A Chromebook is basically a laptop that has chrome as its operating system instead of windows. It can be used when the internet is available with cloud storage as the main medium of storing data. After being introduced to the general public, the major customers were schools. This is because in light of the recent advancements in science, schools are also looking forward to increase their student output in terms of creativity, cooperation, intellect and of course up-to-date citizens; a Chromebook has all the essentials that can help them achieve this level of productivity. However what’s the history?
The idea:
Jeff Nelson was the first person to make a “Chromebook’ in the Google Company. It all began when he got frustrated trying to restart Firefox; which was taking up to 45 seconds. However, these seconds were proving to be cumbersome because as a developer he needed to save that precious time. He thought; why not create something that starts Firefox quicker?
The development:
Jeff started using Puppy Linux to begin working on his idea. It took a lot of failures, many disappointments and a whole lot of work before he could advertise the idea of a WebTop. However, his company paid no heed to his efforts and as a result; he left the company for good. It was later on that his ideas took the shape of a Chromebook, but the tragedy is that no one acknowledged him and his ideas ran into the hands of others who took credit instead.
The real deal:
Jeff argues that the real idea had been to create a Chromebook that does not require any offline Unix environment. The online environment that the chromebooks give was not in his initial plan and has been induced by those who ‘took’ his ideas. He claims that after he built the raw prototype, he took it to his coworkers and his director, David Jeske, but everyone rejected it as impossible. This was because this Chromebook had to be ‘online’ all the time and that meant a lot of flaws in its sale. After that, he began working on it alone because he believed in the project and in himself. After several tries, he managed to impress the Chrome team i.e. Mike Jazayeri and that consequently went over to Larry Page to be assessed. After that, he never got credit for his work.
Google’s insight:
The focal persons at Google state that the idea may have been Jeff’s but all the proceedings that led onto producing a Chromebook are not at all his, and the real product is very different from what he was trying to produce.
Jeff’s thinking:
Jeff believes that Google may be a high class company but it also contains humans who are greedy and are vulnerable to politics. Even though it is a company that seems far from such atrocities, but there still are workers there who can kick you off to gain credit for something that wasn’t theirs. Jeff accepts that he did not write the entire coding program for chromebooks but he did do two patents on it that he left with the company. When the Chromebook was introduced, it did have his coding programs but he was not given credit for it. He demands that Larry Page must come forth and accept that he was the man behind chromebooks so he can get due acknowledgment for his invention, unlike those that took the fame in shame. He also states that his mission is not to take the claim from others who did work on the project because they also deserve to be named, but he should have his due recognition too.
The controversy:
Jeff Nelson thinks that Google has an intellectual property battle going on and will lose if they accept that Nelson had been the inventor of Chromebooks.
Why is this important to know?
The chromebooks are flooding the markets, so why must we know who began them? The answer to that question lies below:
- He deserves it: If Jeff Nelson really did create chromebooks, he has the right to be acknowledged duly. Therefore, it is important to uncover the real story behind these events and find the evidence that states who the father of Chromebooks really is. We may not benefit off from the revelation but it is our duty to honor the man who gave us this invention.
- Big companies are ‘human’ too: We must realize that big companies like Google, Apple, and Samsung etc. are human as well. We feel that everything there is perfect, but indeed they also have their shortcomings and glitches that make them all the same like us. They are also prone to mistakes and can be wrong.
- Humanity: to remind ourselves that humanity must exist alongside humans. No one has the right to claim another person’s work, and present it as their own. We must be happy in the achievements of others and pull out and destroy the root cause of greed, hatred, self-indulgence and making others feel lowly of them.
- Itsy bitsy spider: What we must learn from this tale is that you must never give up. Even though Jeff faced a lot of difficulties and rejections, he did not give up hope. He managed to crawl out from the shell of abhorrence and create what he wanted to.
- Stand up for yourself: Another lesson off the story is that you must always stand up for yourself. The World will push you down, take your rights and make you weep. But no one will ever vouch for you, if you don’t vouch for yourself. So always fight for what is right and what is loved by you.
- Curiosity cravings: you know what they say; curiosity killed the cat. So, in order to calm our inquisitive brains, we must know how Chromebooks actually surfaced on earth and who was behind it truly?
What really happened, we might never know. But we can learn a lot from the tale of Jeff Nelson and the curious case of Chromebooks.