Will hard disk drives soon be a thing of past?

[GoFlyKiteNow]

Will hard disk drives soon be a thing of past?

Google believes that the Chrome OS will effectively act as a gateway to the web, allowing users to store their filed and documents on remote servers rather than storing in hard disks.

Ever imagined a computer system without a hard disk drive? Well, soon there will be such systems that will need just a few gigabytes of storage, allowing users to store their documents, photos and videos on remote servers through Internet.

At least, that seems the vision of Internet giant Google, which recently demonstrated its new operating system — Chrome OS.

The operating system, which Google believes will revolutionise computing, effectively acts as a gateway to the web, allowing users to store their filed and documents on remote servers rather than storing in hard disks.

Users can access their emails, documents or social networking sites by clicking on application tabs in the browser— like interface and use panels at the bottom of the desktop to send an instant message or view a video, The Telegraph reported.

Computers can boot up faster and get connected with web in just seven seconds through the operating system, termed the “cloud computing” approach, it said.

“We want Chrome to be blazingly fast,” said Sundar Pichai, Google’s vice president of product management. “We want it to be like a TV — turn it on and it’s booted up.”

“Chrome will run only on computers that use flash memory solid state drives instead of conventional hard drives.”

“Over the past few years, people have been spending more and more of their time online doing more and more powerful things, and we wanted to build a fundamentally different computing experience built for the way we use the web today,” says Mr. Pichai.

“With Google Chrome OS, we’ve made computing faster, easier and safer than ever before.”

But some experts say Google could find it difficult to persuade consumers. Users will not be able to install their own software or applications on Chrome OS devices — so that means no iTunes, no Skype and no Tweetdeck.

“There’s no doubt that Chrome OS looks fast, but it’s fairly limited in terms of its functionality,” says Annette Jump, an analyst with Gartner. “A lot of work needs to be done to convince consumers that this operating system will be useful to them.”

Another problem Chrome OS faces is its reliance on always-on web connectivity, which might be possible in large cities, with good mobile phone network coverage and plenty of Wi—Fi hotspots, but in rural areas, or on a flight, Chrome will be hobbled.

Google has also released the code to the operating system in the hope that developers would build new products, services and applications, in much the same way as they build apps for the iPhone, or Google’s mobile phone operating system, Android.

 

[singveld]

google will say no such thing, if their engineers are using singapore internet lines 24/7. they are thinking about amsterdam, south korea and japan.

 

[besotted]

Clouded thinking

 

[uncleyap]

It is already true even without google.

I had installed mini-desktops in configs just alike net-tops which has no HDD. But most USB flash are slow so you must select the faster ones, or use CF cards. 8GB is enough to have a desktop with office applications etc. Silent because no HDD and also light and power saving and most of all more robust (low drop risk) because no HDD.

There is more expensive option if you want to spend, SSD is fastest in SATA form.

Beside HDD, actually the optical drives CD/DVD are really phased out in new models.

For many office applications, their data are in their servers. The desktops only needs a tiny drive to boot up to access LAN & NAS etc. 4GB is already sufficient. Once booted up it is actually FULL FUNCTIONAL DESKTOPS.

Pity the out-dated users who use Win-7 or Vista - yucks needs 30-40GB of installation foot-print full of useless craps that is just spending your time to scan for virus among the huge pile of useless craps.:( Update to Linux!

HDD will be away from desktops & net-books but in laptops; workstations; servers etc, there is still no chance to avoid HDD. Flash are fast and cheap, but unable to beat the capacity and price per GB level of HDD.

 

[Watchman]

Solid state drives are so convenient ~!

 

[longbow]

For me the issue is:

1) Privacy - what if the company goes under, what if they lose the files (yes I know their system has more redundany but just how I feel).

2) Peripherals like cameras and camcorders now have much better resolution. Each pix can be 12m. Each video can be 500mb or more. Current connection rates make it too slow to back up a 20 minute video.

 

[GoFlyKiteNow]

For me the issue is:

1) Privacy - what if the company goes under, what if they lose the files (yes I know their system has more redundany but just how I feel).

2) Peripherals like cameras and camcorders now have much better resolution. Each pix can be 12m. Each video can be 500mb or more. Current connection rates make it too slow to back up a 20 minute video.

maybe use flash drive.
not HDD.

 

[nkfnkfnkf]

Solid state drives are so convenient ~!

Not meant to be a pocket drive. It is for installation into the system. But some people used it as pocket drive then it will require the system to have ESATA + POWER adapter.

Put SSD in laptop for example will make it more vibration safe and FAST.

 

[Churuya]

I prefer to be able to do work without having internet access to be a mandatory preqrequisite.

In any case I want to be in control of my computer data and applications. Why give it up to some random company on the net, which can close shop, or worse, betray you because of government pressure?

 

[cocobobo]

yeah its just ain't safe. i won't put my stuff on remote servers alone, without backup on harddisk, hence its pointless. and remember geocities... had some stuff there but ignored the irritating email reminders, and now its all gone

 

[potato29]

Will hard disk drives soon be a thing of past?

Google believes that the Chrome OS will effectively act as a gateway to the web, allowing users to store their filed and documents on remote servers rather than storing in hard disks.

what does the remote servers store the docments on?

 

[Black2545]

Wafer any one?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wafer_(electronics)

 

[Char_Azn]

Google and in many ways the rest of the IT community are abit dettached from reality. According to analyst reports, M$, Apple and Google are all trying to move towards cloud computing by next gen. It sounds nice and all but the fact is other then a few select country which(believe it or not) includes SG, the vast majority of the world does not have the required Broadband penetration rate to make it realistic.

And realistically speaking, it would be close to impossible to implement broadband internet access throughout most of Asia and Africa within the next decade or so. Apart from a select few, SG, HK, Korea and Japan, the rest of Asia still have a lot of catching up to do. The major cities in many countries may have broadband access but even in the US, they've only about 50-60% broadband pentration rate.

I have no doubt in my mind that one day, we'll all be connected wherever we go, however, talking about this being realistically roll out to the masses within the next decade is a tall order. HDD is still very much here to stay for now.

 

[Char_Azn]

what does the remote servers store the docments on?

They store it on the same kind of technology used to store LKY's brain, a thumbdrive :p:p

 

[boba fett]

Not safe and cannot be trusted.

 

[krafty]

Solid state drives are so convenient ~!

they are so ex!

 

[Sithclone]

this will never work for people doing video work. 1 hour of dv footage is 13GB, how not to use a hdd?

 

[NoNewsGood]

Microsoft tried a similar idea at the beginning of the decade. Web PC, all the applications will not be installed in the PC but to run from the web. The idea failed.

 

[johnny333]

Esata, sata, firewire,.... connection will always be faster than a broadband connection.

Data security is better if you use RAID which many motherboards support..

Cost of magnetic storage is very affordable.

Who's to say that there won't be another interruption to the internet Remember that an earthquake, ships anchor,... can damage the undersea cables, or a faulty router,.....

 

[UltimaOnline]

Silly silly Google (or rather, they're not silly, but actually have selfish ulterior motive since Google owns the internet more than Microsoft or Yahoo or any other corporation. They basically want to be richer and more powerful than Microsoft).

The two groups of heavy computer users : Gamers and scientific research and development teams, require installations of high end applications on the machine itself. An OS based on the internet will never be able to suffice.

Imagine playing WoW, Left4Dead or Ultima Online with every data and graphic file stored on the internet and not on your local harddrive.

No way broadband coverage on the planet will ever achieve a level sufficient for this. If it does, it will be at the expense of undeveloped nations with millions of poor starving people.

So unless people want to be f**ked up to pursue technologies based on the ethically corrupted "the rich get richer and the poor get poorer" model, harddisks and non-internet based Operating Systems are here to stay.