Posted on 12/29/2009 10:29:01 AM PST by Ernest_at_the_Beach
Google's Chrome OS does not run local applications or store local data. Everything is handled inside the browser. But when the much-hyped operating system debuts on netbooks at the end of next year, you can bet it will execute native code on behalf of online Google applications such as Gmail or Docs and Spreadsheets.
In other words, Google apps will tap directly into the netbook's processor in an effort to close the performance gap that separates them from the local software offered by its bête noire, Steve Ballmer's Microsoft. And this being Google, they won't use Java, Flash, or Silverlight.
In typical fashion, Google is playing coy over the role of native code in its fledgling OS. But the company says its Native Client project - which executes native code inside today's Google Chrome web browser - is an "important part" of an effort to boost the performance of web-based applications running on its netbook operating system, set to appear on x86 and ARM netbooks around November 2010.
Currently, Native Client (NaCl) runs only on x86 machines - via Windows, Mac, and Linux. But Google has confirmed it's building a version for ARM.
Google unveiled its Native Client plug-in a year ago, calling it "a technology that aims to give web developers access to the full power of the client's CPU while maintaining the browser neutrality, OS portability, and safety that people expect from web applications." Then, in October, it rolled the plug-in into the latest version of its Chrome browser, which serves as the basis for Chrome OS.
Chrome OS is essentially the browser running atop a Goobuntu flavor of Linux.
At the moment, Native Client is turned off by default in Google's browser. But clearly, bigger things are ahead. During Google's November press conference unveiling an early version of Chrome OS, vp of product management Sundar Pichai and engineering director Matthew Papakipos were hit with not one but two questions about the role of Native Client in their fledgling operating system. And twice they answered only in part.
"We are investing a lot in additional technologies like Native Client, which will make it really possible for some of the most performance-intensive desktop applications to become web applications," Pichai said in response to question number one.
ping!
Locked into Google? No thanks.
Google = liberal front company
So NaCl eh? Why not just call it Sodium Chloride, or better yet, its common name of SALT?
Google = liberal front company
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Exactly. One of the many reasons to go with Linux or XP on a netbook.
It's open source. No lock in.
GoogleOS IS Linux. Currently it's Ubuntu.
I've got it running in a VM and after you figure out a way to get past the browser and into the OS, it's a pretty standard installation of Ubuntu.
Basically it's just Linux that boots up into the Chrome browser instead of a desktop. Just like a Cisco router boots up into a proprietary application rather than a Bourne shell.
GoogleOS IS Linux. Currently it’s Ubuntu.
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Yes, as Anderiod for smartphones is Linux with Java.
It is something to be careful of and I would run a “generic” version of Ubuntu — not one from Google.
As opposed to:
Microsoft = liberal front company that makes crappy products that does their best to lock you in to them.
Um, FYI, none of Google’s products are Open Source ...
Javascript and HTML/CSS actually. Mrs. Knitebane has a Samsung Moment with Android 1.x.
It is something to be careful of and I would run a “generic” version of Ubuntu — not one from Google.
I have two desktops, one notebook, one netbook, four servers and a home-built DVR that all run Ubuntu. And I still use Google for email, chat, documents, meetings and calendaring because they do it really well and all of their APIs are open. I can take my data and go somewhere else anytime something better comes along.
Microsoft is just as liberal.
They both suck. Maybe for broward Mozilla or something else. Screw MSFT and Google. Apple is also lib.
What?
35 Google open-source projects that you probably don't know
That'll get you started with a quick list.
All of Google's APIs are fully open and documented.
Google lists over 500 projects and 15 million lines of code released as open source.
You can dig in deeper here.
What is the underlying OS of a Cisco router? Some flavor of UNIX?
Yep. Just try to get away from a technology company that isn't eaten up with liberals.
Google's only saving grace is that all of their systems are open and I can take my data elsewhere if something better shows up.
Both Microsoft and Apple try to lock you into their platform. I don't use either of them.
It's a heavily modified version of the old 4.4BSDLite. So yes, a version of Unix.
Cisco's original IOS is based on the VMS that originally ran on the DEC PDP11/05 at Stanford University. That's where all of the original Cisco founders came from.
VMS still survives as OpenVMS and has a shell very much like any Unix system. Cisco limits your access with a very restrictive shell that only processes certain commands.
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