Comments on: Why Chrome OS? Google says, why not?

Google says it is building Chrome OS because it wants to improve the experience of using a computer. Of course, getting more people to spend their lives online and searching can't hurt.

[mdsudan]

If i were @ M$...i would respond with releasing Windows CE free to OEMs. It is easier to install and runs very fast on netbook ( i have a CE running on P3 laptop ). It does not have the typical exposures of XP/Vista and therefore not that vulnerable to security issues.

[brianpereira]

'The Internet is the Computer'
Around the year 1995, John Cage, the fifth employee of Sun Microsystems first uttered the phrase ?The Network is the Computer?. This soon became the tag line for Sun. Cage was suggesting that you don?t need a computer with a beefy processor and lots of memory on the desktop to get work done. And you don?t need to have a bloated operating system and fancy applications either. Instead, all the applications would run on a supercomputer somewhere on the network, and users would have thin clients to access those applications?on demand. User generated documents would also be stored on the supercomputer.
In September 1995, Oracle CEO Larry Ellison introduced the NC or network computer. Oracle planned to launch the much-hyped NC in 1997. The concept was similar. The NC was a bare bones PC or handheld device for accessing applications on the Internet and on the network.
In the 1990s we saw many businesses adopting the Client-Server computing model (and almost all vendors and system integrators offered such solutions). Well, the NC didn?t exactly turn out to be a killer device in the enterprise; users from Wall Street to Capitol Hill continued to hold on to their faithful PCs and laptops.
What happened in 1995 is now an event in history, but history is repeating itself.
Though no one has said it yet, the phrase has now changed to ?The Internet is the Computer?. Want proof of that? Take a look at what?s happening at trendsetter Google. Beginning with search and e-mail, and then with office automation applications (Google Docs) Google has quietly been moving applications out of the desktop and into the cloud. At the end of 2007 Google launched Android, a platform/OS for mobile phones. This year PC manufacturers like Acer and Dell moved quickly to design netbooks powered by the Google Android OS.
Google?s next move became pretty obvious. After moving applications to the cloud, why not design an OS for the cloud?
Yesterday, Google said it is developing its own OS for netbooks, called Google Chrome OS. Google plans to launch its OS in the second half of 2010.
Google?s roadmap is now clear. It wants to put all the applications in the cloud and these will be accessed by a bare-bones PC, which is the netbook. The Google Chrome browser will be the OS interface on the netbook.
Haven?t we heard about this concept before?

Within the enterprise, we see the cloud computing model in the form of virtualization. Take a look at what Citrix and VMWare are offering.
All the software vendors are now going to follow this trend soon. For instance, security software company Trend Micro has just put the scanning engine in the cloud. The engine will be updated with the latest virus definitions in the cloud itself?not on your desktop. On your PC you?ll just have a small software agent that communicates with the scanning engine in the cloud. Big daddy Microsoft also has plans for cloud services and a cloud OS (Windows Azure).
The way things are shaping up, I might as well change the phrase to ?The Cloud is the Computer?.

[bun0dan]

how's it different to an internet tablet ? google likes to give away stuff FREE and utilizes the
open source communities to their advantages. that way they are deemed to be *not evil* and so cool...

its all playing to their advantages that's all

the market and the so called analysts love this sort of hype ! yeah, we really need another linux distro!!
oh yeah, it will be different, sure, the difference is the BRAND!!!!

[rainloving]

I m looking forward to the invention of new chrome OS~

[rainloving]

I m looking forward to the invention of new chrome OS~

[yacahuma]

Great idea. As long as it is not a cripple OS just to run a browser. My leading Linux distribution is Ubuntu. But it need a little push to make it mainstream. If Google could take Linux and develop something like the Mac interface on top, I am sure they can get the hardware provider backing, so no more open source drivers will be needed for new equipment. Application developer companies will follow. What a wonderful dream. Can someone wake me up?

[payday_loans]

There are several reasons why you should get this new Google Operating System or Chromes OS. This new Google Chrome is designed for people who live on the web. The big news on the software front these days is about the Google operating system that is beginning to debut. It's good to know that you can get the Google operating system without needing money and the unending amount of registration that comes with Microsoft products. The Google operating system is being released as a competitor to Windows 7, and the Google OS, or Chrome OS, bears the same name as the internet browser they released last year, and best of all will be free. It is set to begin debuting on netbooks, and its primary focus is online applications. To read more, you may visit http://personalmoneystore.com/moneyblog/2009/07/08/google-operating-system/

[dbloyd]

Forget Netbooks. I can see All-in-One Desktops in the home running Chrome OS like the article suggest. I want to enjoy my web browsing and not be confined to a small netbook at home. "I am a PC" is probably the most accurate for Chrome but PC is too generic and should say something like Windows PC or something.

[mt71449]

I agree with Joe Blow. Fact is, this is what linux does for us, gives us choices, lowers the entry costs for anyone with a new idea or innovative approach. Don't like Chrome OS or the idea of Chrome OS? Use Ubuntu/Ubuntu netbook remix. Or use Sugar. Or use.... you get the picture. I dig Firefox > Chrome. But I run both. I run Windows and Ubuntu, why not Chrome OS too? Get out there and have some fun. Who knows, maybe Facebook will release an OS someday, bet that their OS would be the best.... lol

[mariusthull]

Actually there already is a chromeOS type operating system it's called gOS, short for Good OS. It's not affiliated in anyway with google. However, it is linux and google docs, apps, and gadgets are bound tightly to the desktop. System requirments are minimal by today's standards.

I've played around with it, it's different. Anyone can try it thanks to vmware. All you need to do is download and install vmware player for your operating system then google gos 3.1 appliance and you'll find it. Then just follow the directions to install it.

You can also google gOS or Good OS to see screen shots of the os.

I use linux but I don't consider myself a rabid fanboi. I believe that you should use whatever os and applications best fit your needs and that you're most comfortable with. By the same token I don't think it's right that companies use proprietary formats to exclude or prevent pc or mac owners from having or making choices for themselves.

I'm not a gOS fanboi either I use sabayon linux as my main os.

Anyway....here are some links, not sure if they'll display in my post, if they don't just google;
gOS....................VmWare player.............and gos3.1 appliance

http://www.thinkgos.com/gos/screenshots.html
http://www.vmware.com/products/player/
http://www.vmware.com/appliances/directory/va/101643/download

[Sally-Ahmed]

I believe what Google have proved throughout the years that it works for the users. I am personally a windows user and although I am a web developer I find most Linux OS versions more complex to deal with in comparison to Windows. I also had issues with Mac OS due to the lack of compatibility with the type of software I tend to use for my work.
I am looking forward to Google Chrome OS and believe it might close the gap that we all feel between how browsers like firefox work and the slow platform windows is providing for such applications.

Commenting on the monopoly side of things, I would say Google is playing a very big one by controlling the software on our PC's , which is something that Microsoft have been doing since the 80's, a little competition is always good, however, it all comes down to the user. Will I shift from windows to Google OS, no, but I would appreciate any system that is solid enough to shrink the market from those trying to monopolize it and maybe reduce the cost of systems as users gain the upper hand in making their choices...

Sally Ahmed
Web Master - SEO/PPC

[Laminagrove]

I hope Google puts out an OS that respects privacy, is secure and lean. One that can be customized, stable. One version.

[amirault0]

This sounds like its going to be a great OS. I would probably only use it on a netbook or something and not for my main pc mainly because windows is the only OS that has a good range of game titles.

[kwhsy82]

What's so complicated? Wait till say Acer ships a Chrome netbook. Then try it. If you like it, ....

Debating the relative merits of Microsoft/Apple/Google seems silly. They are all for-profit entities. (E.g. look at Apple's behavior when ruling its IPhone "nest).

Saying that netbooks don't have the power or that all data has to be local -- We've gone from mainframes with terminals to PCs that were standalone to LANs everywhere to the Internet. Who would have thought say SQL Server (or MySQL if you like) would be running on PCs 20 years ago.

Where computing is done; the power of devices; where data is stored -- none of that is static.

[luke_marsh]

Wish list.d
the ability to make html and xml apps that make chrome use of svg standards so that the windows can look more pretty.
full compatibility for full use on net books.
better overall net integration in terms of storage and web apps.
good use of advanced standards for multi processing and open gl ect while maintain good compatibility and performance for lesser machines.

Obviously I'm not expecting version 1 to be the ultimate but I will be watch as google has in many areas impressed me and surprised me in it's robustness even though it is a bit of a monopoly.

[ajkerley628]

no, i think its a cool idea, just the people with a small ***** are arguing because they dont like new, inovative things. they dont even know what it will do yet. heck, all we know itll let us fly

[krosafcheg]

Tom Krazit wrote:

"the company is working on a new method of "windowing," or switching between multiple applications."

I think this refers to Google's development of "a new windowing system". This isn't for switching between applications per se, but includes the entire way in which applications are able to interact with the user - the outer layer of a GUI. Chrome OS is based on Linux, and Linux currently uses the venerable X11 Windowing System first developed at MIT in the 1980s.

X11 is many things, but lightweight has never been one of them, and it's not surprising that Google would want to replace it. They're not the first to try, and it'll be a nice development for Linux if they succeed.

[belchmelch]

yup... agree.

but you know what who cares? because the consumers decide... the iPhone is smacking the daylights out of other smart phones. the only reason they are not already a monopoly in the smartphone space is the fact that they are tied to that dumb AT&T deal. Which hopefully ends soon.

Apple is not perfect... but they sure come up with ideas OR build on ideas (notice i am not in a distortion field - oh no.. i admit to using Windows on my Mac too... i digress)... that are actually useful & practical for every day use. Man, just think... "Let's make things that are easier to use..." If everything in this world continued to be made like that instead of corporations trying to stamp out ideas that might be better than theirs... anyway...

So, in the end if GOOGLE produces something useful... then we use it. And that is true for any software/app that is made available to us. If people dont trust GOOG with their info, then dont put private stuff up on the web...