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Chromium OS ported to iPad

engadget.com

21–30 of 30 posts

Re: Chromium OS ported to iPad

#21
post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Meaning you could share the iPad with other members of the house, and each member could have their own login with their own preferences, their own bookmarks, plugins, history, saved passwords, etc.

i guess Apple will somehow port that feature out into the iPad sometime into the future... Pretty sure Jobs did not see the iPad becoming a family shared pc substitute household device...

...or Jobs is hoping every family member gets their own iPad.

Re: Chromium OS ported to iPad

#22
post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

* Multi-user * Flash (I browsed the Bowmore whiskey site on my iPad last night... I still hit this occasionally - http://www.bowmore.co.uk/ ) * The chance of getting some native Google apps from the Chrome appstore * Perhaps a chance to break the dependence on iTunes for updates (just give me OTA already and don't require a link to a computer) * Chrome Sync so your tabs, passwords, bookmarks go with you Hell, I'd wan…

OTA sync? Wireless is still not fast enough for that. And what's the point if you still need to be in your house? 3G networks are definitely not fast enough, which leaves USB sync.

OTA software updates (a la Android), not OTA syncing

Re: Chromium OS ported to iPad

#23
post #19

If this actually works without any roadblock like catches, I wonder if Apple will start modifying the iPad to make chromeOS (or any other OS for that matter) can't run on it. I don't know if there's anything you can do from a Hardware perspective to stop someone from installing a different OS, but the cat and mouse game will be fun to watch nevertheless.

From the article: "one of his outgoing missives includes the dire warning that he'll "dash your hopes later, there are a few catches.""

Re: Chromium OS ported to iPad

#24
post #19

If this actually works without any roadblock like catches, I wonder if Apple will start modifying the iPad to make chromeOS (or any other OS for that matter) can't run on it. I don't know if there's anything you can do from a Hardware perspective to stop someone from installing a different OS, but the cat and mouse game will be fun to watch nevertheless.

I doubt it. Apple seems to understand the futility of the cat & mouse game. Even with the Hackintosh community that is not buying an Apple computer and probably pirating OSX they haven't added any additional road blocks since the first public x86 OSX Tiger build from 2005. Even with jailbreaking they haven't taken a very aggressive stance besides fixing exploits.

Re: Chromium OS ported to iPad

#25
post #19

If this actually works without any roadblock like catches, I wonder if Apple will start modifying the iPad to make chromeOS (or any other OS for that matter) can't run on it. I don't know if there's anything you can do from a Hardware perspective to stop someone from installing a different OS, but the cat and mouse game will be fun to watch nevertheless.

Each firmware update they block the ability to run custom code (jailbreaking) -- of course they'll block this as well.

Re: Chromium OS ported to iPad

#26
post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is 'Hacker News'. That question shouldn't need to be asked! I think it's pretty cool, but then, I still have QNX 4 on a floppy disk. ChromeOS is a bit more open than Apple's system, isn't it? That's not a rhetorical question, I actually don't know.

Chromium OS is fully open source. Chrome OS is the closed, Google-compiled version that will arrive on physical machines. As far as I know, iOS is fully closed-source. So yes, Chromium OS is much more open than iOS.

Have you checked out http://opensource.apple.com/? A significant portion of iOS is open-source, pretty much everything is open below the UI layer.

Re: Chromium OS ported to iPad

#27
post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

* Multi-user * Flash (I browsed the Bowmore whiskey site on my iPad last night... I still hit this occasionally - http://www.bowmore.co.uk/ ) * The chance of getting some native Google apps from the Chrome appstore * Perhaps a chance to break the dependence on iTunes for updates (just give me OTA already and don't require a link to a computer) * Chrome Sync so your tabs, passwords, bookmarks go with you Hell, I'd wan…

OTA sync? Wireless is still not fast enough for that. And what's the point if you still need to be in your house? 3G networks are definitely not fast enough, which leaves USB sync.

And yet, wireless Time Machines sell pretty well. And that's for backing up hundreds of gigs.

If your sync can run in the background, speed is effectively not a concern.

Re: Chromium OS ported to iPad

#28
post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Chromium OS is fully open source. Chrome OS is the closed, Google-compiled version that will arrive on physical machines. As far as I know, iOS is fully closed-source. So yes, Chromium OS is much more open than iOS.

iOS is based on Darwin/XNU. These are all the upper layers that are closed-source.

If I'm remembering correctly, the ARM port of XNU is not open-source though.

Re: Chromium OS ported to iPad

#30
post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

OTA sync? Wireless is still not fast enough for that. And what's the point if you still need to be in your house? 3G networks are definitely not fast enough, which leaves USB sync.

And yet, wireless Time Machines sell pretty well. And that's for backing up hundreds of gigs. If your sync can run in the background, speed is effectively not a concern.

You never take your Time Machine out with you though? Slow, background sync would cause abandoned syncs all over the place with iPhone.
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