Google Chrome OS: Web Platform To Rule Them All

informationweek.com ^ | July 10, 2009 08:30 PM | Thomas Claburn

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

With Chrome OS, Google aims to make the Web the primary platform for software development.

Google (NSDQ: GOOG)'s plan to release its own operating system based on its Chrome browser is at once audacious and laughable. Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) Windows represents slightly less than 90% of the personal computer operating system market, a position it has held for years.

Google's industry ally, Apple, has managed to steal a few percentage points of market share away from Microsoft in the past twelve years under the singular leadership of CEO Steve Jobs. But Windows remains the dominant operating system, more dominant even than Google is in search.

And with the forthcoming release of Windows 7, Microsoft appears to be well-prepared to defend its empire.

It's hard to imagine a less promising business for Google to enter, especially given that Google plans to give Chrome OS away for free. And Google's grand plan to shake up the operating system market isn't made more credible by the absence of any actual programming code or substantive information about Chrome OS.

Yet, the fact that Google has partners that share its vision says something about the shakiness of Microsoft's position. Acer, Adobe, ASUS, Freescale, Hewlett-Packard, Lenovo, Qualcomm, Texas Instruments, and Toshiba are all working with Google to help it re-imagine the operating system. So too is Intel, as The Register reports.

Google's decision to target the netbook market may help the prospects of Chrome OS. Although Microsoft has made a concerted effort to push Windows on netbooks to fend off low-cost Linux-based challengers, Google may find it easier to compete in the netbook market because access to cloud-based services and software is more valuable on devices .......

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

fyi

[aft_lizard]

The partners all want a light, free OS that is user friendly and fully loaded(the OS not the machine) for the masses so they can build in more profit for the netbooks which don’t earn them much profit at all. Spending 18 dollars on an OS is not helping them(XP cost, which I think MS should simply give 7 starter away if this is the case).

IMO I think you will see less powerful netbooks in the future if ChromeOS takes off with smaller storage space, maybe less ports, less ram etc.

[Starboard]

cloud-based services

So (in plain English) this would essentially mean that there would be a Google 'browser' which would act like an O/S to enable you to run apps off the web, right? Similar to running a mail app through Yahoo. Is that correct?

[Vermont Lt]

Remember, ATT had 100% of the market prior to divestiture. They lost 30% of the market OVERNIGHT.

There are so many people that HATE microsoft they will switch literally overnight. Especially if they can get a decent OS that is free.

Google has the money and the market they can work with.

If they can get 5% of the market, that would be HUGE—especially in the netbook market that is only going to be bigger. I bought my last notebook two years ago, and it is used mostly for web use and file transfer when I am on the road. This could easily be handled by a netbook.

Toss in the ability to watch an mp4 movie on it, and I would be all set.

Just my two cent, average joe Macbook user, opinion.

[parsifal]

So after 20 years of computing, I am still frustrated by apps that don’t work or hardware that don’t work and all the flaky little dumb*ss problems. IMHO, operating systems should be seen and not heard. They should be something that the user doesn’t have to think about. They should just work.

Now, I am using a <2 year old laptop with 1 gig of ram, and Vista. Know what, I can’t get internet explorer to work. I have been using firefox, but when a friend needed to use my computer to access her homework, she could not log in with firefox. Then she couldn’t get IE to work. We ended up doing her homework on her cell phone. I have re-downloaded IE, but it still doesn’t work. This is the kind of stuff that just drives me nuts.

parsy, who is nuts.

[NRA2BFree]

I tried it and I think it stinks! I went back to IE.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

That's the idea of cloud computing as I understand it....big question as to how popular it gets...might make sense for very mobile people....which does not include me....

But I heard Schmidt interviewed on CNBC from the Sun Valley conference this last week and I think where Google is going is wanting to be connected to the wave of very mobile customers with their mini devices that have access to the web.

Chrome is simply a way to supply that at very low cost.

So their business plan is to make money off of the advertising....not hardware or operating systems....that will give $MSF some real competition....

[Huebolt]

People who hate Microsoft...

Google is BIG BROTHER. It will be an extension of the MSM.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

My opinion....they really don’t care what is running in the user device...they just want it to connect to their internet services,,,

[neocon1984]

You need to double your RAM with Vista - that’s it’s major downside. I am happy with my Toshiba laptop that runs Vista (almost 3 years) but I had to pay for more computing power.

[aft_lizard]

I remember it was the gov’t that forced that, not some competitor. Now look at AT&T they are back up to around 70% of the market and the gov’t is looking at anti-trust issues with them again.

[parsifal]

Mines a Toshiba too. It came with 524(?) ram, and I doubled. Now I notice most is 2 to 4 gig of ram. Simply unbelievable when my first computers were Radio Shack and my first “real” computer was a Tandy 1000TX.

But I am a dinosaur. I still have to go to command prompt to “mkdir”

parsy, who is going the way of T-Rex

[Starboard]

Thanks. The advertising angle certainly answers the revenue question.

[Squantos]

Isn’t this new OS Chrome just Ubuntu in a skirt with fuzzy slippers ?

[aft_lizard]

No it isn’t. Most pc’s come with 2 gigs or more of ram and if they don’t you can easily pick up 2 gigs for around 20 dollars or so. Not exactly a deal breaker. The problem with Vista has been it’s dependency on a gpu that is DirectX 9 compatible.

[Wooly]

Yes you need at least 2 gigs of RAM to run Vista 32, but what is more interesting in your post is the problems you are having.
You need to do a full Anti-Virus scan, An ADware Scan and a Rootkit scan as it sounds like you have a bunch of junk on there. Additionally you probably have a bunch of what are called TSRs running in the background. These are programs like Adobe reader speed launch, Java Updater, One Note, and other programs that start up and then stay running in the background.
If you need any of the scanners I mentioned, you can get them free at http://www.techsupportalert.com/

[Squantos]

Mac user comments are invalid on FR !

It’s a rule ......:o)

Stay Safe !!

[McGruff]

I can't understand why everybody is so scared Bill Gates is trying to take over the world when Google is trying to do a similar thing. These are the same people who turned in Chinese dissidents information to the Chinese gov’t. Do the same thing here some day?

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

They are doing some interesting things down in the internals...much more to come yet...

they are building on top of the Linux kernel....and right now using Ubuntu...and using Javascript...with some new wrinkles,....

[aft_lizard]

Ubuntu is linux, so just like Ubuntu it will be linux with fuzzy slippers. I am sure though that they are going to have a unified driver structure though and no rebuild issues for new installs of hardware(well not like that will be an issue with netbooks anyways).

[McGruff]

Isn’t this new OS Chrome just Ubuntu in a skirt with fuzzy slippers ?

Shushhh![/sarcasm]

[aft_lizard]

There is a much easier solution to try first. He can launch IE with add-ons disabled first. If it launches there is his problem.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

In case you are interested....:

Chromium is the open-source project behind Google Chrome

******************************EXCERPT********************************

We're releasing a first look at Chromium and invite you to join us in our effort to:

• Help build a safer, faster, and more stable way for all Internet users to experience the web
• Create a powerful platform for developing a new generation of web applications

Built for the open web

All of the code in the project is open source,

including V8, a new JavaScript virtual machine.

You can get Chromium's source code and contribute to the project.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

See #24.

[Richard Kimball]

Right now, there are three basic OS models. MS, OSX and Linux. OSX is tied to the hardware, so the market % is limited to people who both want and can afford Apple products. Linux is niche and probably always will be, as there's no overriding distribution that people can settle on. MS currently has most hardware vendors under a barrel. Mike Dell begged Jobs to license OSX to Dell. He did this because he realized that MS views hardware manufacturers as extensions of MS. He's also seen MS kneecap too many "partners" to trust them, anymore. If a hardware manufacturer upsets MS and they have no alternative OS. You don't even have to upset MS. They just need to see a way to become more profitable by kneecapping you. Check out all their "plays for sure" partners.

MS may be a little less inclined to strong arm hardware manufacturers since they've been hit with so many lawsuits, and that leaves an opening for an OS like Chrome, particularly in netbooks where functionality is somewhat limited.

What scares MS more than anything else is the possibility of there being an alternative OS for Dell, H-P, Sony, and other hardware manufacturers to use. MS killed Netscape by offering their browser for free and including it with the OS. If Google can create an OS that they can distribute for free that works pretty seamlessly on less powerful devices, MS could have a big headache.

Many hardware manufacturers view MS as the devil they have to deal with to stay in business, and if MS ever gets down, there'll be a bunch of people jumping on the corpse.

Most people don't use fifteen percent of their computer's capabilities. Word, Excel and Outlook are bloated far beyond the needs of most people. A light streamlined OS could be very popular, particularly if it wasn't tied to a hardware platform like OSX is tied to the Mac hardware.

Google's biggest problem is that designing a functioning OS is a heck of a lot more complicated than most people think. It's particularly challenging when dealing with a less powerful hardware platform. There are all kinds of trade off decisions on capabilities vs. computing power. Google will, IMHO, find out that creating a platform that can compete with MS or OSX will be a taller order than they think.

[Abby4116]

I can't understand why everybody is so scared Bill Gates is trying to take over the world when Google is trying to do a similar thing. These are the same people who turned in Chinese dissidents information to the Chinese gov’t. Do the same thing here some day?

I trust MS much more than I trust google. I won't even use google as a search engine since I don't want them to know my searches.

[Abby4116]

MS killed Netscape by offering their browser for free and including it with the OS. If Google can create an OS that they can distribute for free that works pretty seamlessly on less powerful devices, MS could have a big headache.

Netscape basically killed itself by not investing in the product after it went public. Take the profit and run. IE offered a good working browser that didn't need extra add-ons constantly. The fact that it was free helped, but if Netscape continued to offer a better product people would have bought it.

That said, I still don't trust google.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

See this:

V8 JavaScript Engine

Very often when I find Firefox consuming excessive number of my cycles...and I go looking there is a site that has a runaway Javascript working.

Or a Flash app...which is likely using Javascript....as I understand it....

Firefox is reworking and soon to release 3.5 so... each tab has its own process so you can kill the offending tab without taking all of firefox down...

So perhaps this V8 addresses the Javascript problems...also...

[Wooly]

Yes that will work. but I suspect that the problem is a list a mile long of programs using memory which will make it look like the browser is not starting up.
Unfortunatly 20 years of using a computer does not always equate to knowledge about what goes on inside them. As such people always assume it is that DAMN Windows 95, Then it was that DAMN Windows 98 or NT, then it was that DAMN Windows ME or 2003, then it was that DAMN Windows XP, and now it is that DAMN Vista.
Contrary to belief I have been using Windows since 95 and have had exactly one virus/adware problem and that was when I was using ME. THat was coolweb search which I simple used a tool to get rid of. All I have done is follow a few simple rules. 99% of all problems related to Windows are due to the owner shooting themselves in the foot.

[McGruff]

When it is released open-source later this year, Google’s Chrome OS will only add to what DistroWatch acknowledges is a “bewildering choice and ever increasing number of Linux distributions [that] can be confusing for those who are new to Linux.”

http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9135409/Does_Google_Chrome_OS_further_fragment_Linux_landscape_

Sounds like Linux to me.

[richace]

“I won’t even use google as a search engine since I don’t want them to know my searches.”
*********
Then you certainly won’t want the entire contents of your ‘pooter in their “cloud.” Could they access? Could they scan for keywords, and deliver to um I don’t know, advertisers, governments, domestic, foreign and global? Could they copy and move your contents to whoever they please (your biz competitors, who would pay a fee for “enhanced searches,” of course) without your knowledge? Could they sabotage your ability to communicate with others? Before you laugh, look at their work with the Chicoms. “All your data belong to us.”

[Wooly]

When it becomes available I will just buy a 80 buck netbook hard drive and reprogram my Acer to run it. If it seems to work well I will then re-program it to dual boot.
Mac users never ever try this, opening the case will only confuse you and it will void the warranty. Besides it will destroy your fantasy when you find that inside it is one of the cheaper Intel boards or even a cheaper brand, an off the shelf video card, overstated power supply, and all of has a made in China sticker on it. And while I am at it never ever go to Newegg and price the parts as it will probably total at at somewhere between 5 and 7 hundred dollars. And you thought Vista was expensive.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Watching the second video...says they are using Webkit...not sure what that is...

[Abby4116]

I’m not laughing because I can envision most of what you have said.

[aft_lizard]

I understand but the reason why I suggest disabling add-ons as a first attempt, besides being fastest first diagnosis is that alot of add-ons(such as AVG and Yahoo tool-bars) will install in both browsers and that can have an effect on the start up.

[McGruff]

Here's a pic of Googles team of developers at work.

Just kidding. Just to show I'm not a Microsoft spokesman I'm downloading the latest version of Unbuntu right now. Gonna install it to a spare partition if it dual boots with Vista.

[mrsixpack36]

Thats almost true. You pretty much have to be a woman or a minority to land a job at google. “White males need not apply”.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Have you tried MINT?....

Better starting point if you haven't tried any of the distros before....has Codecs installed and easy access to download apps thru Mintinstall ....and their software manager.

[Richard Kimball]

Can't argue with that. My biggest gripe about IE is that once MS got 90% of the browser market, they totally quit innovating. They didn't even come up with tabbed browsing until Firefox started threatening them. MS planned a "feature" called "keywords," where the browser would read text from a web page and automatically create a hyperlink to a MS "partner" web site. This would have taken the ad revenues from the site creator and given them to MS. If, for example, I did a review of a digital camera, every time the term "digital camera" appeared in my text, MS would have turned that into a hyperlink in IE, and my web site would link to one of the MS partners. MS would have kept all the ad revenue, and every content provider would have been providing the information for MS with no compensation at all. There was so much screaming about it that MS backed off and it was never implemented.

So, I don't trust MS, but I completely agree with you about Google. I got a Gmail account, but never used it. Despite the fact that I never used it, never posted it to a web site, and never sent an email to it, it gets about 60 spam emails a day, usually of the "Increase your size" or "Refinance your home" types. This probably means Google not only sells their information, but sells it to the sleaziest of phishers and scammers.

After their capitulation to Red China, I'm also convinced they'd have no problem doing data harvesting for repressive governments in exchange for political favors and exemptions from laws.

[Wooly]

I fully understand your point and if they were only having trouble with IE, I would say that also. But in this case they have reported that they were also having trouble getting on Firefox which is not going to have the same plug-ins.
The way I read this is that they suddenly started having trouble accessing IE and after reading some of the recent posts here or on the advice of others, they installed Firefox which worked until the malware was able to cut Firefox from accessing the Internet. Remember the malware is already on the computer and is running, so Firefox is not immune in this case.
This is probably some sort of a malware infection that was downloaded from accessing an infected website and now it has taken over the network settings. THe fact that it goes nowhere is not all that uncommon in the history of malware.
Believe it or not one of the best tools for removing this type of malware comes from MS and it is the Malicious Software Removal tool which is free to download.

[parsifal]

Thank you for your help. I went to the site and ran the superspyware. One cookie found. is this the same thing as an antiviral?

parsy, the semi-computerilliterate

[Wooly]

Also do a search for a tool called WinIPConfig download and run it to reset your IP Address. Also before you do the above do this

http://www.mydigitallife.info/2007/06/18/repair-and-reset-windows-vista-tcpip-winsock-catalog-corruption/

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

A cookie is not a viral...FR uses cookies I believe.

[McGruff]

Yes if you delete your cookies you loose all your automatic logins like FR. That's ok if you remember all you user names and passwords for every site you are automatically logged into.

I'll look at MINT before I install Ubuntu.

[SunkenCiv]

IMHO, you’re right. And though we’ve all been told it’s going to happen, the big G is the first ones to make it work. And now, in the interest of equal time...

http://www.zoho.com/

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Never heard of them....but this is interesting:

Database software to create online database applications

Are you using some of their stuff?

[SunkenCiv]

Nope. I spend literally all my computer “facetime” online, and 90+ per cent of that on FR. As you’ve probably noticed, eh? I forget how I heard about it, but saved a link on the bar of my browser.

[SunkenCiv]

Heh... for that matter, Netscape ruled, then got “Microsofted” when MS started integrating its Aiiiee! browser — the very bundling which landed it in court (twice, I believe). Netscape wound up acquired by AOL, which at the time still had a contract with MS for AOL browser updates for another couple of years. The revenge (of sorts) was Netscape’s browser/mail/etc package revival and evolution into FireFox.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

This just showed up on HardOCP:

Microsoft Research’s Gazelle – the ‘Browser OS’

Microsoft Research recently published a paper about an experimental browser named "Gazelle." The browser was called an experimental "multi-principal" OS that "uses processes to isolate page content elements originating from different domains." Um.. right!