Comments on: The Google OS surfaced in March--or did it?

A tantalizing tidbit of data appeared in CNET server logs back in March.

[monkeyfun14]

"If you have access to your server logs, I'm sure other CNET readers would be curious to know if you've seen these hints about Google Chrome OS in your records. Leave a note below and share your findings."

Hopefully they have their print screen button ready cause anyone can copy that string and say it visited their site.

[rafe]

That would be lame. Everyone: Honor system here, ok?

[Jonathan Monahan]

Funny they aren't using the Chrome browser.

[SteveMcQwark]

Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US) AppleWebKit/531.3 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/3.0.192.0 Safari/531.3

This is my user agent for Google Chrome. (the pre-alpha linux version). As mentioned in the article, it helps you get the standard page layout rather than an "unsupported browser" thing on many sites. For example, Gmail doesn't work in Konqueror (Where KHTML/WebKit originated, part of KDE) if you don't change to a Mozilla user agent.

[pcdude2143]

I can change my User Agent String with a Firefox extension. This is probably a prank.

[SteveMcQwark]

Well, the fact that it says "very secret" is suspicious, but they nailed it on the ChromeKernel part and the Linux part. Still questioning the X11 part. Google's announcement said "...new windowing system...", which means replacing X11. Unless they meant window manager, though I doubt they'd make that mistake...

Maybe they just hadn't built their new windowing system yet, or they just didn't change that part for other reasons.

[cvaldes1831]

Theoretically, this could just be the same GoogleOS that runs on tens of thousands of Linux boxes scattered around the world that Google uses for search indexing, right?

Or possibly one of the GSA (Google Search Appliance) machines, yes?

[ddhboy]

meh, ultimately GoogleOS is just another distro of linux, except with some semi-proprietary google code thrown in. To me, its more likely that some kid will come out of left field with his own linux distribution or what have you and revolutionize the game more than google could ever dream to do, I mean hell, that's how Google got started right?

And unless I see GoogleOS running on a crunchpad-like device, I don't see how its going to differ from say Ubuntu Netbook Remix, Moblin or that unofficial google linux distro.

[uzi69mm]

CNET, please to not be fooled... a simple perl program could that

use LWP::UserAgent;
use HTTP::Request::Common;
my $ua = new LWP::UserAgent();
$ua->agent("Godzilla/2012 the world ends [en] (Windows Null Technology 0.9e-9; U)");

[cvaldes1831]

Or in Safari, open up the Preferences menu, select the Advanced Tab, and check "Show Develop menu in menu bar." Restart browser.

Open up the new Develop menu, select User Agent then go to other. Type whatever you want into the text box, like this...

BooFar/6.9 (X11; U; Freax i686; en-US; rv:1.9.6.9) Lizard/2009071311 Booble OS/KernelSanders 6.9 (pesky wabbit tricks are for kids) Foxfire/3.0.8

Tada! Custom operating system! Running brand-new, ultra-secret web browser that sleuthy journalist has never heard about!

[FF2009]

(Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:1.9.0.6) Gecko/2009020911 Google OS/ChromeKernel 0.9 (very secret, to be released soon.) Firefox/3.0.6 )


it's Linux baby, yeah, awesome :)

[monkeyfun14]

Damn your slow.

[opiapr]

I have Macs and Windows machines and while I don't be jumping on Chrome OS right away is always good to have strong competition. You see we will be using Vista for the next 6 years if it wasn't any Leopard competition around. Strong competition is good choices are even better. And their is no need to be a fanboy either when you can have the best of both (or 3 or 4 or whatever) words.

[SteveMcQwark]

Yeah, I have a dual boot with Kubuntu and Windows 7, and will likely try out Chrome OS. Though it would be neat if you could do what they're planning for Good OSes Cloud, which is boot your other operating system in the background while you're using your lightweight webOS. There'd have to be an automatic login though, like maybe Chrome OS borrows your accounts, and forwards your Chrome login to kdm/gdm when it starts... though by then, Ubuntu is planning to have really really fast boot-up (its already rivalling Windows 7), so there won't be much point...

[Silivrenion]

I think this news article is a breach of site privacy protocols. CNET should not be releasing browsing histories or times of viewers who visit their site, regardless of how relevant and interesting it is to the article.

The whole idea of you guys posting this information really leaves a bad taste.

[SteveMcQwark]

If they'd released his/her IP address, I'd be concerned. Releasing a user agent saying it originated in Helsinki isn't exactly violating anyone's privacy. The only information in your user agent is to help websites properly support your browser. It contains no personal information. Also, the user agent is quite certainly intended to be read. (very secret, to be released soon.) is of no use to any website.

[Silivrenion]

It's not the IP address I'm concerned about. They released browsing history information about what Google's looking into purchasing, as well as what days it was cited on. I think CNET would've actually been better off only saying it was from Google, but by releasing browsing history like they did, it makes you believe that anything you browse with or near CNET is susceptable to media coverage. I know I don't want my browsing history or related information to appear on CNET's next news article, and I'm sure Google didn't appreciate this one. This just has "bad move" written all over it.

[xhable]

*changes my user agent string to match* :p

[erictbar]

"Open up the new Develop menu, select User Agent then go to other. Type whatever you want into the text box, like this..."

Yes, that, or an equivalent in another browser, is what I first thought when I read the summary in the RSS feed for this article. I just copied and pasted that User Agent and am running this page with it now :P

[adamtheriault]

It might also be pointed out that Picassa got a rather sizable Linux update in October of last year. These things don't just pop up overnight.

[michaelcizmar]

@cvaldes1831
Google's Chrome OS is going to be targeted at desktops which has significantly different needs than the server farms they have. The appliances run a version of CentOS.

[cvaldes1831]

That's odd, I thought I read that Chrome OS would likely be deployed on netbooks first (which indeed are different that their server farms for search), not desktops.

Anyhow, this discussion is moot since we've agreed that user agent spoofing is kiddie play.

[HashimWarren]

Why reveal so much about this user's browsing? I feel like that is a lapse in privacy for CNET.