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Comment by sabret00the | Hacker News Reader

And there we have it. What I find super interesting is despite this setback for Facebook and the failure of ChromeOS, Mozilla will still push on with Firefox OS (B2G) when the resources are much needed elsewhere. Oh well...

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It's a setback - but I find it less dramatic than what you make it to be. Mobile web still has tremendous value over native (specifically in deployment options). If some of these things get addressed by device builders we could see a real explosion of "apps" not unlike the explosion that has already occurred. I'm a fan of native implementations for the exact reasons Tobie laid out, but I'm a bigger fan of Mobile web for distribution reasons.

By what criteria has Chrome OS failed?

Chrome OS's only real milestone at this point is the fact that a few OEMs decided to give it a go. It's certainly not eating away at any market-share.

ChromeOS is years before its time. It's an aspirational operating system where Android is a realistic one. That also means that it's a little early to pass judgment.

Maybe, but the question remains, is it viable now? Is Firefox OS viable now? The answer to both is an emphatic no. However it's felt more in regards to Mozilla as they don't have the resources to build Firefox OS and maintain Firefox along with other projects like Thunderbird. Android still doesn't have a good open source mail program and the port of Thunderbird was a hope.

If you judge the user base or commercial success it's pretty easy to pass judgment and say it failed. I can't even buy one on amazon.de!

If you assume ChromeOS will be maintained for years to come by Google (because they can afford it) and it will be improved then it might have a chance of becoming something big.

So the only reason you say it's 'early' is because you assume Google will keep it alive long enough to have a fighting chance.

I'm also a big fan of ChromeOS' model. Chrome is advancing very very quickly and so is ChromeOS as a consequence. There have been big deployments at schools, for which it is a great fit. Maybe they just need to price it more aggressively.

I think its big issue might be that people don't realise that a "Chromebox" or "Chromebook" is still a real computer. Their ads are helping somewhat, but I think people still don't know that web apps work offline, for example.

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