Re: <nettime> Google officially released the open source code for its Chrome OS, an operating system

[Morlock Elloi <morlockelloi@yahoo.com>]

Instead of the tirade about the braindeads giving corporations full control
of their underwear (including the enclosed dicks and pussies), I'll point
to something perhaps more obvious which is missing.

There are indeed advantages of the professional maintenace of storage and
"application-space". Backup, conformance, availability.

However:

1. While remotely encrypted file systems are well established and developed
concept, not a single thin-client peddler offers these.

In short, the remote storage operator would not be able to read your data.
It is decrypted and processed locally (applications also come from the
remote storage.) The implementations already exist and would be trivial for
Google, Inc. and others to offer.

They are not offering those because they want access to your data. This is
how you pay them.

2. There needs to be a standard for remote storage if we are to trust our
private data to remote keepers. If I can replace a Seagate disk with a
Winchester disk drive, I should be able to replace a remote repository.
Because I don't ever want my computer to tell me "if you don't want to
stick with Seagate, you'll have to pay". It doesn't matter if it's Google
or hundreds or service providers that hold my data.

There is no such standard. On the contrary, each provider goes through
pains to make sure you cannot jump the boat.

The only standard that these service providers agreed on is how to leave
you with nothing (thin web client) and lock you in while holding your data.
Of course, the argument is convenience, and it appears to work with
single-digit IQs (huge market.)

In short, this is about taking away the last thing you really control today
and they still don't have - bits on your disk drives. The only thing you
will have left is conditional shared access to your own data and
pay-as-you-go use of your memories.

I can totally see governments having wet dreams along these lines.

> All its apps are Web apps, and all the data you save using it
> is stored in the cloud, in a state of statelessness, as Google
> puts it. Very little data is actually saved on the computer's
> hard drive.


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