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July 09, 2009

Chrome OS: Cloud computing made real

Forget Windows. So long Mac OS X. Google's OS lifts computing out of yesterday's desktop paradigm and into the cloud

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Chrome OS must be a dream come true for Google-versus-Microsoft fanboys. Rumors that Google would ship a desktop OS first flew back in 2006, but the project in question turned out to be for internal use only. Then came Android, and reports that Google's smartphone OS would soon make the leap to more traditional PCs set the market abuzz again -- although many remained skeptical. Now the announcement of Chrome OS should brush any lingering doubts aside.

Not everyone is impressed with the search giant's latest move, however. My colleague Randall Kennedy says Chrome OS has "an ice cube's chance in Hell" of competing successfully with Windows or Mac OS X, citing the overwhelming effort needed to duplicate the full range of device drivers and applications available on those platforms today. Randall just doesn't see that happening, and for that matter neither do I.

[ Find out what InfoWorld contributors Randall Kennedy and Savio Rodrigues think of Google's newly announced OS ]

But Chrome OS isn't meant to be a pound-for-pound competitor to Windows. Though it's built on the Linux kernel, it's really something brand new. In fact, when we look back 10 years from now, the debut of Google's Chrome OS may well mark the moment when cloud computing finally became real.

Chrome OS: Custom-built for the cloud
It's particularly telling that Chrome OS will ship with support for both Intel and ARM processors. Google reps say the OS will initially target netbooks, and low-powered ARM chips are expected to play an increasing role in that market.

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tomaddox 9-Jul-09 9:54am
1 reply
I, for one, look forward to the excellent combination of the ease of use and aesthetic UI of Linux and the speed, efficiency, and reliability of Web applications! Hmm, it appears that Infoworld doesn't support the tag. Pity.
tomaddox 9-Jul-09 3:07pm
That's supposed to be the "sarcasm" tag. Infoworld apparently also doesn't support literal quoting.
cmaurand 9-Jul-09 11:12am
So not interested in the cloud for myriads of privacy and security reasons. I'm not sure this is going to be as big as the media is hyping it to be. Just wait until you try to migrate your documents off of Google docs. Or how about trying to use the netbook with anything else. I know you folks are all gaga that someone's actually got the spine to take on Microsoft (I'm a linux guy and I like the fact that this will be yet another debian repackaging), but I'm not so sure this is going to be as big as y'all think it's going to be. The software industry has been trying to sell us SAAS, or the cloud, or timesharing or whatever its called this week for decades, but so far, every implementation has failed. Remember Scott McNealy, "The network's the computer." I don't see this as anything more than that. I saw a headline this morning, "The web's the computer." Sound's the same and now Larry Ellison owns Sun. I can already buy a netbook with Ubuntu on it with Firefox and use google docs. Am I going to have Debian/Ubuntu with the broken chrome browser, now? Remember that chrome doesn't do plugins like flash or silverlight, which you all have been hyping. Why in the world do I want to buy a netbook with a giant piece of spyware/advertising delivery system on it? So not interested.
Bill Snyder 9-Jul-09 3:19pm
1 reply
One small point: If content is stored on the Web, why wouldn't you need the equivalent of a desktop search tool? Content is content no matter where it is stored and if you have a lot of stuff, you'll need to search it. I don't think that tailored browser searches are the answer.
Neil McAllister 15-Jul-09 5:10pm
There's no need for a local search tool when nothing is stored locally. If content is stored on the Web, you want the searches taking place on the remote servers where the content lives, no? Many people already find that searching for emails in a GMail account (for example) is much faster than performing the equivalent search against the local database of a desktop mail app, such as Outlook. Let the big servers on the other end of the Internet connection handle all the heavy indexing and searching.
JamesMartin 9-Jul-09 7:29pm
Rather than evolution, let us use the word revolution. Look what happened when they tried to bring the Snapdragon out. MS quashed it. But they can't quash a good concept, and it will out. Marry Chrome OS with the Crunch Pad: http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/06/03/crunchpad-the-launch-prototype/ and with the Mozilla Concept Aurora: http://adaptivepath.com/aurora/ and see what happens.
ikevinTV 11-Jul-09 9:07am
1 reply
I think the first version of Chrome OS will be a minimal operating system to run a web browser - the Chrome browser. Googles wants users to use everything on the web - Gmail, Docs, etc. - and to run them using web browsers using AJAX. This is good as it is simple and does not demand heavy computing resources - perfect for NetBooks.

However, the power of AJAX is severely limited compared to what a full-blown platform (Mac, Windows, etc.) can offer you. Take, for example, Photoshop. It would be very interesting and a few more years of development before Chrome OS be considered against the major platforms. Buyers of computers running Chrome OS must be willing sacrifice the capabilities of a full-blown platform can offer. Last, but not least, if a buyer needs to occasionally run a Windows application, forget about a NetBook running Chrome OS and Windows together as it would be too underpowered to do that kind of virtualization.

Kevin Pan
Open Source Cloud Computing Developer
http://ObjectsOnClouds.org
Neil McAllister 15-Jul-09 5:13pm
Agreed, but I take Google's own description at face value: "Chrome OS is for people who spend most of their time on the Web." Personally, I'm not really one of those people *right now* ... but I could see myself becoming one, someday.
rcprimak 14-Jul-09 12:09am
Many practical issues must be overcome in order for a Chrome OS concept to compete with Windows, even for those very few people who never do anything with their computers except e-mail and web surfing.

Randall Kennedy's recent blog has presented a very different assessment of Chrome OS's potential vs. Windows. I have commented there and under Robert X. Cringeley's recent blog about "Do we really need another OS?".

What it comes down to is, do we really want to trust our data and critical files to an OS which cannot access and process these files on the local computer? For most of the world, the answer is a resounding NO. A complete local OS will still be needed by any serious business or consumer computer user. Hard Drives are not going anywhere anytime soon.

Neil McAllister 15-Jul-09 5:19pm
1 reply
Well, when you say "compete with Windows," I think we need to qualify. Does a bicycle compete with a Prius? In the sense that a bicycle is not a motorized vehicle, it most certainly does not. And yet, I might choose to ride a bike to work instead of driving, so Toyota could still lose a sale. By the same token, does the BlackBerry OS compete with Windows? Most people would offer a resounding "no." Even the simple act of typing up a business letter would be a painful chore on a BlackBerry. And yet, in Japan for example, the majority of people access the Internet on a phone rather than on a desktop computer. Many Japanese wouldn't know how to send an e-mail with a PC; the concept would seem strange to them. So just because Chrome OS doesn't fit the mainstream paradigm of computing as we know it today doesn't mean the paradigm can't change. Will it happen overnight? I doubt it. But just a couple years ago, huge laptops with 3-hour battery life and 17" screens were all the rage. When the Eee PC showed up, look what happened. One thing's for sure: This market moves quickly.
rcprimak 16-Jul-09 3:33pm
Neil, if you are talking about Chrome OS as a niche OS (like Android) for phones, PDAs, netbooks and the likes, yes, I could easily entertain the nontion that some highly mobile users will find Chrome OS an exciting new development well worth their attention.

But this is not how Chrome OS is being hyped by its current fans. It is being presented as a Windows alternative, not a niche OS. And this is where the criticisms of Randall Kennedy, Robert Cringely, and myself, among many others, are coming from.

If Chrome OS were being marketed as a Mobile OS, I think it would be less likely to be compared with full-fledged OSes, and the discussion could focus on what Chrome OS really brings to the table which Windows and Linux do not. Which is hard to say while Chrome OS is still vaporware.

I ride my bicycle all around town, so the bike vs. car analogy is not lost on me. But when I really have to get somewhere, or my elderly Dad wants to go along, a bicycle is not practical. It is niche transportation for me, not my family workhorse. And when I want to go on line, I usually find I need to compose a document, or edit an image for upload to my blog, or something else for which I like to retain a local copy. Even e-mail should be stored locally to comply with business regulations. None of which is good news for the OS in the Clouds.

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