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why being cloud-based and web-dependent is a bad thing
http://www.howtogeek.com/161662/living-with-a-chromebook-can-you-live-with-just-a-chrome-browser/
Alternate title: the advantages of chromebooks according to this article are (mostly) disadvantages, the way I see it
It's like, I roughly agree with this article's pieces, but disagree with the conclusion. Y'know that feel, right?
> How this sounds to you will depend on how you use your computer and how much you’ve moved to “the cloud.”
Yep, definitely.
> Now, you can just stream movies and TV shows from Netflix, assuming you’re in a supported country. Why bother downloading, storing, and backing up all those files?
Because I can access those files anytime without being dependent on a service being available? Because it cuts out the middleman (and the time that goes with it)? Because it's like actually remembering my formulas rather than having to look them up every time? Because I don't have to be sure that the company owning the content and the company providing it don't currently have a blood fued going and thus are both willing to cooperate to supply the media to me? Because I like to be able to watch my TV shows on long road or plane trips?
> Services like Spotify, Rdio, and Pandora have obsoleted huge music collections.
I dunno about Spotify and Rdio, but Pandora doesn't even let me listen to what I want to listen to when I want to listen to it. It lets me listen to something like it, but unless your idea of what you want to listen to is very vague...
> Printing: Unfortunately, printing just won’t go away. So how do you print on a Chromebook? You use Google Cloud Print. Some new printers support Google Cloud Print, so you can connect them to your network and easily print to them. If you have an old printer connected to a Windows or Mac computer, you can use the Google Cloud Print Connector feature to make an older printer accessible to Google Cloud Print. Don’t try to plug your printer directly into your Chromebook, though — that won’t work.
What technology should be doing is instead moving toward a universal printer driver or something that'll allow any machine to send a print job to any printer. The USB is actually a step toward this. To be fair, my idea is not incompatible with the situation with a Chromebook -- it probably doesn't have printing because there's no universal driver that has a Linux version.
> Working Offline: Chromebooks have some offline support. The Gmail Offline app allows you to use your Gmail account, Google Calendar allows you to use your calendar offline, and Google Docs allows you to view and edit documents offline. Amazon’s Kindle Cloud Reader app allows you to read Kindle eBooks offline. Video files can be downloaded to your Chromebook and played back locally. You can find more offline apps in the offline-enabled section of the Chrome Web Store.
This is all good and well until you realize that "working offline" is now considered something of a privilege rather than a basic feature. Okay, maybe that's going a bit far, but consider this: Why has internet connectivity started to become taken for granted? Why did Xbone devs even think a persistent connection was ever an okay thing to expect of the consumer? (Okay maybe gamers tend to be high-end consumers who can afford such a connection, but still...) Why do we have Google and Microsoft pushing their cloud computing services?
If anything, instead of having a lightweight device with little storage and cloud-based computing that requires internet connectivity, why not have a lightweight device with lots of storage that can easily transfer data to other devices without the need (but with the option) of internet connectivity?
I mean, think about this. If I have a 100 GB hard drive, I basically have that space permanently. (barring hard drive failures of course) But...
> The Files app also gives you access to your Google Drive — and buying a Chromebook will give you bonus Google Drive space (the $250 Samsung Chromebook gives you an additional 100GB of Google Drive storage for two years).
So it's considered a good offer if I have the space for just two years? It's like I'm renting the space.
Okay, granted, web applications can do quite a lot these days. Also that article they linked to shows some pretty useful things that can be done from within a browser these days, especially two-way web communication and running code.
Also, they do dial it back a bit at the end:
> For all its advantages, a Chromebook really shines as a secondary PC. Many people could get by with a Chromebook 95% of the time, but there’s that 5% of the time when you may want to play a Windows game, use a desktop application, or do something else. If you can embrace the limitations, you may be fine ditching your Windows PC for a Chromebook — but that’s a drastic step at the moment.
Definitely agree it's a nice secondary computer. The issue is, when exactly would I use this. Obviously, some people have a use for this, probably mainly casual internet users who mostly use the net for features like information-gathering (including map searches) and media consumption rather than content production (including forums and blogs and content editing). Though it's still an extra item to afford (and upkeep) so it seems restricted to wealthier individuals.
Thing is, even if I accept that 95%/5% ratio, it gives me a vibe of "every time I wanna do something, I have to request authorization to do it". Because, that's what an internet connection is, unless you take an internet connection for granted. The only places where I might have unlimited internet access is at home and at school/work. Otherwise, it's a crapshoot. On the road, over water, in the air? Sometimes you can get internet in a plane but it costs through the nose. Take a pit stop at the next McDonald's or Panera Bread instead. Or find the local library. Ten-hour drive past rolling hills and waves of grain? Well, tough luck. Heck, even before you board that plane you probably don't have wifi; many airports don't offer free wifi. In general, you're confined to indoors, except maybe in urban areas, or your yard (if you have one), and only in those places that see a business or other interest in providing you with wifi.
Furthermore, since you're dependent on someone else providing you a connection, they get to control what data you get. I'm not talking about police-state surveillance (though that's certainly a possibility if some jerks try hard enough)...I mean the simple inconvenience of not getting services you want, because someone's decided to block certain ports, or certain websites or certain programs. Or even just the tragedy-of-the-commons problem that generally happens at McDonald's locations in cities because everyone's using their wifi and clogging up the bandwidth making it almost as slow as dialup. Basically, you're dependent on someone else just to access stuff that ought to be yours.
Incidentally, that's an interesting point to bring up -- the idea of "stuff that ought to be yours". Cloud computing general data storage (for things like documents) is obviously a "well it makes sense it's yours". However, the idea of cloud computing as applied to media consumption really does fit that idea of "licensing" -- that is, your capability to experience a piece of media is at the discretion of the entity that owns the intellectual property represented by that piece of media, and is something that they have an actual (even if questionably legal) means to revoke that capability as long as they don't consent to it for whatever reason. In other words, you don't really "own a copy of" anything anymore...all you have are variably-indefinite rentals. If someone decides that they don't like providing it, or if they decide they don't like what you're doing with it...well, it can go poof right then and there. (And I haven't even gotten to privacy-from-government issues here.) And generally, those rentals don't come with the permission to modify them or create derivative works from them either -- despite that (the creation of derivative information using ideas from other people) being the foundation of culture.
So in short, the stuff that ought to be yours isn't really yours; it's someone else's but you just have the temporary ability to access it.
Comments
I figured that this also derives from your lack of trust towards Google...
I'm going to have to agree with glennmagusharvey.
I love using the internet, but I like having full access to files even off the internet, and only in a few cases do I not mind an internet only connection.
I have a Github account and store code there, but they are nice enough to allow me to keep an offline copy for my own use just in case Github craps out, since I run a localhost copy of MediaWiki for testing code, and since my GitHub is devoted to making the sites I help run online function, I like to make sure the localhost version works well first and have a backup just in case Github goes down on me, which it has in the past.
If I relied on it in a purely online capacity, I'd be screwed if I ever needed the code and Github was down or my internet connection was down.
Also, as pointed about in the OP, I too don't like being in pawn of the content provider should they choose to yank my permission to access the service for whatever reason. I like the idea of owning copies of everything I use if possible, and I don't like the idea of renting data I'd like to own unless I have no choice.
I'm amused with the "Advanced Geekery" section saying that you can install Ubuntu on Chromebook. Doesn't that just turn it into a regular netbook?
Also,
Ahahahaaaah useless.
>Everything
This article is more serious yet even less useful than the reasons to upgrade to Windows 8.1 list here.
Honestly, I don't understand why I should be excited to have the things I like not in my hands, it's like having to go to the movies everytime you want to see one movie instead of just buying a copy.
This line needs to be in the running for the most faint praise ever.
I read somewhere that tech devs have basically enterered utopia and assume everybody else has utopia (ie all your customers are young, fun, live in Silicon Valley CA and have unlimited broadband). Every single thing that happens with tech things nowadays proves this true.
Anyways, to round up:
>Let's move services to online servers that are more likely to die and you personally can't back up
>Watch Netflix instead of having stuff whenever you want, and that's not even mentioning the Region Locking
>Use music services that you never ever used before, and as with the second point both of these eat up data whenever you use them so that's fun if you have a limited data plan
>"Unfortunately, printing just won’t go away." ie Clearly what's wrong with this device is Printers and not the device
>"Chromebooks have some offline support." Basically won't work without the internet unless you try really really hard
>Google Drive! Trust one of the NSA's best mates with all your data and again, constant internet connection is required to redownload what they tell you are your files
Basically this really.
Also, isn't this basically turning a laptop into a tablet with no tablet bits? Why? Isn't the tablet market already alive and well, what use is there for this thing when you have a tablet and a laptop?
My friend insists on listening to music using Spotify.
Yeah no thanks not when I have a 3 GB data plan. Plus if I board a plane, especially to a foreign country, or go someplace with poor 3G and 4G, there goes my music.
I always found it rather amusing that almost all the improvements to Windows 8.1 were to the "Metro" interface that nobody (at least, nobody I know) uses anyway
This sums up my thoughts on the cloud fairly well. I would also add that tech devs also assume that the customer has the same usage patterns as them. See all the idea that tablets are killing PC sales, not the fact the computer from 4 years ago is still good enough for most people and there is no pressure to update.
I never really did understand who the target audience for Chromebooks is supposed to be, given that they seem to have less functionality than a comparably-priced Android tablet.
Of course, the real reason Chromebooks exist is to try and get more people locked into Google services, but most people I know have done a good enough job of that on their own (myself included).
Oh, I even forgot about data transfer limits...ironically I took unlimited data for granted, even while not taking permanent connectivity for granted.
Yes, I understand that people can access the web on the road from their cell phones. Don't designers realize that that costs money? And has limited data transfer? It's not like watching that movie just costs the batteries for your DVD player. It costs a rental fee from Netflix as well. Plus a data fee from your 4G provider. The more hands it goes through, the more it's gonna cost. (This is probably lovely for service providers, but considerably less lovely for consumers, or process efficiency either.)
I trust Google enough to handle my e-mail. It's not so much that I don't trust them, it's that I trust them about the same as I trust any provider -- I don't like to depend solely on them.
Also, they were perhaps more trustworthy when they were an upstart company trying to produce disruptive innovations than when they're trying to dig in and monopolize everyone's internet usage.
This thread showed up when Dropbox finally decided to fail on me and I needed to use Google Drive.
Just sayin'
Nerds? Hipsters? Hipster nerds? Sounds like Apple with less functionality.
One thing that drives me mad: Windows 8.1 gives SkyDrive more prominent placement, to the point of giving it a permanent place on Explorer's sidebar with no obvious way to remove it.
I actually feel kinda insulted by that. Why would I choose to save stuff by default on your little thing that offers 7 GB of space instead of my hard drive that has 700 GB of space? And why can't you take "no" for an answer and let me turn the damn thing off without resorting to registry hacks?
Because I'm pretty sure "Not taking "no" for an answer" is Windows 8/.1's motto.
Console gamers don't have more money than the rest of us; they face this exact problem.
I listen to Spotify a lot, but I also own a lot of music as MP3.
Also, of course tech people have entered utopia, or something like that. Didn't you hear about those bastards making plans to secede from the United States?
is THAT why github has its own oval officeAnother reason: this Chrome extension.