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.
You might want to read the GNU General License that Linux is written and distributed under. If Google is using Linux, they can't make the code private. It has to stay open source.
That license means that:
...any free program is threatened constantly by software patents. We wish to avoid the danger that redistributors of a free program will individually obtain patent licenses, in effect making the program proprietary. To prevent this, we have made it clear that any patent must be licensed for everyone's free use or not licensed at all.In light of this, you may want to rephrase your comment.
OK, it's some flavor of VMS. If I remember correctly, David Cutler invented VMS at DEC. Microsoft later hired Cutler to write Windows NT.
No problem. Here's my rephrase:
Google publishes most of it's code under an Open Source license as defined by the Open Source Initiative.
Most Google code is published under the Simplified BSD License which does allow the code to be used in a closed-source project.
Many of the Google-sponsored projects in the Google Summer of Code (and the changes made to Linux for things like the GoogleOS) are licensed under the GPL.
Better?
If Google is distributing linux, they have to release the source code.
They do use linux, but AFAIK they haven't released the modifications.
Yes, better. We strive for accuracy and truth on FR. Along with a bit of fun.
google is using Linux, heck Apple uses a variant of BSD. All good stuff...
Here is the link to the Chrome OS web site. You will find a link to the source code. Chrome is also open source.
Here is a nice explanation on YouTube.
Thanks for the link.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.