Google polishes Chrome into netbook OS Google is releasing an operating system for laptops and desktops, in a direct challenge to Microsoft's money-making core business. The company will also encourage developers to get on board by allowing them to use ordinary web development tools with the OS rather than a specialised development kit. Much of the success of the …
Read the blog and any other news worthy sources....
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2009/07/introducing-google-chrome-os.html
'Google Chrome running within a new windowing system on top of a Linux kernel'
This is good news for everybody except MS and existing desktop Linux distros....
I wonder if the new windowing system will use xorg (i.e will it just be like a new gnome/kde) or are they releasing a new xorg type system ?
This post has been deleted by its author
To those who seem to think that everybody out there is Windows dependent. I don't think Google are wanting people to ditch windows in order to install Chrome OS on their home PC or laptop. I think they are looking primarilly at new netbook devices, initially at least. It's amazing how many normal users I've met who have bought netbooks with some flavour of Linux or other who have no problems using it. Most of them don't even realise it's Linux. When it comes to reading mail people used to rely on Outlook Express or Outlook, these days more and more people use webmail, especially those who are mobile and that appears to be Google's target market for Chrome OS.
Why the assumption that everybody will want the same OS on their netbook as their home PC? Most people don't have that with their phone, so why should they need it with their netbook?
I already use Linux on my old laptop and netbook, mainly because it boots and runs so much faster than Windows. My machine at work runs XP because I need it for some stuff at work, but that just demonstrates how slow Windows is, when compared to my ancient home laptop running Debian there is very little performance difference even though there is four times as much memory, three times the processor speed and all the attendant increases in other hardware performance. The vast majority of users these days just want email and web with the capability to watch video that comesa as part of the web these days. What used to be known as "power users" are in an ever declining minority these days and Google are not aiming Chrome OS as them.
However if they get a solid toe hold with Chrome OS who knows what will come next?
So Google take Linux and Chrome (which I'm sure someone said was a respin from the underpinning's of KDE) and call it "GoogleOS". A**holes! <joke>Heck if there was a decent alternative then I'd stop using Google search in protest. I really can't see it challenging Windows 7 (Vista's a p.o.s. and XP is supposed to be killed) until PC World et al can sell you Norton for it.</joke>
@Hardware Compatibility. T-Mobile USB stick 110 - supposedly supports XP, but I ended up having to DevMgr hack to get the sodding thing to install - and that only after a lot of Googling of forums etc to get the darn thing recognised (and I got the same issue on two different XP Pro builds). Put the same stick into a netbook running Ubuntu 9.04UNR and I was online following two mouse clicks. So much for Windows vaunted bulletproof device management! :p
@Strong-armed out. Last time I checked Dell are quite happy to sell you a Mini 10v with Ubuntu on it. I also heard rumours that HPaq might be offering something similar shortly (although like most HP kit, the price will be steep). There's also the last of the 1st Gen netbooks (e.g. Acer Aspire One) out there sans Windows. If you're really desperate you could always get an Asus 10000 or similar then replace XP with Linux and claim the money back - don't MS still do that arrangement? Major hassle, but better than nothing.
shame that google havent actually written something from the ground up rather than just bolting onto a Linux Kernel. Will be interesting, but it's essentially another Linux distro.
i think we might need a new avatar with a 'Google Halo' and a 'Google Devil'
I'll be clicking Google Devil for this one...
Irrespective of the reasons to use/not use or love/hate the idea of this announcement, it can only be a good thing, for the simple reason that it now "FOCUSES" the minds of all existing OS providers.
This is exactly what Apple did to handset manufacturers and mobile phone operators when they released the iPhone.
Until the iPhone arrived, the quality, usability and functionality of handsets were determined by an agenda set by Operators, not customers. Post iPhone release there have been many major improvements right across the board and most important of all - putting the needs of Joe/Jane public back higher up on the list of priorities.
If Google actually deliver an OS experience to a similar level of what Apple did with the iPhone, then everyone will benefit. Microsoft, Apple and the various *NIX vendors will need to step up to the mark and justify why their version is better.
I'm looking forward to seeing how this plays out. Everyone is a winner if Google succeed with this.
Just my 2C.
Cheers.
Hold on. They wanted something fast to boot and lightweight that "just works"? They should have resurrected BeOS and stuck Chrome on it.
The fact that this has been announced means we can't be far from a fully working Linux version of the Chrome browser. Yay!
When Chrome was first launched comments were made that suggested it would be a competitor to Windows. Loads of people pooh-poohed those comments (not least El Reg Commentards) assured in their knowledge that a browser is not an OS. For the normal mobile user the browser is the only GUI you need, so in that case from an EU POV the browser is the OS. Google are making that leap and good for them.
Finally this shows Google's marketing smarts yet again. They developed Chrome for Windows first which targetted the biggest potential user base and therefore the fastest returns in terms of takeup and user feedback. Sure Linux users get a bit pissed off, because they think they are being left out, but since they are such a small minority and generally techies to boot Google don't care. The promised development of Chrome for Linux was really just a bit of a smokescreen for Chrome OS. Of course when this comes along they can then start punting it at Chrome browser users: "Like Chrome? Get it on your next netbook." And of course they can punt the browser at those user who buy ChromeOS netbooks. "Like Chrome? Why not install it on your PC? It's free." The Google name carries a lot of weight with a lot of people, that familiar Google badge on the packaging of a netbook could well swing a lot of people. After all WIndows is just something that came with your PC, Google is something you choose to use.
I'm not a fan of Google and their business practices, but this seems to be the best way of stealing market share from MS.
So much negativity here because it won't multitask 64bit SPARC binaries with 2009WTF technologies..*sigh*..I guess that whats you get from an IT site.
The basic fact is that if (yes if) it achieves most of its aims, the unwashed non-tech majority of users will have a decent, cheap experience available. What's to worry about? The rest of you can carry on writing your i64 compilers in assembler.
The other very important fact is that MS will suddenly find it a lot harder to push XP/7 onto netbooks. So they will have to adapt their pricing and so everyone wins anyway.
Competition is good. Relax.
"And there the whole 'linux is great' thing falls horribly flat on its pointy little bill. There are *no* decent development tools for linux. And until there are, you will never persuade developers to leave Windows."
Kate + Konsole + Konqueror + a few scripts that actually meet the need of _my_ projects + the ability to actually remember function names gives me everything I need. In fact you can do without Konsole and Konqueror.
The fact that I can install a dev environment on a fresh box in 20 minutes is one of the reasons I moved away from windows.
"Yeah, printing is still an issue on linux, but generally linux has better hardware support out of the box than windows."
Seriously, this is NOT an issue; stop using it as an argument. Install the Windows drivers once from the enclosed disk (or the net) and you're good to go.
"And if something doesn't work with linux, at least you have the chance to fix it."
Hahahahahahaha. Hahahahahahahahaha. Yeah, a typical netbook buyer wants to recompile the source or trawl the ever-so-friendly forums for the answer. Reg readers are geeks, consumers are not. On that topic, will the Chrome OS even give users access to the command line and dev tools or will you be presented with a browser, control panel and not much else ?
It looks more like getting people to use the 'cloud', to connect to the web quicker form Faceache, Docs, Sheets etc.
No masquerading as a separate browser then, just the same as opening up your desktop to run as IE.
Sounds like not so much an O/S but a proper 'netbook' as you can't do any work unless you're connected. Google are having wet dreams and we may be about to get . . .
'......the "oh you can't do anything on linux without a command line" image, an image pushed by Microsoft and it's large army of paid shills......'
Here's how it went for me the other day.
F'Fox to a web pdf. Opens in Gimp, which as a pdf viewer is a bag of shite.
Open pdf on machine. Opens in "okular", very nice.
Poke config in F'Fox, find bit where default handlers are specified.
Go to change to "okular".....but it's not listed as an option. Bugger.
Try to guess path to "okular" with a spectacular lack of success (bit rusty I giess).
<sigh>
<command line>
"which okular"............
Neither MS, nor their army of paid shills were responsible for that one.
"However, don't forget that PC users are becoming more and more tech-savvy. Before long the PC-using populous will be at the point where they'll be more confident to choose which OS they use."
read as:
"However, don't forget that PC users are becoming more and more tech-savvy. Before long the PC-using populous will be at the point where they'll be more confident with turning a PC on."
"And there the whole 'linux is great' thing falls horribly flat on its pointy little bill. There are *no* decent development tools for linux. And until there are, you will never persuade developers to leave Windows."
Eh? Who do you think develops Linux then? Or are you suggesting that all Linux development is done on Windows? That has got to be the weakest pro-MS argument I've ever seen and most of them are weak.
The reason developers use Windows is not because Visual Studio is good, that's irrelevant. It's the end users that drive the developers, not the other way round. The majority of users are on Windows so most developers use Windows.
Seriously if your thinking as a developer is as arse about face as the above example then you are in the wrong job.
My EEE came with the default Linux (debian) install. I bought the machine in this configuration rather than XP because I was aware of the bloat/load up times.
So why did I ditch it and install XP instead? Because of the things that I could not do like print to my Epson laser printer (no linux driver), because it would not keep my network shares.
Yes, according to some forums all my problems could be sorted but they were major geek fiddles. In XP these problems just did not exist.
I want a netbook that starts near instantly, can do email and web surfing and simple document/spreadsheet posting. The Google OS promsies this .... but can I print to my printer, I suspect not and that is what will prevent me moving on.
"..PC users are becoming more and more tech-savvy. Before long the PC-using populous will be at the point where they'll be more confident to choose which OS they use..."
Thinks- average IQ, herd instinct? There'll be a spread of types most of whom will still be thick as the proverbial and will be influenced by what's on the shelf at the supermarket.
Chrome might well pick up users in the netbook market but no so many as to dent MS seriously, and IMO scarce any in the home PC market if they get that far.
@samo #
By Anonymous Coward Posted Wednesday 8th July 2009 10:09 GMT
"...
Sigh..........
does that make x86 86bit processors?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X86
I doubt you need Itaniums (IA64) to surf the web...."
I do know that x86 are the old chips, and the new ones are x64. Seems like you don't. Not once did I say x86 are 86bit, but x64 currently ARE 64bit (unless I'm sorely mistaken).
If you want to play the wiki game:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X64
Taken from above wiki:
"Intel 64 is Intel's implementation of x86-64. It is used in newer versions of Pentium 4, Pentium D, Pentium Extreme Edition, Celeron D, Xeon and Pentium Dual-Core processors, and in all versions of the Core 2, and Intel Core i7 processors."
You sir, are acting a foo'.
All crowing about how it's a paradigm shift in O/S technology! No viruses! No Malware!
WTF! Oh so the last 17 years ( yes 1992 it started! ) of Linux have meant nothing then? What about BSD as well? No viruses there either. What about OSX? Not much for the AV to do here either.
Just 'cos it's fluffy Uncle Google, it's the greatest thing since sliced bread then is it?!
Oh bog off you sycophantic Google-istas, you worse than the Apple fanbois sometimes!
If the android userspace is anything to go by then this won't be a conventional linux, but that's ok.
I'm just glad that someone with some clout is moving in to challenge MS. One might even permit oneself to hope that somewhere in the tussle between them that people realise that loyalty to an OS (particularly windows) is less important than they think...
It'll be interesting to watch, and if they ever do start to challenge MS dominance then watch out as the fur, and lawsuits, start to fly.
(I'd like to comment on a couple of the other posts -
About ARM, yes we already have RiscOS, but we also have FreeBSD, QNX, Linux of a multitude of flavours, Android, iPhoneOS, Symbian and a billion and one other things. There is no single ARM OS to rule them all because ARM fits into a whole variety of different niches.
@TeeCee
Sounds like you had a bad time with your pdf handling. Which distro? Debian and Ubuntu both have evince set up correctly from the word go.
@Toastan Butter
For me, to install the windows driver for my HP network printer, I was forced to install a variety of useless, annoying trial applications. On linux it was just found and worked. I know which I prefer. There is a lot of hardware that is not supported by windows vista or windows 7, a lot of older printers and scanners for a start, that linux will still support. This is not to say linux only supports old stuff, that['s totally untrue, but it certainly has much wider device support than any one flavour of windows.
YMMV)
For the same reason that Linux and Mac OSX are still not Windows-killers, and the reason is that all the applications that SMEs use to conduct their business, namely payroll and accounting applications, just don't exist on these platforms.
Until they do, other OSs unfortunately will not dominate on the desktop.
"Seriously, this is NOT an issue; stop using it as an argument. Install the Windows drivers once from the enclosed disk (or the net) and you're good to go."
Oh I just click on the .exe and magically everything works? No. So it's still an "issue". From a idiot windows user's perspective. I didn't say it was broken now did I?
"Hahahahahahaha. Hahahahahahahahaha. Yeah, a typical netbook buyer wants to recompile the source"
And a hahahahahahahaha to you. At least I can do that. None of my mp3 players would work on windows full fucking stop. That was my point. Not only is the superior hardware support for windows a myth, but when the cold light of reality breaks over you, you're quite often pretty much fucked.
"or trawl the ever-so-friendly forums for the answer. "
Linux forums _are_ friendly. So you can fuck off with that one. Perhaps you're the sort of tard who point blank refuses to RTFM and expect forum users to do your job for you.
Hopefully Google will concentrate on the OEM business; it's here that Linux needs to gain ground against Windows. For every Linux enthusiast that downloads and installs a Linux distribution there are hundreds of "normal" users that just buy a computer and use whatever is installed, usually Windows.
Whatever people might think about Google, they have a strong brand and Linux needs to get some muscle behind it to start winning the OEM deals that will bring it to a wider market.
Given that Chrome's main advantage is near native execution of Javascript it's been apparent for some time just what Google is planning - make browser based applications run as fast as desktop ones just don't give them access to the hardware.
@ Mr Oates
"Much of the success of the iPhone has been thanks to the thousands of developers keen to create applications for it." This isn't quite true: developers only started to produce applications once a proper SDK was available. Initially all you could do was widgets and I think this proved there is no commercial market for widgets. As Google is only interested in selling advertisiting that looks like applications there shouldn't be a problem. Targeted Laptots is a smart move as expectations are already limited. Supporting ARM could be key as the Google brand will add value to the suspiciously cheap and powerful no-name machines currently in development for which Windows is unlikely to be available for a while if ever.
@Loki1
I claim my £50 as Web 3.0 was definitely in use last week at Europython. It's defined as "no human interaction required" and the seminal app is the Twat-O-Tron feeding Twitter.
@ Grease Monkey
BeOS is alive and well in the form of Haiku, http://haiku-os.org
It's going to be running on Android, which sits on top of a Linux kernel:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Android_(operating_system)
http://developer.android.com/guide/basics/what-is-android.html
Unfortunately, it won't be available in the EU as the excuse "the browser is embedded in the OS, so can't be de-coupled" won't wash in Brussels any more, even though it will be true this time. They have Microsoft to thank for that...
..we're now going to have another sad and rather pointless Ted Dziuba rant spread over several pages, more than likely oscillating between blind hatred and the bleeding obvious - an idiots tale in the true tradition of Macbeth.
http://everything2.com/index.pl?node_id=1020813
I think you'll find that Ubuntu has far, far better hardware support than 'Windows'.
That's because it is continuously updated every day - every peripheral I've plugged in 'Just Works'. XP (let's forget about Vista - too slow to be called an operating system) is about 5-6 years old - so lots of hardware made in that time won't be recognised. So you'll have to install a driver, insert CD, wait to spin up, click, click - say no to paid upgrade, click click zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
Meanwhile, on Ubuntu it's already working.
@Toastan Buttar:
> "Every new piece of hardware" already works with Windows and seldom takes "hours of configuration".
I've recently bought a relatively low-end Acer notebook PC. Cheap stuff. I paid attention to it having an Intel CPU+chipset+IGP, but it also has a number of other-brand peripherials. I installed it to dual-boot XP and Fedora 10.
It took me half a day to install XP along with all the drivers. Especially the webcam driver gave me a headache - its power saving glitch prevented XP from shutting down correctly, and it took some time to google out a workaround (prevent PM on the USB port in Windows Device Manager). It *did* take hours, even just downloading and installing all the drivers, even if I disregard that webcam gotcha.
With Fedora 10 x86_64, I booted the "netinst" CD, pointed it to use a single flat partition for its filesystem, selected some apps to install, and went off to do other things. It didn't take more than 15 minutes. In an hour or so, the system was up and running, including WiFi, a multi-combo flash card reader, Realtek HD audio chip, and including the darn cheap webcam! Not to mention a host of apps (Mozilla / Gimp / OOo). All removable media / flash cards work out of the box, just as seamlessly as in Windows, or maybe better. It *was* significantly faster to install than Windows.
Note the look and feel of automatic updates in Fedora - the level of detail of progress reporting, the lack of reboots. Non-english language support (keyboard and display): no problem, either. Do I play games? Not anymore, I don't have the time. Out of curiosity, I did compile UFO AI from SVN source under Fedora, but it's still too buggy to be any serious use :-)
I do have frequent encounters with buggy 3rd-party hardware drivers for Windows. They tend to be stale and buggy versions, especially for cheap noname brands (imagine all the USB gadgets) - or sometimes incorrectly labeled on the device manufacturer's web site, or wrapped in a an impenetrable installer archive together with a buggy install script. Generic drivers in Linux tend to work surprisingly well out of the box for that same hardware.
Surely Google won't be allowed to get away with bundling their browser with the OS, and not to mention all the Google Apps? ;)
Oh, but they're not Microsoft, so that's okay (see Apple).
As for Chrome browser vs IE. It is great and I use Chrome all the time now, but problem is people still see a use for IE. Parents complained that their IE was taking for ever to load up. Told them to try Chrome and they were amazed and said this was much better. But then they found it doesn't do a bunch of things IE does on the edges (fluffy things like a sidebar for bookmarks), and of course a bunch of their favourite sites just don't work right because they're rubbish sites badly coded and rely on IE's bugs. Thus they won't switch.
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