A browser is one thing. But an OS? I have my doubts.
I suspect that Google is not so much developing an OS as taking a Linux distro and removing the parts that aren't necessary to run Chrome.
Introducing the Google Chrome OS
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Re: Introducing the Google Chrome OS
#12I couldn't help thinking about the crunchpad when I read this.
Slap this on a tablet with a hybrid display and you might have something very interesting.
Re: Introducing the Google Chrome OS
#13A browser is one thing. But an OS? I have my doubts.
You're forgetting, though, that it is an OS that (appears) to consist solely of an environment to boot a browser as rapidly as possible. And, really, it consists more of linux kernel modified for rapid boot, probably optimized for low battery usage etc. They are not building an entire OS.
Re: Introducing the Google Chrome OS
#14Interesting. The one missing piece--a RAD development environment that's as efficient as Visual Studio is at producing fat clients. The business world will only embrace the webcentric model when it becomes as efficient to code in as .net click-once fat clients. The idea of simple, cheap, rugged hardware is very appealing. But programmer time is the #1 cost--businesses go for easy drag/drop fat client apps. Software w…
The answer to your problem: 280atlas.com – if they ever release it.
Re: Introducing the Google Chrome OS
#15I'm glad Google has identified a need for something like this, but I don't really trust that Google has the right talent to build an operating system. They have serious problems with user experience and interface design (see: Doug Bowman). The mere idea that they are attempting to encroach on an aspect of experience as large as the operating system is to me somewhat scary. I do hope they prove me wrong. But based on…
As I said below (http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=693339): you've not got what they're thinking of as the OS. The browser is the operating system, and the apps are all web apps. The core of the OS is Linux, but the interface is all browser -- you don't install apps, you just type in their URL. There's hardly any OS UI they need to invent that we haven't already seen as part of Chrome itself.
Re: Introducing the Google Chrome OS
#16For application developers, the web is the platform.... Google Chrome OS is being created for people who spend most of their time on the web, and is being designed to power computers ranging from small netbooks to full-size desktop systems.
Does this mean an operating system that runs chrome and little else or an operating system that runs mostly chrome?
Re: Introducing the Google Chrome OS
#17Let's hope this also means that a Linux version of Chrome is around the corner.
Since they say they're implementing a new windowing environment for this project, there may not be a lot of porting overlap between Chrome for Chrome OS and Chrome for your normal Linux distribution.
Re: Introducing the Google Chrome OS
#18I think this is great. Most people don't know what a browser is anyway, so for them it probably won't make much of a difference. It will be interesting to see how much of an OS you can strip away.
Re: Introducing the Google Chrome OS
#19So effectively your PC becomes a Google ThinClient.
Got all the Office Applications with Google Apps. Email/Communication with Gmail. The rest of the web. Multimedia with YouTube/Hulu/etc. Sounds like what majority of the people need. Even for work environments, would be pretty good (you can offer your proprietary application in the form of a web application).
Re: Introducing the Google Chrome OS
#20Let's hope this also means that a Linux version of Chrome is around the corner.
Since they say they're implementing a new windowing environment for this project, there may not be a lot of porting overlap between Chrome for Chrome OS and Chrome for your normal Linux distribution.
It would have to be Windowsy, unless Chrome has its own internal windowing layer that's a suitable general abstraction.
I assumed that "windowing environment" meant "window manager" not "GUI toolkit" anyway.