Chrome - the OS

[crookedtune]

Admittedly, my geek light is fading with age. Somehow, I never saw this one coming at all. Does anyone think Google can crack the home-consumer market dominated by Microsoft and Apple?

http://money.cnn.com/2009/07/08/technol ... /index.htm

[BillChin]

It will get some market share. Free helps because low cost netbooks are the initial target. Between this and the Google phone, it will be interesting to see if Google can compete in areas other than search. Often times the answer is no, however, Google has spent years hiring many of the smartest people they could find, just because the people are smart.

Some critics see Google as the new evil empire--far more dangerous than Microsoft could ever be. In the wrong hands Google's information gathering and search rankings could such things as swing tight elections, sway policy making, even overthrow marginal governments.

[Dale]

I use the Chrome browser as my default now and I do like it. Occasionally, I'll encounter a website that won't operate properly via Chrome, but I gather that's related to it being so new. It's faster on my computers and I really like being able to search Google just by typing directly into the URL box.

I can't quite wrap my head around how the new Chrome OS will work. I'll certainly give it a shot.

[fearfaoin]

It's kind of an interesting issue. Desktop Windows has
always targeted Intel CPUs. Then smartphones came about,
mostly using ARM CPUs because of size and power concerns.
Many different OS's have been created for this market,
including embedded Linux ports, Symbian, iPhone OS, PalmOS,
Blackberry's OS, etc. These OS's were created to deal with
the form factor and the limits in memory/processor, and to
conserve power.

In response, Microsoft created an OS called WinCE (now
called Windows Mobile) which has mostly been compiled for
ARM, since that's where the smartphone market was.

Now we've come up with Netbooks which are often designed
as if they were really large smartphones with keyboards.
AND Intel is trying to enter the smartphone/netbook market
with its Atom chip. AND Google has already entered the fray
with its new Android OS.

So Microsoft's in a pickle. OS's that have been designed to
be cross-platform (i.e., can easily be recompiled for any CPU)
are at an advantage while these hardware changes are taking
place. Microsoft has to decide if they want to port full-blown
Windows to ARM or port WinMobile for Intel. Or do nothing and
be overtaken in that market.

If Netbooks become popular as just a web access device
(and it looks like they are), then light OS's like Android and
embedded Linux will thrive there. If people want to use their
netbooks like laptops, then full-blown Windows might do well
there (though Netbooks will become more expensive and hotter
and heavier since they'll need better hardware). Add to that
Intel's incredible ability to throw its wait around makes it hard
to tell where the market's going to swing.

It seems like ChromeOS is Google's way of positioning itself for
the aftermath. If people get used to being able to do everything
inside a browser on their Netbooks, they might not be so afraid
of doing so on their desktop. And there certainly are several
people who use their Windows PC for nothing but web browsing
and email.

[fearfaoin]

Hm. Now that I read more, I'm not sure how ChromeOS
and Android differ. I thought ChromeOS was going to be
for desktops, but it's targeting Netbooks, too. It will be
interesting to watch...

I can't quite wrap my head around how the new Chrome OS will work. I'll certainly give it a shot.

The goal is to be able to turn on your machine and be
surfing the web in the absolute minimum amount of time.
The more functions an OS is required to perform, the more
time it takes to boot and launch applications. If you limit
the OS's functionality, you can really streamline the thing.
Also, the smaller the OS is, the more options there are for
storing it. Flash memory is more expensive than a harddrive,
but has a much faster read time. If the whole OS could be
stored on flash, boot time would be even faster. Or, if you
don't need to store a lot of data (because your data's
stored on webservers), then you might forgo a harddrive
entirely and have a computer with no moving parts. Lots
of advantages open up with this change in philosophy.

[crookedtune]

Won't it come to be that the appliance has only enough OS to boot and get a web connection, and the rest of the functionality will be served? Bandwidth is becoming less of an impediment to that.

[Jayhawk]

Netbooks starting in 2008 really moved away from the giant mobile phone type of device into minature laptops (minus the optical drive). My eee pc has a 160GB HD, 1GB RAM and is a much more up to date computer, period, than my desktop (older, 40GB HD, 512MB RAM). ASUS offers cloud storage, but that has been a huge flop with most buyers wanting the larger hard drives as opposed to small SSDs with cloud storage.

The discussion of netbooks being little more than giant mobile phone and web browsing only devices is truly being pushed by intel, microsoft, and others who loose significant profit margin selling their product on such low price products...they want you to believe netbooks are so crippled you'll need one for mobile web browsing but need a real notebook/laptop computer for any real work. I beg to differ.

I only use my netbook these days unless I'm copying CDs to move over to my netbook (I could buy a slim DVD drive, and then I'd never, ever use the desktop...but since I already have the desktop, I just use it). I use it for work when travelling, and there is nothing it cannot do that our office laptops (which I have to check out for travel) do and the netbook does all this weighing only 2.5lbs and easily fits into my briefcase and/or backpack. The office laptops are "heavy duty" designed to last, and with their case weigh about 10+lbs (note, I've not actually weighed them, but they are way too heavy and count as a piece of carry on by themselves).

I'd be interested in a Chrome OS only if it was somehow compatible with VLC, WMP, my old games I've loaded on the eee (NWN, Baldur's Gate, etc.)...otherwise, I'll stick with Windows (XP for now, Windows 7 looks OK) with it's lovely backwards compatability modes.

FWIW - my boot time to use programs is 27 seconds with XP, but it takes all of 40 seconds to connect to the net (the wireless appears to be slowed a bit by the start up time of my anti-virus).

Eric

[fearfaoin]

Won't it come to be that the appliance has only enough OS to boot and get a web connection, and the rest of the functionality will be served? Bandwidth is becoming less of an impediment to that.

That's the idea, yeah. You'll get your apps
through a service provider (like Google Docs).
Though if they start adding any more than
that, I'm sure the Feature Creep will do its
dirty business...

[Dale]

Netbooks starting in 2008 really moved away from the giant mobile phone type of device into minature laptops (minus the optical drive). My eee pc has a 160GB HD, 1GB RAM and is a much more up to date computer, period, than my desktop (older, 40GB HD, 512MB RAM). .......

I only use my netbook these days unless I'm copying CDs to move over to my netbook (I could buy a slim DVD drive, and then I'd never, ever use the desktop...but since I already have the desktop, I just use it). I use it for work when travelling, and there is nothing it cannot do that our office laptops (which I have to check out for travel) do and the netbook does all this weighing only 2.5lbs and easily fits into my briefcase and/or backpack.

This is my experience. I have an Eee equipped like Jayhawk. It runs XP, a full install of Microsoft Office (which I don't use nearly as much as I once did.) I have a small DVD drive that I can stick in my backpack as needed.

I may consider a slightly larger screen next time, on account of my eyesight not being what it once was, but otherwise the Eee is my main computer at home and traveling.

[fearfaoin]

The discussion of netbooks being little more than giant mobile phone and web browsing only devices is truly being pushed by intel, microsoft, and others who loose significant profit margin selling their product on such low price products...they want you to believe netbooks are so crippled you'll need one for mobile web browsing but need a real notebook/laptop computer for any real work. I beg to differ.

I'm not so sure. The companies that make
ARM processors (disclosure: I work for one
such) and the OS's that run on ARM want
to push it as a cloud-computing device so
that you're not tied to Windows anymore.
Then they can scale up.

But you're right, in the short term, M$ and
Intel can benefit from a multiple-device
mentality.

[tansy]

how does the eee do for things like skype, hulu, videos, etc. ?

[fearfaoin]

how does the eee do for things like skype, hulu, videos, etc. ?

Just fine. Most versions come with Skype installed.

[caedmon]

This might be a rebadging of gOS, which simply used the Linux kernal.

[Jayhawk]

how does the eee do for things like skype, hulu, videos, etc. ?

Great. I watch hulu and Netflix videos all the time (even hook up the eee to the LCD TV to watch them on a nice, big screen at home). Skype is installed, but I don't use it. I have downloaded from the International Movie Archive about 20 old, no longer copywrite protected movies I watch when on flights.

Dale - I have a 904HA (at the time it's price was great and it had the best battery life), but if I were to do it over again I'd go for a 10" 1000HE. What eee do you have?

Eric

[fearfaoin]

This might be a rebadging of gOS, which simply used the Linux kernal.

Yeah, or Goobuntu (which is only used internally at
Google right now, I understand). I could see that.
Android is based on a Linux kernel, as well.