not well in Chromeland. Here are two complaints -- one minor in immediate effect, but both major in long-term implication:

1. In the beginning, when you opened a new tab in Chrome, it was beautiful -- you could do anything you wanted in the new tab, but by way of assistance you saw some tiles representing frequently opened sites, and at the bottom drop-down lists of "recently closed tabs" and other things. Marvelous. Worked like a charm. Absolutely, positively nothing whatsoever to complain about. Then Google yanked that format and made the new tab much less useful ... but with just a tiny bit of work, you could revert to the better setup. And apparently lots of people did. So last week, Google made it impossible to do that, forcing all users to move to the much uglier, much less useful new setup. You can partially undo the damage by adding some extensions, but it's just not the same.
2. Now I'm hearing that the new Chrome beta (which I haven't seen yet -- I'm on the stable build channel, and apparently this is Windows-only at the moment anyway) restricts users to apps available from the Chrome store.

The first item is an annoyance, but points to Google having a penchant for exerting undue control over the user experience.

The second item puts Google in the same league as Apple with its "walled garden" approach of trying to tell users, in very fine-grained detail, what they can and can't do with their machines.

I was kind of amped up for the new Asus Chromebox coming out this month. Now I think I'm going to wait on that, because if things keep going in the direction they appear to be going, I'll be abandoning Chrome. And while I can certainly root my Chromebox and Chromebook and turn them into (fairly light) Linux boxes, my next piece of hardware won't be one of those kinds of units.

More on Where Windows Needs to Go

Last month, I opined that if Microsoft wants to remain competitive it's going to need to give up on the idea of selling operating systems. That era is over. Well, they seem to be getting with the program in a minor sort of way:

Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) is cutting the price of Windows 8.1 by 70 percent for makers of low-cost computers and tablets as they try to fend off cheaper rivals like Google Inc. (GOOG)'s Chromebooks, people familiar with the program said.

Manufacturers will be charged $15 to license Windows 8.1 and preinstall it on devices that retail for less than $250, instead of the usual fee of $50, said the people, who asked not to be named because the details aren’t public.

It's definitely too little. Whether or not it's too late, only time will tell.

At first blush, this looks like a considerable discount. But at $15,  the price of Windows would still represent 6% or more of retail price on its face ... and in fact, considerably more.

Why?

Because Windows is a fat, bloated, slug of an operating system that requires a more expensive hardware build to run on than does ChromeOS or a reasonably light Linux distribution.

Windows needs more RAM. Windows requires a more robust CPU. Windows has to have more local storage for its OS files.

So if I'm building a laptop for the average user -- who browses the web, sends and receives email, streams some media and not much else -- Microsoft is asking me to spend $15 more on the OS than I need to and spend more building the device itself in order to offer that user stuff he or she will seldom if ever use and almost certainly won't consider a high priority when choosing a laptop.

Microsoft needs to rethink its OS. If they're smart, "Windows 9" will be called ExploreOS. It will consist of a re-modeled, de-crufted Internet Explorer browser, the files necessary to boot that browser and initiate an Internet connection ... and that's about it.

Yes, that means the revenue model will have to change. The OS itself is no longer going to be a profit center. The profit centers will be "enterprise-level" web apps, cloud storage and tech support, increased monetization of the Bing search engine (and possibly of the browser itself a la Firefox), etc.

The era of selling operating systems is over. Period. The sooner Microsoft realizes this, the less likely it is to go down as the next FW Woolworth.

The Big Question is "Will it be Free?"

The tech media are abuzz with rumors of Windows 9. Most of the coverage relates to a perceived need on Microsoft's part to undo the infinite suckage of Windows 8. But in my opinion, Microsoft's real challenge is competing with the free operating systems: ChromeOS, Android, increasingly user-friendly versions of Linux and now even MacOS.

As I wrote in a recent piece at the Center for a Stateless Society:

Microsoft finds itself at a critical juncture and is reacting -- not just with the "Scroogled" propaganda, but with consideration of making some versions of the Windows operating system free to device manufacturers to combat Google's other free OS, Android.

The era of paying cash for operating systems (and most applications) is over. The era of free operating systems -- and networked/cloud-based computing -- is here.

Microsoft is going to have to find new ways of making money. Selling operating systems isn't going to be their bread and butter any more. The more quickly they realize this, the better their chances of remaining a big player in the PC market.

If I was designing an OS marketing future for Microsoft, I think I'd go with something along these lines:

• Make bare-bones Windows 9 free for both OEM use and end user download;
• Make after-market money by selling applications, support packages and maybe even making the free version OS into "adware" -- run Bing-powered ads on the desktop or whatever;
• Offer an "enterprise edition" of the OS that comes bundled with some key apps (e.g. Office) and extended support for businesses; and
• Get serious about competing in the hardware market, especially the business sector. Microsoft has proven it can do hardware with Xbox (and with the Surface tablet -- even if it didn't fly, they got it into production, didn't they?). A line of Microsoft-branded desktops and laptops, loaded with the "enterprise edition" of Windows 9, key apps, a support/warranty package ... these could be moneymakers on their own, and through extensions of the warranty/support stuff as time goes on. Lots of businesses would rather just pay up front to Microsoft for the perceived "stand behind our stuff" factor than go the cheap route and get nickeled and dimed after.

The "free" and "enterprise" editions would reinforce each other. The guy who uses Windows 9 "enterprise" all day at work will be comfortable with it and want it at home. The guy who uses Windows 9 "free/adware" at home will look favorably on the "enterprise" edition when making purchasing decisions for the office he runs.

What isn't going to work is expecting the average user to keep paying two- and three-figure prices for an OS. The only thing that's saved that approach so far is gaming, and  now that market is going to go soft as Steam's boxes and OS establish a beachhead.

JoliCloud: An Evolving Cloud OS Alternative

I discovered JoliCloud back in 2010 while looking for an alternative to the Windows XP that came pre-installed on a fairly under-powered ASUS "netbook." It worked out pretty nicely -- the OS was a gloss on Debian Linux, optimized for netbook uses (discovering and installing stuff from the web, keeping files in the cloud via Dropbox, etc.).

Joli has evolved more and more into a "cloud OS" over the years, while forking itself into a useful web-based personal organization. I haven't tested its latest downloadable/installable version, but the beta of the latest web version, JoliDrive, is actually my Chromebook/Chromebox home page and I'm using it quite a bit, if only to access my YouTube favorites and so forth.

Within JoliDrive, I have two dashboards: One for all my cloud storage/sync services (Box, Dropbox, Google Drive, MediaFire, SugarSync, etc.), another for various popular web services, especially social networking stuff (Facebook,  Google+, etc.), news feeds and so forth.

I may try the downloadable "full OS" version again some time soon (maybe I'll dig that old netbook out for it), but frankly I'm very happy with ChromeOS. People who still don't "trust the cloud" very much might benefit from JoliDrive. Manage your social networking presence from there, and experiment with the cloud storage stuff -- when you're ready to really dive into the cloud, you'll already have your stuff organized.