Clouds, Part II

“I am not going to be in a f*#&%ing cloud, ever,” he proclaims after I try to explain the concept that one could avoid the annoying presence of Windows and all the virus-firewall-security downloads and warning messages by going to a very simple operating system called Google Chrome OS, coming soon to a computer near you.

From what I read, Chrome OS’s only job is to get you online, where all the apps you need, along with all your personal files, are stored and accessible to you, anytime anywhere. Some say that an “operating system = browser” approach is unnecessarily limiting and even claustrophobic; however, this level of simplicity would seem to be potentially attractive to my neo-Luddite soul mate who gets so frustrated when unexplained and mysterious events occur during his computer usage. On the other hand, the absolute need for an Internet connection to do anything useful could be limiting as well.

He says he doesn’t trust the Internet, but Too Late—he does most of his banking on it. He was finally able to buy the right size jeans (31 in seam, not easily found in brick and mortal establishments) by ordering them online last week. He recently discovered how cool it is to send an e-mail to a family member and get an almost instantaneous reply.

Could we stomach yet another high tech device on top of the two cell phones, conventional PC and Netbook we already have? I am not thrilled with the iPad, am thinking about getting a Kindle, but the Chrome OS intrigues me also and makes me think I’ll wait and see what a Chrome-based netbook might be like, keeping all my data and apps in the Google Cloud. Would it be safe long term? I did take one step in that direction a few weeks ago. In my continuing search for a carefree and automatic way to backup data, I signed up for Carbonite, which quietly backs up all your files to the Cloud over a couple of days, and then continues to quietly back up any new files or changes immediately as they happen. So you always have an up-to-date backup on-line. It works like a charm--you can easily see the files anytime, and download them back onto your PC whenever needed. Nevertheless, for the really important stuff I also back it up onto more conventional media periodically just in case. I don’t have my head completely in the clouds just yet.