Google exec: 60% of businesses could dump Windows for Chrome

[JonM33]

http://www.zdnet.com/blog/btl/google-ex ... e-os/42141

The latest information comes from a New York Times report that cites its source as Linus Upson, Chrome chief and Google vice president of engineering. The new report says Google recently deployed new systems loaded with Chrome OS to internal Google employees, including Sergey Brin. The Google co-founder reluctantly made the exchange.

However, the kicker in the Times story was this: “Mr. Upson says that 60 percent of businesses could immediately replace their Windows machines with computers running Chrome OS. He also says he hopes it will put corporate systems administrators out of work because software updates will be made automatically over the Web.”

I personally think he's an idiot, Google's version of Steve Ballmer if you will.

1. The cost of switching out these systems as well as migrating user e-mail and accounts and TRAINING the users would be absurd.
2. Storing corporate data in the cloud is NEVER a good thing.
3. Relying upon internet connectivity for company day-to-day business is NOT a good thing.

[tdockery97]

I personally think he's an idiot, Google's version of Steve Ballmer if you will.

1. The cost of switching out these systems as well as migrating user e-mail and accounts and TRAINING the users would be absurd.
2. Storing corporate data in the cloud is NEVER a good thing.
3. Relying upon internet connectivity for company day-to-day business is NOT a good thing.

+1

[paulo.delavega]

1. The cost of switching out these systems as well as migrating user e-mail and accounts and TRAINING the users would be absurd.

Yes, but still cheaper than buying a license for every new employee...

In my case, it includes XP, Office (including Project), AutoCad, Acrobat Writer and so on...
The training cost would be something like 3~4x lower.

[Gramps50]

As we all know every machine ( well most) come with a Windows license of some kind. Back when I was employed we bought a site license becase it was cheaper that getting the licesne from Dell or other providor that we delt with.

MS is not that easy to uproot. Look at all that have tried, including IBM, Novell and others.

[JonM33]

1. The cost of switching out these systems as well as migrating user e-mail and accounts and TRAINING the users would be absurd.

Yes, but still cheaper than buying a license for every new employee...

In my case, it includes XP, Office (including Project), AutoCad, Acrobat Writer and so on...
The training cost would be something like 3~4x lower.

Actually, no.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LiMux

That's a massive project in Munich to convert 14,000 government systems from Windows to Linux. It has taken 7 years and just over 20% have been converted.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison ... ng_systems

"...the project of switching Munich's governmental IT infrastructure from Microsoft based to open-source software, called LiMux, had problems finishing all objectives successfully. Started 2003 with the aim of switching 100% of 14,000 PCs to an open-source solution, the project was funded with 35 million euros, approximately the money a Microsoft solution would have cost."

[Suo_Eno]

If an average Joe like me are struggling to come to terms with trusting personal data getting whisked off to the clouds then it's not a hard guess if biz/enterprise are having bigger dilemmas right?

I still can't understand the real core philosophies behind Chrome OS and more so if it's geared for netbooks to start?Stuff like AMD's Fusion platform;Ontario/Zacate APUs are coming which means 2011/12 netbooks are getting better and powerful?People could just install any other established and FULL major desktop Linux distros with netbook UIs (or heck do away with that and go full DEs instead) on those.

[randomizer]

1. The cost of switching out these systems as well as migrating user e-mail and accounts and TRAINING the users would be absurd.

Most companies take years to switch between versions of Windows, let alone different operating systems. People don't like and can't handle change. 60% is a ludicrous figure in the short and medium term at least.

3. Relying upon internet connectivity for company day-to-day business is NOT a good thing.

Sometimes that is unavoidable depending on the nature of the business. If my company lost its internet connection it would have essentially zero productivity for the entire day.

[sgosnell]

My company has almost 100 bases spread out over more than a dozen states. Without internet connectivity, it's difficult, but not impossible, to conduct business. Today, for example, the company website is down for unknown reasons, and thus no email, no connection to the website, etc, but we can still fly. There is zero chance of storing any company information in the cloud. Zero.

We're still using XP, and there is essentially no chance of switching to anything other than Windows. 60% of businesses could dump Windows for Chrome, and there is essentially the same odds of the sun coming up in the west tomorrow. It could happen, but it's not something you should bet on.

[JonM33]

Most companies take years to switch between versions of Windows, let alone different operating systems. People don't like and can't handle change. 60% is a ludicrous figure in the short and medium term at least.

Not just change but the time and effort it takes IT staff to convert these can be very lengthy. I was in the USAF when we converted from Windows 98/NT to Windows 2000 Pro. It wasn't fun. Then I was a part of converting from Windows 2000 Pro to Windows XP Pro. That was even worse. Then of course the mandatory patching of all systems to Service Pack 2? Ugh, huge nightmare.

I couldn't imagine the time and training needed to convert large numbers of users from Windows/MS Office to Linux/OpenOffice. Then there is also your IT staff. Most IT people are trained/skilled in Windows.

Sometimes that is unavoidable depending on the nature of the business. If my company lost its internet connection it would have essentially zero productivity for the entire day.

I've seen it happen before. One of my jobs had a warehouse lose it's internet connectivity. Business was shut down completely and they were losing millions of dollars per hour. They resorted to using a wireless air card and encrypted VPN connection to get them up and running again. It was slow but the data was text/numbers only. Slow was better than nothing.