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What Google's Chromium OS Is Reaching For
MojoKid sends in a piece that takes a step back from Google's much-analyzed OS to look at what it is trying to accomplish. "Last week, Google open-sourced its Chromium OS project, more than a year before the operating system is scheduled for release. In doing so, Google hopes a variety of developers and companies will become involved in the project, and has pledged to release regular updates as well as a comprehensive log of bug reports and fixes. This article takes a look at Google's design vision for Chromium, the unique benefits it offers, and a bit of why Google is throwing its hat into this particular ring in the first place. Chromium, after all, is a Linux-based OS entering the smartbook/netbook market at a time when the product segment is already being well served by a variety of Linux distros, XP, and Windows 7. In the midst of all these options, do we need another operating system? We just might."
The more the merrier!
Which from a Google standpoint makes perfect sense.
An OS that is basically one giant web browser, why would you need a local account.
I wouldn't run an Chromium machine, but I completely understand their design goals.
I also think that Cloud Computing is the worse idea in the world, but I seem to be getting shot down by the Myth-Makers. We'll have to see how it goes.
I actually disagree, not because of a dislike of google but because while diversity is good, fragmentation is bad. There is not an unlimited supply of skilled OS developers despite what people may think and even less of a supply of those willing to freely contribute to projects. Fragmentation means all projects suffer just a little more of not being able to put the much needed cut and polish in or those extra needed features. from what I can see the chromium OS brings little more than extra fragmentation to an ecosystem already suffering from fragmentation.
Why not just bundle Chrome with any Linux distro. That way Google can make Chrome the default web browser for Linux by making it open sourced (I think it already is) and bundled with as many Linux distros as possible.
Why should I use Chromium OS when I can download any Linux distro and install Chrome on it.
What makes Chrome better than say Firefox? When I did web site testing I didn't see a speed difference between Firefox and Chrome. Chrome doesn't have as many plug-ins as Firefox has, no easy way to block advertising (you have to right click on each ad and choose "block" instead of using Adblock Plus and subscribe to a list that automatically blocks ads for you) and having to right click on every ad that pops up is tiresome work and gets really annoying.
All of Google's web services work in Firefox just as well as they work in Chrome. So why is there a need for Chrome or even Chromium OS? What benefits and features can Chrome and Chromium OS give me that Linux and Firefox cannot?
Remember, Slashdot does not have a -1 disagree moderation, and no, troll, flamebait, and overrated are not substitutes.
Thank God there are people in computing who can look beyond dumb bullshit like this.
It's a howl that you slag MS at every chance but you still use it. Why don't you just go back to Digg?
Fragmentation means all projects suffer just a little more of not being able to put the much needed cut and polish in or those extra needed features.
Classic authoritarian mistake of thinking, if I just kill off some dudes pet project, then he will do exactly what I want.
"Science flies us to the moon. Religion flies us into buildings." - Victor Stenger
I also think that Cloud Computing is the worse idea in the world, but I seem to be getting shot down by the Myth-Makers. We'll have to see how it goes.
In some ways I think cloud computing is the new 'outsourcing projects to India' -- both are/were good for some things, but were / will be applied to a bunch of business cases that they really don't make sense for. Both have/will resulted in a lot of failed projects, not because they're inherently bad ideas, but because of myopically focusing on their strengths and ignoring their drawbacks.
Some people, if given a hammer, quickly see everything as a nail. Instead of learning the right lesson from the failures of this strategy, they just try to find a better hammer.
I am convinced that Google will work make Chrome in the TV market. Quick boot time and lack of local apps all point to a non-traditional platform.
Throw in Youtube and Hulu and you have why Comcast is buying NBC. Cable providers will quickly become irrelevant in a few years.
Skip ------ See the latest from http://www.anArchyFortWorth.com
...is convenience. I would say RTFA, but you actually have to watch the video to get it...Chrome OS will boot into the browser in a few seconds, compared to XP taking about a minute to boot and then another 30 seconds of housekeeping before Firefox launches (YMMV). That's a game changer. And before people start whining about how it won't slice bread and do everything else they want a computer to do, it doesn't have to. I would guess at least half of home users just do web browsing, email, light word processing, iTunes and photo management. All easy to do in a browser, and that's a pretty big market to go after.
No, it's not a gaming rig. And most people don't care, or they wouldn't be buying PCs with Intel video chips in them.
Never let a lack of data get in the way of a good rant.
Despite mostly being flamebait this part of your post raises the question of why there isn't an equivalent to GPL for web applications. Don't tell me Affereo GPL because the AGPL only varies from the GPL by section 13 which says that if webapps include a method of retrieving source code it can't be removed, but it doesn't say that users of the software get the right to the source code like the GPL does, and it doesn't say that applications that build upon webapps have any obligations.
So the AGPL is really like the LGPL, not the GPL, and it should be renamed the ALGPL. It also means we don't have any equivalent to the GPL for web apps because the AGPL doesn't propagate across networks and it can be easily subverted by adding proprietary code to a network library.
Copyright-wise even Microsoft understand that there's no difference between the local PC bus and the network by saying the Microsoft Office (and most of their applications) can't be made available to the public internet. You can't sell a remote desktop version of Microsoft Office because they propagate licensing conditions to the network. Copyright licenses can go whereever copyright goes, and copyright exists locally or across networks.
What we should have is a genuine GPL across the network, not the AGPL. If people do make network software they need to be able to provide GPL-style freedoms across the network but right now there is no license for this.
As a Ubuntu user, I'd just be happy if it force a version of Silverlight for Linux that actually works (Yes, I've tried Moonlight. No, it doesn't work for any of the streaming sports broadcasts I'd like to watch). If making it pisses off Microsoft, everybody wins.
I find Chrome to be twice as fast as Firefox in terms of startup time (both first time (from HD) and subsequent (from RAM)). Chrome OS, in its finished form, will have a similar advantage (3 sec bootup vs. 10-100). Also, I find the Chrome browser's UI better - it doesn't waste 6 lines of screen space like Firefox.
One of the big problems people have with cloud computing isn't the computing, it's the storage. I'm sure I speak for a significant percentage of /.s demographic when I say, I don't want other people scrutinizing my private information.
If Chromium were to be companioned with a personal server app/OS (similar to Opera's Unite initiative), this could be game changing.
Require the server and client to use IPv6 and you have built-in security and dynamic publicly route-able addresses.
The potential for Chromium is staggering. Imagine the convergence of Android and Chromium with the aforementioned server component and El Goog won't have enough room for the money.
I wonder if Google has a branch office near me...
"Helping to keep you two steps ahead of the Thought Police!"
HTML5 can be offline. The OS can take USB drives and you can browse to those drives from the browser, or from its own file manager.
It's the same issue with Windows vs OSX vs Gnome/KDE -- Some things aren't available and that's just how it is. There are prototype IDE's like Mozilla Bespin for the web but they're self-admittedly primitive. It will have Flash and there are based remote-desktop facilities for arbitrary desktop software on other machines, or perhaps people will be able to introduce native software to the desktop.
It's funny, but that's just what Googlesays it's for too. Why Slashdotters INSIST every new thing completely replace everything that's come before it is beyond me. So what you can't do high-end video editing with ChromeOS? It's for sitting on the couch and reading Slashdot, dammit!
Just my opinion for what it's worth. What gets me is the either/or evaluation of cloud computing. It's either good or bad, dumb or smart, the future or a dead end. What I see is the diversification of the technology landscape, not a monolithic movement in any direction. For some people, cloud computing is the ticket. It's all they need and they are going to love it. For others (like me), I like my island PC, enjoy tinkering with it, but will selectively use elements of cloud computing, such as Gmail. Others will have nothing to do with the 'cloud' for either ideological or need-based reasons. The technology is allowing us to do more things, not fewer things. What we will see is people doing more things differently as it suits them. I think the Chrome OS has a future, as does the Linux desktop, Windows and the Mac. The Xbox, the Wii and the Playstation are not the end of the gaming PC, but just an increase in the many ways technology will be used for people to amuse themselves. At some point in the future (in some Darwinian fashion) a selective pressure may simplify the technology landscape. There will be winners and losers. But at this point we are in a Cambrian explosion of diversification and multiplicity of options, and this is going to continue for some time.