Author Topic: Chrome OS preview looks pretty cool (Read 33059 times)

zridling · « **on:** November 19, 2009, 10:41 PM »

Google previewed its Linux-based ChromeOS Thursday and though it won't replace the big three desktop OSes, it will serve as a superfast thin client on netbooks and mobile devices. "Chrome OS is also fully open source, and will run on a wider variety of hardware than standard x86-based PCs."

Google is working with multiple partners on commercial devices, including Acer, Asus, Freescale, Hewlett-Packard, Lenovo, Qualcomm, Texas Instruments, and Toshiba. Google has very specific ideas on how these machines will be designed. The OS does not support hard drives, just SSDs (solid state devices), on which files, and much content can be cached. With a boot time of 7 seconds to an open browser, this could be exciting for business travelers. Full release [might be] expected in late Summer or Fall 2010.
..........................................
Cade Metz provides an excellent counterargument to Chrome OS.

JavaJones · « **Reply #1 on:** November 19, 2009, 10:45 PM »

Hmm, from what I've heard it will only be available on specific devices (limited driver support), so the line about *broader* support seems odd. I'm also wondering, given the SSD requirement, how a nicely tuned Linux install on similar hardware would compare. I mean is this really that much faster?

Speed aside it's an interesting-ish idea. Maybe good for a subset of the market, depending on the rollout of some additional apps/services...

- Oshyan

zridling · « **Reply #2 on:** November 19, 2009, 11:02 PM »

Exactly. This would only be targeted to a limited set of users, and for them not all of the time. This would make a great traveling, short trip, kitchen, waiting room(!) or TV-room device in my opinion. Being open source, it'd be great if other browsers tweaked the code to include their own versions.

mouser · « **Reply #3 on:** November 20, 2009, 12:23 AM »

see also: https://www.donation...ndex.php?topic=20689

Perry Mowbray · « **Reply #4 on:** November 20, 2009, 01:02 AM »

Exactly. This would only be targeted to a limited set of users, and for them not all of the time. This would make a great traveling, short trip, kitchen, waiting room(!) or TV-room device in my opinion. Being open source, it'd be great if other browsers tweaked the code to include their own versions.
-zridling (November 19, 2009, 11:02 PM)

I'm pretty keen on one for my wife to use from the lounge

I also wondered if it'd be a nice (ie easier to use) companion on a holiday: especially if it worked with Google Navigation: I'm sort of thinking of a big in car phone/computer/gps

f0dder · « **Reply #5 on:** November 20, 2009, 09:02 AM »

The OS does not support hard drives, just SSDs (solid state devices)
-zridling (November 19, 2009, 10:41 PM)

Sounds like a preeeeetty arbitrary and artificial limit, considering that SSDs use exactly the same connectors and protocol as standard hard drives...

mediaguycouk · « **Reply #6 on:** November 20, 2009, 09:25 AM »

I expected it to be a quick boot button for checking emails and the like as an alternative to full blown windows.

Being locked down stronger than an iPhone is a big disappointment to me.

Josh · « **Reply #7 on:** November 20, 2009, 09:52 AM »

It also does not support printing.

gexecuter · « **Reply #8 on:** November 20, 2009, 11:05 AM »

It also does not support printing.
-Josh (November 20, 2009, 09:52 AM)

i watched the Q&A and if i am not mistaken i heard the google guys said that Chrome OS WILL support printing.

argv · « **Reply #9 on:** November 20, 2009, 12:10 PM »

Well, I'm looking forward to install it in vmware

rgdot · « **Reply #10 on:** November 20, 2009, 01:06 PM »

Laugh if you want to, but if I am going to use a cloud OS I want much improved SLA from my ISP.
May be google should be looking at 'partnerships' with ISPs too instead of hardware companies.

zridling · « **Reply #11 on:** November 20, 2009, 03:08 PM »

Well, but this is the paradigm shift that Google (cloudsters) have talked about for a couple of years now. Chrome is not so much OS as ad medium. Right now, it's just a foundation, making up in speed what it (purposefully) lacks in extras. When the Google guys say the browser is the OS, they're not joking: they've created a free, easy-to-use, efficient browser that pushes users to the Web -- and Google's ads -- as quickly as possible. In return for text ads, you get "free."

With Google's Chrome OS business model, the OS isn't a revenue-generating product. It's hardly a commodity per se. It's not even a service, as Microsoft's Office Web apps try to be. Under Google, the OS is a medium, like television, radio or the Internet. That's the revolutionary idea, and one that we should take time to ponder.

Being open source, Microsoft would be smart to simply build its own version, inserted IE where the Chrome browser is. The only other option is for them to sue the socks off Google in Federal courts (like they've done by funding SCO) for the next decade or two. This is indeed an interesting time to be computing!

Stoic Joker · « **Reply #12 on:** November 20, 2009, 06:36 PM »

Under Google, the OS is a medium, like television, radio or the Internet. That's the revolutionary idea, and one that we should take time to ponder.
-zridling (November 20, 2009, 03:08 PM)

(Treat it like a Radio or TV) That's the part I find horrifying, because any chance of securing the thing goes right down the drain the instant Joe User gets the impression that a lackadaisical attitude is okay.

zridling · « **Reply #13 on:** November 21, 2009, 04:27 PM »

(Treat it like a Radio or TV) That's the part I find horrifying, because any chance of securing the thing goes right down the drain the instant Joe User gets the impression that a lackadaisical attitude is okay.
-Stoic Joker (November 20, 2009, 06:36 PM)

http://www.chromium.org/chromium-os
Google announced that Chrome OS will feature a sandbox approach -- this video explains the technical aspects in less than 4 minutes: (http://www.youtube.c.../watch?v=A9WVmNfgjtQ). According to Google's announcement, the company will be "going back to the basics and completely redesigning the underlying security architecture of the OS so that users don't have to deal with viruses, malware and security updates."

Stoic Joker · « **Reply #14 on:** November 21, 2009, 07:07 PM »

Chrome OS = Sandbox.

Right... (literal) Translation: There is nothing on LM that is worth stealing. It's not really an OS per se, it's a browser with a boot strap that gives you direct access to the Google Cloud. Where all of your data is kept for you... e.g. There is no point in hacking into a TV, which is what this thing pro-ports to want to be.

Once again (and don't even try to tell me AOL hasn't proven this point 1,000 times over), The very instant you tell Joe User that they are perfectly safe and secure in a warm blanket of bull shit...

...They will start doing stuff like use their dogs name for a password, "hide" their password in the text of their (public access) personal page (in case they lose it...), and even dumber stuff that I can't even fathom.

Google's use of terms like sandbox is more sales hyperbole than a true use of the technology because there is (once again) nothing stored on the device that actually needs to be defended (it's just a Web-Radio). It's nothing more then a thinly veiled attempt to stampede people like lemmings off a cliff into the the warm safe embrace of Google's Venus Cloud trap.

JavaJones · « **Reply #15 on:** November 21, 2009, 07:23 PM »

I guarantee it'll have password memory, and *that* needs protecting...

If anyone wants to try it in its present state, Slashdot has a story with links for resources:
http://tech.slashdot...In-a-Virtual-Machine

- Oshyan

cmpm · « **Reply #16 on:** November 21, 2009, 07:29 PM »

How does it compare to ajax (which has not seen updates since 2008) or other online os'?

http://www.ajaxwindo...s/content/index.html

Interesting article here-

http://en.wikipedia....iki/Google_Chrome_OS

Note the - See also

* Azure
* Gazelle

zridling · « **Reply #17 on:** November 21, 2009, 09:11 PM »

Good source, cmpm, thanks. Here's some background by Stephen O'grady on similar ideas/attempts to bring a "network computer" to market in the past 13 years. He also gives his analysis of Chrome:

http://redmonk.com/s.../07/08/chrome-os-qa/

argv · « **Reply #18 on:** November 22, 2009, 02:53 PM »

It seems a Google Chrome OS Virtual Machine is already available for download on mininova

nite_monkey · « **Reply #19 on:** November 23, 2009, 10:12 AM »

lifehacker has an article on the vm that is available

Alternately, you can download a VMware build directly from web site gdgt as well, "no strings attached" (as long as you don't consider creating an account at gdgt and giving them your email address "strings").

I downloaded it, and for the most part, it isn't to bad. I didn't try it out for very long though.

zridling · « **Reply #20 on:** November 23, 2009, 02:21 PM »

Microsoft's Ray Ozzie asked a good question:

...If you were going to design an OS today, what would it look like? The OS that we’re using today is kind of in the model of a ’70s or ’80s vintage workstation. It was designed for a LAN, it’s got this great display, and a mouse, and all this stuff, but it’s not inherently designed for the Internet.

mouser · « **Reply #21 on:** November 23, 2009, 02:24 PM »

but it’s not inherently designed for the Internet.

i worry that when google hear's that, it translates to "it doesnt have an easy way to plaster ads on it"

one of the mysteries of our current age is that people go ballistic when you put ads inside applications, and yet have no problem with the fact that every site on the web is filled with them.
so that happens when all apps are web apps? is it like dividing by zero?

app103 · « **Reply #22 on:** November 23, 2009, 02:56 PM »

Welcome to the future of computing:

WebTV^w
MSN Companion^w
Chrome OS

zridling · « **Reply #23 on:** November 23, 2009, 03:29 PM »

i worry that when google hear's that, it translates to "it doesnt have an easy way to plaster ads on it" ....people go ballistic when you put ads inside applications, and yet have no problem with the fact that every site on the web is filled with them. so that happens when all apps are web apps? is it like dividing by zero?
-mouser (November 23, 2009, 02:24 PM)

Depends on the app, I suppose. Chrome OS will neither dislodge Windows, Linux, or OSX nor their [powerful] apps. It's just a kernel built to run one foundational app: the browser. But its Chrome browser need not solely run Google Apps. You could use it to run Windows Live apps (one of the videos shows how awesome and fast the web version of Office 2010?/07 is on Chrome) or anything else. Browsers as we've known them to date aren't enough. That's why we need HTML 5 and Adobe AIR to make the experience "richer" than the bare bones you get with Google Docs, for instance.

Web apps won't supplant local apps. The (local) ones that will fall behind are those that are dependent on one platform. The web, of course, erases that restriction. For now, Chrome OS will be a way to build a true netbook device. Unless you're playing an excellent flash game, World of Warcraft and Halo ain't never going to happen.

Welcome to the future of computing:
WebTVw
MSN Companionw
Chrome OS
-app103 (November 23, 2009, 02:24 PM)

Microsoft isn't standing still on this. OSX really isn't innovative enough to give it any competitive jolt. This will be good. Here is Microsoft's take on an OS for web apps (Gazelle).

zridling · « **Reply #24 on:** November 24, 2009, 12:16 PM »

Google is asking developers to contribute to the Chrome extensions gallery -- an act that will put third party applications on both the Chrome browser and eventually the operating system. Developers can contribute to the project by uploading their creations to the Developer Dashboard. You figure the best place to start would be the "Most Shared" in the Firefox Add-ons Gallery and work on porting some of those for Chrome.

"Once an extension is uploaded, our gallery takes care of packaging and signing. Updating an extension is also incredibly easy — all a developer needs to do is to upload a new file in the gallery. Finally, to further help developers, in the next few days, we plan to open up the gallery to a small group of trusted testers."