Tuesday, September 20, 2011

What can go wrong for Android Tablets?

Lot can go wrong with Android tablets.
Long period elapsed from the concept to execution and most of it was tested on high end of the market.
The average user was not involved in the decision making.
It was probably an effort of a small team which worked hard (dedicated to the task at hand).

To begin with it was the development of the browser.
Then the tiny OS without security enhancements.
It was a new browser not a time tested one.
There were many suitable candidates for this new browser in the  Linux community and none of them were considered or compared with the Chrome. 
Now take FireFox.
It has lot of loop holes when used in the Microsoft Environment.
It originated from Linux but then arched its way out to embrace Microsoft community.
With that it lost the security features.
It is possible to customize it in the Linux environment and even in that environment some cookies till lately (penetrated even my computer) do some undesirable things.
I was doing lot of downloads without a firewall and hacker (most likely windows guy from India-that is far as I went in search of the guy) installed a script in the browser.
Fortunately I detected it in matter of hours and took necessary steps.
Instead of point to point I went for Torrents which has a way of of using the port and testing the threads.
Even torrents can be attacked and it happened to LinuxTracker and lately Linux foundation is affected by a similar attack.
If Linux could be attacked it is going to be chicken feed for attackers in Microsoft environment.
Chrome will have to deal with this threat.
It has no human resource to deal with like in the Linux Community.
In a commercial environment Linux does not prosper as was shown in Fedora Project.
Fedora's contribution was marginal when compared to Debian.
It was today I (rather PCLinux) detected something fishy.
I was using point to point download overnight (two files) and one of them (either Zenwalk or Absolute Linux let in a cookie in between the download streams disrupting my download (point to point) today.

Equally it could have happened after the downloads were finished and I did not terminate the download as usual and left the computer running.
If I had the torrent running this would not have happened which I usually do.

I removed all the Google Cookies (including useful ones) to get some sanity back and system running smoothly.
Any browser is vulnerable and not foolhardy.
So Google gadgets are also vulnerable.
In any case I do not use Chrome.
I am into Cloud computing I have to and I will be using the browsers.
I think Linux has to develop a utility like torrent to deal with this problem and Google with its limited staff cannot do that.

For cloud to succeed something better than the browser has to take the  tiny  computing moments and events into control.
I believe the browser is not the best vehicle for Cloud computing.

Time will tell whether my apprehensions are true or false.

Google cannot do it alone.

The stakes are high if they fail. 

Like viruses for Microsoft viruses it will be Cookies for Google that set in a bad omen (for Chrome and Google).

It has to forge a friendship with Linux Community for it to be successful.

The mistake it did was to declare it's kernel is pure and original.
It is not and it is vulnerable.

Linux has to look forward to the challenge and take a giant stride now  (before it is too late) in Cloud Computing.
Linux can do it with or without Google's help.
That is my belief.