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Comment by maxwell | Hacker News Reader

I think it's actually ahead of its time. The browser has already won; we're just waiting on perf and app maturity for the "last mile" of web apps (games, audio/video editors, industry-specific software (e.g. POS/PMS in hospitality), full offline access). The recent resurgence of native apps is just mobile growing up; 10 years ago, there were still B&W displays on "PDAs"...

Chrome OS gets the balance between local and cloud right, with 1 click extension installation/uninstallation, a minimal file system to facilitate downloading/uploading, and a very clean interface. In just a few years, and despite low marketshare, Chrome already sets the pace, as Firefox's new interface and release cycle give witness to. Regular people are actually ahead of the curve: for personal stuff, they already only use web apps. When they can get their work done on the web too, they'll wonder why they'd need anything other than "just a browser".

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I'd take that even a step further: Google's been trying to unify Android across its mobile platforms, but why stop there? Why not bring this to desktop? And what better way to unite the desktop and mobile than through the browser and the cloud?

The latest versions of Chrome Canary have been increasingly focused on bringing the app experience to desktop computing. It already has dedicated applications for Google maps, Wikipedia, etc.

I'd credit a lot of Apple's mobile success to their ability to create a consistent experience across the product line. If Google can unite Chrome and Android together into a coherent experience across all product lines, they're going to have something very special on their hands.

You could be right and I do 95% of my tasks in a browser. I just found that I do not want an OS without the other 5% e.g. gaming (unless something like Onlive really takes off), offline access and performance (unless HTML5 delivers), peripherals like scanning and printing (unless you get devices that can scan and print to email), downloading photos from a camera (same can email?). Native applications on an iPad for example are so much better than the mobile web versions, again unless HTML5 delivers. So there are a lot of "unless if's" in there, if I was a betting man I would not bet on Chrome OS.

I don't see any of those as "unless ifs", but "whens". Gaming will come to the browser, first with HTML5 and NaCl. Offline access isn't a technical issue, we're just waiting on developers to implement when they feel it's necessary. JS is only getting faster and, combined with efforts like NaCl, we'll have native perf inside 5 years. Printing from my Cr-48 is already solved (Cloud Print is great), and we'll undoubtedly see scanning and camera solutions soon, one way or another. Native tablet apps will be killed by web apps in the same way native desktop apps were/are being.

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