Opinions: Clouds Don't Have to Rely on the Internet

The last thing I ever want to come across as, is a Microsoft hater - it does nothing but damage the cause of any Linux advocate. But I've had a slew of people suggesting that Windows 7 looks great and that perhaps I'd be considering moving back to Windows. Aside from the fact that I prefer Linux (it's not just a drop in replacement - it does things differently in a way I like) I realised I had an almost irrational, underlying gut reaction to not want to use Windows.

Then this week when yet another Internet Explorer vulnerability was announced, it hit me - "All this has happened before and will happen again" to quote BSG. Look at Microsoft's past record - how many times have we been bitten? How many times have I had to do stupid things like reinstall because I can't get low-level access to the OS?

I could go on, but my point is - I've been bitten enough that my natural, sub-conscious protection mechanism is in place. Windows 7 may look nice - I've used it, I like it. But in a years time, we're going to be having the same discussion as we did about XP or Vista. Why does the general population suddenly feel that things are going to be any different with Windows 7? It's still the same logic, the same approach and a lot of the same underlying technology.

So Google announced yesterday that there will be a Chrome OS. No big surprise there, but by the sounds of things, it's just a minimalist Linux distro with Chrome bolted on top - what I've been suggesting will happen for a while. It looks pretty smart and I'm looking forward to seeing it working.

There's no denying that programming for the web is the ultimate in cross-platform development - Linux, Windows, Mac - it doesn't matter as long as it has a web browser. I'm not going to harp on about the benefits of developing for the cloud - but something that occurred to me is peoples misconception of how relying on a web browser to run applications means relying on an internet connection.

It's really very easy to run a local web server. I'm using one right now to control the MythTV setup in my living room. I could install one on this computer by simply typing "sudo apt-get install apache2" in the terminal - that simple. Even on Windows it's a 5 minute task.

Many small businesses have a central server for file storage and maybe e-mail. Chances are they already have a web server running on it - probably IIS for running an Intranet. I imagine there are open source Google Document like programs available that could be installed to your local server - simulating the cloud experience on a local level. And of course - using VPN, or simply opening your server up to the Internet (with security in place, naturally) you could access this while out and about or from home.

Even if you don't want to run an external server, every computer needs to simply have a local web server running with the applications they need installed to the local server. Programming for the web doesn't mean you can't stay local. Instead of installing OpenOffice, compiled for your particular platform - it would simply drop the scripts into your local web server, ready to be run.

People can deny it all they want, but the vision that Google has with Google OS and The Cloud is very much where we are heading. I'll see you all in a years time with a list of Windows 7 problems so far

Posted By: Gordon

Or you could just use Google Gears...

Yes, that too But the point remains valid...

If they're going to chop up a linux distro and clip it to the back of Chrome, do you think it's also possible to get Chrome properly packaged as .deb, .rpm and so forth?

I'm probably not even close to an "average" computer user, 98% of what I do on a computer is through a browser. The other 2% takes place in Terminal and Gimp.

A while back, I argued that the only reason Adobe Air exists is because browsers aren't up to handling some of our internet needs, like instant messaging and micro-blogging. I hope that now the Google brand has been pinned to being a digital nomad, focus is brought to improving what browsers can do.

Posted By: DrDark

"sudo apt-get install apache2"

You should get that on a t-shirt.

Nah. "sudo make me a sandwich" is the only sudo related text worth having on a t-shirt...