c|net: Google’s strategy […] Create a custom version of Linux, lets call it, gOS, so that lay man users can use it to check email, surf the web, include some office s/ware, a generic media player etc. This sums up about 90% of the features required by the typical OS user.

Oh for fuck’s sake… enough with this 90% bullshit.

Maybe it’s just me, but I’m so sick to death of hearing about this type of crap. Maybe it’s because I once worked for a company that “prided” itself on the fact that it was offering 80% of a platform as a foundation. The though was that when a customer came along, they’d only had to finish the last 20% of the total application and that would be particular per customer. They never realized that that remaining 20% would be the most expensive part of the entire process, not only destroying whatever profits the project might bring in but it also killed any of the savings we would have gained by the “pre-work” that was already done. Of course, this is the same company that once completely ran out of paper due to “fiscal challenges”. Xerox machines, printers, drawers… everything was empty; I had to bring in a few sheets from home for a week or two, just to print out some internal reports. *sigh*

As sour as that experience has made me towards percentages, I remain skeptical about this c|net whole artile… After all, the current theory is that G-Net will be a VPN. Of course the media now credits Google with having invented the network – stripping that credit from previous inventors Al Gore and Sun – but I won’t get into that here. The issue I have with the article stems from the reference of yet another Internet client. Yet another? You can bet your bippy on that. We’ve seen it all before. ePod? AOL Client? Compaq’s iPaq Client? MSNtv? WebTV? Any of these ringing a bell? They should. They all have had “less than stellar” results, when it comes to sales.

Why?

It’s the consumer’s fault. They’ll tell anyone willing to listen that “I only want to check email and surf the web”. Someone puts out a dumbed down piece of hardware that does just that. The consumer puts it in their house. At this point, if you ask them what they bought, they’ll tell you “a computer for the Internet”. Consumers are lying to the OEM’s, but they don’t know it yet.

The box might be sold as an appliance but the owner sees it as a computer.

Now enter the Geek.

See, in everyone’s life, there’s someone like me. Someone that is doing something with their PC that is inherently neat and bound to cause Digital Envy. Maybe something that’s as simple as sync’ing my calendar in five places, including my mobile phone. Maybe it’s playing Halo online – during the pre-Halo 2 non-Live days – and being able to shoot people all over the world. Maybe it’s video IM’ing with someone in another country? Maybe it’s running Money or Quicken and being able to track my budget back to 1996. Maybe I’m making a digial slide show of someone’s wedding pictures and blasting that out via email to a bunch of people… or mastering and then burning copies of a DVD of my band playing from a couple of years ago.

The Internet Appliance owner hears that and says “well I have a computer… can’t I do that too?” I usually give them the sad look that I had to suffer under, when I would ask someone if they wanted me on their basketball team in high school, and respond with, “Oh, I’m sorry, no, you need a computer”.

People want to do all of the things that a computer can do. They either don’t know what they want to do or they don’t realize what they can do with a PC until they hear about it from someone else. They’ll tell you, “oh, I just want email and the web,” but they honestly don’t know what they want. Or worse, they don’t know what they can do…

And to fix that last problem, I look to Microsoft. Honest. No company flag waving for this bit – after all we make two of the Internet appliance boxes up there in that list! Yet, I still have to look to Microsoft to help out with this. How? Windows Tablet, since it can be portable in a way that an Appliance can’t be – more users will figure that out over time. Windows Media Center Edition, since it does great things with movies, pictures and music. Xbox 360, because it builds on the MCE foundation and will offer a kick ass gaming experience. Software, like Digital Image Studio, Movie Maker, and even Windows Media Player… a lot of users simply don’t know what this stuff can do right now – they need to hear it from someone like me before they know it’s possible. And I think that process will change, since a lot of these features will bubble up over time.

…and I believe that the first stag of that bubbling up will come with the combination of all things Windows: Vista.

At least that’s how I see it… One thing is very certain in my mind: we don’t need another appliance to get people to get online – people are already doing that. And with Dell’s low price point for a full blown PC… how can you sell the Appliance for less than that?

Ah well – if someone with a multi-colored six lettered logo still wants to buy into that theory, well, then… knock yer socks off. :)