Report: Google To Fold Chrome OS Into Android (wsj.com)

An anonymous reader writes: According to a report at the Wall Street Journal (paywalled) Google plans to merge its Chrome operating system into Android. Google engineers have already been working on this transition for two years; the company expects to have a functioning preview next year, and a finished product in 2017. "The move is also an attempt by Google to get Android running on as many devices as possible to reach as many people as possible. The operating system runs phones, tablets, watches, TVs and car infotainment systems. Adding laptops could increase Android's user base considerably. That should help Google woo more outside developers who want to write apps once and have them work on as many gadgets as possible, with little modification." This doesn't mean Chrome OS is on its way out. According to public statements from Google execs, it will continue to exist and see active development.

Comments

Re:Now hold on thar

[serviscope_minor]

I have [one] ... it's got multiwindow...

There's something deeply alarming about the fact that you feel the need to tell us that your laptop has multiple windows in 2015. Not about you, about the fact that it's a thing worth saying at all!

I mean XWindows version 11 (still in use and ABI backwards compatible with programs written then) is around 28 years old, and still going strong. Windows 2.0 (the first proper version as it had overlapping windows) is also 28 years old and its descendants are still going strong. The Amiga came out in 1985 he archimedes in 1987 (what is it with 1987??), Windows 3 in 1990 (I think this is a point when GUIs really started to take off due to the dominance of the PC platform, even if all the UNIX, Amiga, Acorn and Mac users sneered rightly in disgust), the Macintosh GUI in 1984, and the accessibly cheap Mac Classic in 1990.

I mean Multi-window GUIs have been commonly available for quite a long time.

It says something appaling about the state of computer development that it seems necessary to specify that a new laptop has multiple windows in 2015. I think this is why so many people in the computer industry are deeply suspicious of change. It's not that we hate change or improvement, we hate churn and even worse we hate when something perfectly good gets "deprecated" and the replacement mysteriously forgets all the lessons learned in the last 30 years and adds them back belatedly and half-arsed.

I mean remember the copy/paste debacle (i.e. it flat out didn't exist) on mobile devices? How long did it take before it worked at all? Does they do anything more than plain text yet? Just for reference, the ICCCM, part of X11 was hammered out in 1987 and that contains a really rather reasonable, simple, easy to understand and extensible method for copy/paste of arbitrary and rich data.

It's kinda like someone fell asleep in 1980, woke up in 2005 and remade a 1980s era computer with modern technology and the fanciest graphics available.

Zawinski's cascade of attention deficit teenagers barely scratches the surface.

Re:I'm conflicted about this

[Idou]

Hey, with crouton, you can literally have the best of both worlds at the same time! (no wiping required!)

Also, it is probably too soon to assume there will be much, if any, negative impact on end users. Seems likely you will be able to continue your current habits with the added bonus of having all (not just a small subset of) android apps potentially available on your Chrome book.