Wow. So you know all those whispers about a Google desktop operating system that never seem to go away? You thought they might with the launch of Android, Google’s mobile OS. But they persisted. And for good reason, because it’s real.
In the second half of 2010, Google plans to launch the Google Chrome OS, an operating system designed from the ground up to run the Chrome web browser on netbooks. “It’s our attempt to re-think what operating systems should be,” Google writes tonight on its blog.
But let’s be clear on what this really is. This is Google dropping the mother of bombs on its chief rival, Microsoft. It even says as much in the first paragraph of its post, “However, the operating systems that browsers run on were designed in an era where there was no web.” Yeah, who do you think they mean by that?
And it’s a genius play. So many people are buying netbooks right now, but are running WIndows XP on them. Windows XP is 8 years old. It was built to run on Pentium IIIs and Pentium 4s. Google Chrome OS is built to run on both x86 architecture chips and ARM chips, like the ones increasingly found in netbooks. It is also working with multiple OEMs to get the new OS up and running next year.
Obviously, this Chrome OS will be lightweight and fast just like the browser itself. But also just like the browser, it will be open-sourced. Think Microsoft will be open-sourcing Windows anytime soon?
As Google writes, “We have a lot of work to do, and we’re definitely going to need a lot of help from the open source community to accomplish this vision.” They might as well set up enlistment booths on college campuses for their war against Microsoft.
Google says the software architecture will basically be the current Chrome browser running inside “a new windowing system on top of a Linux kernel.” So in other words, it basically is the web as an OS. And applications developers will develop for it just as they would on the web. This is similar to the approach Palm has taken with its new webOS for the Palm Pre, but Google notes that any app developed for Google Chrome OS will work in any standards-compliant browser on any OS.
What Google is doing is not recreating a new kind of OS, they’re creating the best way to not need one at all.
So why release this new OS instead of using Android? After all, it has already been successfully ported to netbooks. Google admits that there is some overlap there. But a key difference they don’t mention is the ability to run on the x86 architecture. Android cannot do that (though there are ports), Chrome OS can and will. But more, Google wants to emphasize that Chrome OS is all about the web, whereas Android is about a lot of different things. Including apps that are not standard browser-based web apps.
But Chrome OS will be all about the web apps. And no doubt HTML 5 is going to be a huge part of all of this. A lot of people are still wary about running web apps for when their computer isn’t connected to the web. But HTML 5 has the potential to change that, as you’ll be able to work in the browser even when not connected, and upload when you are again.
We’re starting to see more clearly why Google’s Vic Gundotra was pushing HTML 5 so hard at Google I/O this year. Sure, part of it was about things like Google Wave, but Google Wave is just one of many new-style apps in this new Chrome OS universe.
But there is a wild card in all of this still for Microsoft: Windows 7. While Windows XP is 8 years old, and Windows Vista is just generally considered to be a bad OS for netbooks, Windows 7 could offer a good netbook experience. And Microsoft had better hope so, or its claim that 96% of netbooks run Windows is going to be very different in a year.
Google plans to release the open source code for Chrome OS later this year ahead of the launch next year. Don’t be surprised if this code drops around the same time as Windows 7. Can’t wait to hear what Microsoft will have to say about all of this. Good thing they have a huge conference next week.
Amazing
can’t wait
first of all, there is like a 5% chance Google will be releasing a full fledged operating system that would compete *directly* against Microsoft’s desktop OS. It takes years, and lots of programmers to design an operating system. This is not something Google is familiar with. Plus, can you imagine the support Google would need for everyday joes trying to use their OS? I say this is just overhype.
years?? have u being involved in a project like this before? u said a lot of programmers… but that’s nothing for an Open Source community. Basically, they just need a Kernel, then the other stuff can be build pretty quickly
how would you like to download a new version of Google OS every 2 months? I hope your programs, extensions, etc don’t break after each upgrade.
Even having to convince someone to download a service pack is a pain in the butt…
agreed. but remember… everything will be running in the cloud. They said it, developers will be working only on web based apps, for a minor or major upgrade u dont need to download the whole OS just streamlined those required patches on user approval. But at the end, nobody knows for sure what’s their approach on these issues
Yeah.
From one f*cked up OS monopoly to the next f*cked up monopoly.
Google on my PC?
Never. Ever.
to get an idea how a cloud OS would work… http://www.thin.../gos/index.html
It’s one of those dirty games that Google is now playing.
They are scared that their search market share is going to reduce due to bing.
What do they do? scare Microsoft that Google will launch an OS, which is one of the microsoft’s core business & revenue generator.
Well played Google…. NOT!
mrzod, why do you have a fake pic in your profile?
With it being more web than desktop centric, I am guessing most of the software will be online with constant improvement without the need for desktop level downloads.
Jon
If all your programs are on the web, then pretty much so long as the browser still works you’re golden.
Also, I’m getting patch updates a lot more frequently than once every 2 months now and haven’t experienced even the most minor of flaws from that.
The ‘Service Pack’ mentality is a Windows-centric one, for the most part. Most linux distributions prefer smaller package upgrades most of the time, but even when a new distro comes out, apt-get dist-upgrade just works, in my experience, and doesn’t take nearly as long as applying the average Windows service pack.
“how would you like to download a new version of Google OS every 2 months?”
This is a very Windows/OSX way of looking at the world, I get updates to my operating system every day, and they’re yet to break anything. Open-source operating systems are a long way ahead of the closed source ones in this respect.
True. It is just a matter of talent and a few months (maybe, a year). But I agree with your point about the download issue. Think Google will have to find a way to resolve it.
It took Linux years to get to where it was semi-mainstream. If we are talking about a true OS in the traditional sense, Google will have to deal with many of the same issues that have given Microsoft fits for years: devices and compatibility. I don’t see Google being very good at that task.
I see this more a shot at Linux (unintentionally perhaps).
Why? If you read the actual blog you’ll find it’s using the Linux kernel, so its already mature.
All Google is really doing here is announcing yet another Linux distro, yet again going their own way when there are existing good distributions they could be seriously putting their weight behind.
Don’t Forget that Google has tons of experience running Linux on their servers, developing Android, and their for-internal-use-only Ubuntu fork, Goobuntu. It isn’t like they aren’t already familiar with what different iterations of the Linux kernel can do.
All they really needed was the decision to move this forward. And they have made it now.
I guess Ubantu refused to put Google as a default search box like shameless Firefox did – that’s why Google is creating its own Linux distribution.
Good for opensource.
I just bought a netbook, tried the installed linux OS as well as 2 other linux OS’s, then I installed windows 7 as my wife needed office it runs chrome and office and can recognize USB devices. Linux has a number of decent GUI’s available, but they cant run the programs / connect to the devices real people use.
Microsoft is working on a web version version of Office, they have to for competitive reasons…so in theory Chrome OS would have that covered.
Driver development might be one of the reasons for the outsourcing strategy
You are not living in a Real World Then!
I use ubuntu on a laptop…
I connect via USB CDMA phone to the internet…
(There was no need of drivers like in Vista)
I browse with Firefox, use Gmail, read techcrunch, watch you tube etc…
It acts as a wifi access point for other laptops here and for my wifi phone too…
Then I do docs with open office, watch movies with VLC player.
I have asterisk and Twinkle running so I can call other folks over sip and wifi and sip phones (wifi mobile)…
There is a shortcut for anything on ubuntu, even when things don’t work, you just go to the ubuntu help forums where you almost always get a solution…
When it comes with Vista, the first day gave me a blue screen and it tried to do everything for me and I could do it manually in a few minutes, going through the Vista wizards and troubleshooting stuff ended up taking up a whole evening of frustration… Trying to make everything idiotproof made Vista an Idiot OS.
I figured out that I am glad to have switched over to Linux when it was just catching on a long time ago…
Apart from that I don’t have to pay a single dime… I can do development too… And do you know how much the development softwares for Vista cost???
To round it up, I have Windows XP running in a VirtualBox (To test my web apps in IE) and I can just freeze or close the whole Windows XP like any other app in ubuntu…
I think this is more Real than Reality itself…
I am not the only one, millions like me use linux (ubuntu,debian,gentoo,fedora) etc as their desktop OS…
Besides when you look at the server market you can see that most of the sites you browse are served by Apache or lighttpd servers which run on GNU/Linux or FreeBSD…
This sounds pretty Real to me… So get a life but stay in wonderland if you like to be spoon fed with corporate shit and shitware from MS…
All that looks nice is not cool!
@ Robert N
“how much the development softwares for Vista cost???”
Actually there is a lot of free of charge development software for Vista, e.g. the open source IDE Eclipse, the IDE Visual Studio Express is also free.
Robert N, Is your wife or mother running linux without complaining and asking for windows? That was my test and ubantu failed.
Garth, I installed ubuntu on my mother’s computer. She still complains, but at least she isn’t getting viruses every 2 weeks.
@garth: my wife is. has been for quite a while now. even did version update from ubuntu 08.04 to 09.04 herself — and she’s the type of user that has little patience for fiddling around: “it should just work. PERIOD.” and she’s definitely not a nerd/geek/etc.
last time she used windows on her private laptop was back in the late 1990s…
I used to hesitate to advertise linux because I was worried that only techie people could cope with it. Not any more: I installed Linux on my sister’s machine beefore she went to university. When the hardware on that failed she bought a new laptop with windows preinstalled, ripped out the windows and put Linux in. She hasn’t a clue about computers and I have to walk her through even simple things such as setting up preferences in her browser but evidently Linux made an impression on her after a lifetime of Windows. She even converted a languages student she is sharing a house with. Vista eats battery and has lousy performance. Linux, especially NSA’s SELinux, supplies security without hogging resources. Longer battery life == real change == a convert who doesn’t just love Linux for its technical superiority. Yay linux!
lol, kernel is the easiest part compared to decent desktop, drivers and hardware support. Anyhow, this is Google’s knee-jerk reaction to Bing. Move along. Nothing to see here.
Actually, it is a direct take on Microsoft’s Gazeille.
very well said “Robert N”
Linux is already gaining ground in India as well.
Lets see, who serves us with the best technology.
It doesn’t matter who introduce it, what matters is how convenient and useful it is.
Windows 7 & Bing are the best products of Microsoft, by far.
And Google always concentrates on this…
http://www.goog...ures/index.html
http://en.wikip...le_acquisitions
@passerby
You seem to missunderstand! The kernel includes all the drivers you could possibly need and its been years for me that I had trouble with hardware support in linux.
Nowadays it’s the other way around. It is much more hassel to find drivers for the right windows version while linux mostly just works out of the box.
People, please think for a second! This has nothing to do with Bing. Microsoft could have left the search market completely and this still would have happened because Google’s vision does not include fat desktop apps. The want 100% web, all the time.
The infrastructure for this vision is not there yet (read: in the sticks), but we’re getting closer all the time.
Did you both ever read that entry referenced in post?
Kernel = Linux
Graphics = NeatX
Basic OS utilities = GNU, supposingly.
This happens to be just a GNU/Linux distro. From Google.
Sensational Journalism indeed
I dont think this will be a Nuclear Bomb, it would be more like a Bullet Fired towards Microsoft.
As rightly said in the comment above mine, building an OS involves a lot. You need applications to work on your OS and so many other things, developer support etc.
If Google is thinking that people will live in the Google world of OS where there will be everything Google and all the apps would be over a cloud, in my opinion, it will just take away a very very very small percentage of the overall share away from Microsoft. MS should be worried more about Apple here rather than Google.
On the other hand I see Google not being purely a search company and am sure that Bing will take away a sizeable share from them.
No, this is not hype but truly sensational!! The effect of the news maybe a few bullet fire shots at Microsoft. But the news itself is a Nuclear Bomb..and as MG says, this is the Mother of Bombs…hurled at Microsoft… especially after Google Wave
yes, applications to run on your OS, google has those already. they’re called web apps. that’s entirely what this is about.
you’re thinking there’s going to be a notepad app or something. but really it will be google docs or any other online word processor.
Im pretty sure they will be developing something like this… http://www.thin.../gos/index.html
(also Open Source) but it’s just in it first steps in the right direction…
plus with HTML5 those mammie jammies can run offline. sweet
MG, don’t be an idiot.
Those web apps don’t run on your ‘OS’. They run thanks to the browser.
These web apps already run on Windows, OS X, Linux.
Purely BS blogging.
MG indeed that is my point. It is great for people to be using apps on the web and indeed that will take away a few % of people away from MS but the impact would be more like a bullet rather than a Nuke.
Most of us, I spent almost 12 hours of my day online, still need to work on Apps which are on our desktop as against on the web and that is not an easy habit to change. I have tried using online versions of Spreadsheets or Docs but have always found Office on my desktop to be a lot more convenient, Adobe gives us a PDF reader on the web as well but I want Acrobat installed on my machine, GMAIL is great but I love to access my POP emails on Outlook. I am not even mentioning a lot of other utilities like WinZIP, Media Players etc but then maybe I am an exception rather than a rule.
A pure browser based OS while sounds great for a fraction of people, would find the acceptance difficult amongst majority of them, or maybe atleast this is what I hope. I might be wrong.
Why would Skype port an app for Chrome OS until it reaches 3% or so market share?
Why would Apple port iTunes? Why would any of the major non-Google IM clients get ported? Malware apps? Hello…..?
Someone should tell Google that you’re supposed to throw the grenade, not the pin.
lol Skype might consider porting if they have to contend with the possibility that a Google Voice + Google Talk combo would could take off
iTunes good point, but maybe that’s why E.S. is on Apple’s board
yeah yeah, sure. Just remember we heard the same story when Google Chrome (the browser) was launched.
Result one year later: 2% market share.
My daughter’s netbook is already chrome-ish: a Win XP with Chrome browser on the startup. Would be nice to pay $30 bucks less? No doubt. Would she enjoy 10 secs less on the boot? Absolutely. Can all her apps be converted to run on a webOS environment? I don’t think so…
Even though we all spend 80% of the time on web apps, there are the 20% of local apps that simply don’t translate well to the web programming model. iTunes, for example. Or local content – music, videos, podcasts – that need to be sync’ed with your mobile devices. Also offline apps are a crucial necessity, but HTML5 still years away, and Google can’t even update the frickin’ Gears extension to work with FF3.5.
Above all, we have no idea how good (or bad) the user experience will be. The 1st Android was terrible, barely achieving what S60 was offering for years. The Cupcake was clearly an evolution, but still falling short from Palm Pre and iPhone. On the other hand in terms of user experience, Win7 is alive and kickin’..
And last but not least, it’s mind-boggling why they didn’t simply adapt Android for intel. It can run Chrome, has already a developer community (even though it’s small), has potentially some support from Nokia, can run local apps. Why not just extend it to run on intel platforms? This would be genius, bridging the gap between mobile devices and small portable computers, letting users run the same apps, the same local+remote experience and avoiding browsers entirely.
I’m optimistic that more competition (specially open source) is good for everyone, but I’m keeping my expectations low for the first 1-2 years…
Just a quick question regarding the following statement: “out the Windows layer and use the browser as the only operating system”
How do you think the computer will be able to boot if you have no way of accessing the disk?
Linux is underneath with a different windowing environment which will allow you to install other applications as well. Think mac os X
I was following your side of the argument until you said this:
“GMAIL is great but I love to access my POP emails on Outlook.”
POP and Outlook? Do you only get your email on a single device and only at your house? That’s the only way this would even compare with GMail+IMAP, and even then, it’s much slower (searching), clumsy, and expensive.
Apple tried this “web only” application dev model with the iPhone and it was laughed out the door. Now they have a real SDK for the iPhone OS and the excitement and growth is huge. Google is fooling themselves if they think the web-only dev model will work for their OS. They must provide application-level access to the windowing manager, filesystem, hardware, etc to allow people to develop compelling experiences.
Perhaps the new windowing and compositing system on top of the Linux kernel will be based on HTML5, similar to how Apple’s Quartz is based on PDF. But the point is that it’s running locally within the OS rather than through a browser.
The future of mobile networked computing is dedicated apps. Again, see the iPhone, where instead of browsing Google Maps through a very good browser, there is a dedicated Google Maps app. Even primarily content-based sites like NYTimes are providing dedicated apps to access their content. The success of the various “app stores” is in direct opposition to a cloud-centric view of networked applications. Note that Google has NOT provided a Gmail iPhone app yet. (but they do provide a dedicated Blackberry Gmail app)
Paul:
Those applications won’t need to be ported; they already run on linux.
It’s easy to see how there are critical desktop apps that won’t work on the web, but I think that’s shortsighted. We’ve already seen tons of users migrating to inferior web interfaces simply for the convenience factor. There are a significant number of users today who do nothing with their computer other than use the web. Plus, a lot of the shortcomings of the web can easily be bridged by Google since they are controlling the OS–A little glue here and there could go very far.
I’m not saying it will happen. The pendulum could swing away from cloud services for any number of reasons just as it has swung between client/server for the last 40 years. However in this case I think the most likely reason for Google to fail will be a lack of design and marketing.
However in terms of the core idea, I think this definitely has the potential to be a Microsoft killer. The fact that it seems like pie in the sky only makes it that much more dangerous for MS.
The way google is going with its extraordinary algorithms, the day is not far for Microsoft’s era to end completely. What IBM, HP and Sun together could not do many years back, Google does it and does it with a bang.
I disagree. When Google could out-do Microsoft in things like search, email and others, why not it do the same with OS? Definitely, it is not going to be like Windows. But I expect it to be much simpler and easier to use. Maybe, Google will be selling a lot of its applications through the OS. But that is what even MS does – so, Google launching an OS is not that strange. And I’m sure those guys at MountainView can handle it.
Maybe Google should focus first on increasing Chrome market share. As great as Chrome might be in terms of features and what not, its market share is still relatively small. It doesn’t seem to be growing either, instead Firefox and Safari are the ones moving up against IE.
As long as Chrome is compatible with the other browsers, why does Google need to worry about increasing its market share, with respect to this announcement?
Also, is Eric Schmidt going to step down from the Apple board, now that he will have to recuse himself from meetings about iPhone OS *AND* Mac OS X? Or will he stay on to discuss Apple TV?
Maybe Google should focus first on increasing Chrome market share. As great as Chrome might be in terms of features and what not, its market share is still relatively small. It doesn’t seem to be growing either, instead Firefox and Safari are the ones moving up against IE.
I dont think Google out-did Microsoft in search… they out played Yahoo for sure but Microsoft was never a potential rival in Search (mostly because it was oblivious to the potential that web had)… but building an OS is getting a little desperate… its like someone in Google has just come out and pointed that Google has been sleeping and has to do something new, and hence the removal of beta tags and news of bringing out an OS… feels like a major change coming in Google hierarchy
They don’t need entire OS, they have the kernel and low level stuff (like udev), the graphics server (X11) and they have the browser, all they need to do is to write a decent window manager and make sure everything plays nicely together.
Correct… a “standard” OS requires years of development and huge teams to develop.
However, the difference here is that it’s designed for Netbooks. This means that it will not require anywhere near the complexity of standard operating systems.
The focus here is the cloud. At it’s core… the OS would be just a browser.
Over hyped today – yes.
But you’re wrong on a couple of points;
Google has said that it will be linux based so the linux kernel or the android kernel could run the hardware.
And the WebKit based Chrome browser (they could have an internal beta in days without raising a sweat).
Also look at the iphone’s os updates, the majority of units were upgraded in the first week. Microsoft has never come close.
If you make upgrades valuable and easy to effect people upgrade gladly.
Microsoft isn’t ending because of this. In fact Microsoft is their own worst enemy.
I am curious how the 5% chance was calculated.
“It takes years, and lots of programmers to design an operating system. This is not something Google is familiar with. ”
So is Microsoft. *SCNR*
“It takes years, and lots of programmers to design an operating system.”
Only in the mind of people at Microsoft is this true.
mrzod, Years? Service? Think in Linus Torvald… then compare with Google Development Team. Then compare with Google.
I say this: It’s perfectly possible!
gab
Fabulous. This is indeed the Mother of all bombs. I love the way Google has put it – “However, the operating systems that browsers run on were designed in an era where there was no web.”
And MG, you have done an amazing job on the title of the post. Is it true that Win XP is 8 years old? What would be the scope of the Chrome OS? And why long does Google take to launch it?
Thanks. Yes, XP will be 8 in just a few months, I believe. Sounds like Google is waiting til next year to launch so that it can have the open source community help perfect it first.
And Google Chrome is already almost a year old and nobody is even using it. If the Google OS takes that long to have essential features I see myself using it in 2020.
techcrunch is Googl’e marketing department. Extremely biased reporting in Google’s favor no matter what the discussion or news. Google could ship a stone tablet as an OS and techcrunch will call it the greatest OS ever.
Help perfect it? ever worked on an OS?
and one more thing: Shmidt will fuck up google. its just a matter of time.
You must be new here. Everyone knows that Techcrunch is *Twitter’s* marketing department.
A nuclear bomb != a foot in the door.
Microsoft launching Bing wasn’t a nuclear bomb, neither is this. In both cases, it’s just two companies setting up for potential future wars that will be defined by the adoption of the next generation of common native application frameworks.
Stop getting so excited, I know it’s fun but really..
Chrome OS completes the Google ecosystem – it will suit some people, others not. Considering Google’s huge resources, and the talent at their disposal, I have no doubt they can deliver a quality product.
It also provides a alternative to Windows on netbooks – one that has a recognisable brand name behind it (let’s be honest, most people have never heard of Linux) and undermines Microsoft’s power in this market – at the very least, it will force Redmond to revise its pricing strategy and lower its margins.
Game on! Can’t wait to see how the bug guys will play this game.
“bug guys”
Yeap, thats Microsoft
)
*sorry, couldn’t resist
“shock and awe” eh?
indeed.
PLEASE GOOGLE RELEASE IT NOW. I hate the SLOW SLOW SLOW Windows XP on my netbook.
Um, how are you going to run this “Google OS” exactly on your netbook?
Unless you’re going to install linux you’re still going to have to deal with XP.
Read the article. Google OS is based of Linux kernel,the kernel is included.
Steve,
just install Ubuntu netbook remix: http://www.ubun...ownload-netbook
Canonical has actually done a great job with Ubuntu Netbook Remix: instead of providing a .ISO, they give a file that you slap on a USB device and boot from instead. The UI is designed especially to make the best use of the small screen space. I definitely recommend it over Windows XP.
Guys, this is incredibly exciting – but as with all things, I think you have partly nailed this on the head.
“Google can obviously put its own web apps like Gmail, Google Calendar, and Google Docs at the center of the user experience, and this is surely part of Google’s motivation behind releasing this OS”
I can well imagine – that with the DOJ (Department of Justice) already breathing down their neck about the cross-pollination of their products and share of advertising market creating a monopoly – any associated push of more Google products tied closely together with an OS system may very well create a firestorm internally within the DOJ.
Myself – I can’t wait to see what is produced – but I imagine that all Google Competitors (*ahem MS*) will also put forward some pretty strong monopolistic arguments here considering how hard Google have pushed this in Microsoft’s direction in the past.
Exciting times either way.
I think google won’t any DOJ problems with this… Look at how they played their wave product. Not only its an open source but they actually invite everyone (read Microsoft) to develop a Wave clients and servers. It will be the same with OS I think. Their OS will be about running web apps; Not just google web apps but web apps for everyone… I can totally see MS getting office online to work superbly on such an OS and I don’t see any reason for google to block it, rather it will promote it.
What monopoly? … , it’s open source.
Guys, have to respectively disagree. The fact that it is open source is irrelevant – the fact that they are inviting developers to develop on it is irrelevant.
It is the close tying of Google products to it that will be the point of contention. “Load up our Google OS Operating System and have Wave, Chrome, Gmail, Gtalk, Google Desktop, Google Docs ready to access immediately – oh and upload all of your video’s to Youtube with our natively integrated uploader. Lastly, all your searches can be driven off our Google search engine – locally and across the web.”
Wow, imagine that – it’s all available from the get-go and you think it’s not of concern ? I have to disagree that this as it is a huge point of concern – privacy conflicts, competition issues and the level of advertising exposure all wrap neatly into one product.
The promotion of such a OS to non-tech (I repeat non-tech) consumers as a link on a Google web-page or as a pre-installed product on PC’s links more single-company services together than any other business will have ever done before in the world.
I think that is a point of concern that the DOJ will be looking at. I think that is a point of concern everyone should be looking at.
Then Apple should have problems with having their own OS on their own hardware, not?
Isn’t it *basically* the same thing?
Sorry, but there needs to be more than market share for a monopoly. A company has to engage in practices that block competition from competing in the same space. The word “monopoly” has been vilified but it is possible to have a legal one. It could be argued that Apple has more of a monopoly on the phone and music markets than Google would with that whole software chain because of some of Apple’s practices that blocks competition.
As far as Google Chrome(the browser) not having much market share, I think the biggest reason is lack of add-on support(until recently, and it is very basic right now). I would not use Firefox at all if Google Chrome had something like Firebug. And now I am finding Firebug is even causing web pages to break until I restart Firefox.
Firefox has gotten worse for me, along with Thunderbird, as the projects have moved forward. I have issues with the search box not working, random crashes, updates failing with no explanation why. Javascript is *slow* compared to Chrome. On two separate machines, that are otherwise stable with all my other software.
if they DOJ looks at it and agrees, what would their remedy be? license it at reasonable cost to anyone?
a) check
Load Windows… load outlook… load IE… search with MSN…
Same idea different company, different age.
More Google related news here
http://www.docs...ystem-by-Google
I think most of the commenters in this initial thread are very much misinformed .
1st. They are building on top of linux kernel, the most they are building is a new windowing system. This is hardly building a new os.
2nd. Linux supports the most devices in drivers and supports more hardware than windows.
3rd. Linux distros don’t get the same promotion as windows, although Ubuntu is doing a good job of that. Now putting some major google money behind the efforts to push linux on netbooks will definitely help tilt the scales. Its very hard to get adoption numbers of linux users as sales can’t be counted, and only now are they offering them on computers sold in stores. But still a lot of people will buy windows for deals, wipe em and put linux on them.
4th. This is not an os to compete with Windows on the desktop. Clearly its for netbooks. As one person said earlier about MS windows. Google docs can read any windows format and this will be there intention, otherwise go back to the desktop.
5th. Theres no better way for google to push chrome and chrome usage than to distribute an OS with chrome already installed.
6. Yes this is a big deal.
A Google OS doesn’t really mean anything until the web apps are much much better than they currently are.
Outlook much much better than Gmail, I don’t think so.
Yes, but then we have:
Microsoft Office,
Photoshop,
iTunes
etc.
All of which are either much better than the current Web app equivalents, or with the crappy connection speeds we have, wouldn’t run off the cloud very well.
Dude – Not sure if you’ve *actually* compared OL to GM, but gmail is like a poor toothless hillbilly cousin when compared to a fully featured email client such as Outlook, or Evolution, or pretty much anything that supports proper off-lining, management of multiple message repositories, integration with desktop and clound based applications etc. etc.
Outlook fails miserably at search. That’s gotta be one of the top 3 most useful features of an email program other than 1. Sending email and 2. Receiving email.
I’d guess the more advanced features of Outlook are never used by 95% of it’s users.
Oh, and Outlook costs money!
Scott – again, have you every *actually* compared OL search with GM. I mean, really actually factually tried it for yourself on a contemporary version of the product, rather than just regurgitating the usual anti-MS dogma you read somewhere on the netz? I have no problem at all finding stuff in OL, and in fact this search is really nicely integrated with my desktop so that a search will span my Exchange inbox, PSTs, and my local file system. Easy, effective, quick and powerful.
Outlook costs money? Of course it does – it’s a commercial product, aimed at commercial users. Google have similar commercial offerings – i.e. versions of Gmail aimed at enterprises that aren’t free. If you want, Windows Live Mail is free, offlineable, and yes also lets you search for things
I use both and prefer Google. When completely free to set up my own environment I have my own server running IMAP of course but Google is a pretty decent second best and Outlook is a distant third.Who’s bright idea was it to give Outlook what is essentially a file system but not make it accessible as a file system? I’m meant to do outlook-specific things to script outlook mail, eh? No such nonsense with IMAP. Gmail scraps the file system and has fantastic search instead. That works too.
Is Google planning to root out Microsoft in a step by step and timely manner..?? Its going to be exciting…!!
Finally we get something other than Windows.. and isnt linux
It is linux…
Did you not read the article? It _IS_ Linux.
This kind of comment is kinda concerning: all it proves is that people don’t actually know anything about anything about Linux, but instead judge it by the 20-year-old opinion that Linux is for uber-geeks, takes a genius to install and is impossible to use for, “us mere mortals”.
Linux is ready for the desktop. Linux has been ready for quite a while now. What’s actually genuinely missing is proper marketing.
This rocks! GOGOGO GOOG!
Awesome …!!!!!!!!
Will this be the OS for the CrunchTablet ..?
CrunchPad*
It is a real shame we won’t see a rationale story like this one from ZDNet about the Google Chrome hyperbole – http://blogs.zd...Howlett/?p=1065
Neither can I. We need a viable alternative to Windows.
Chrome. Better get that Windows license bronzed cause it could be the last one.
I’m agree with the Idea of make a better OS, the only company that can do that is the one who is as big as Microsoft … GOOGLE, I’m think this notice could be a Nuclear Bomb, but no. An operating system based on web is not a good idea, they must do one based on desktop, thats 5 nuclear bomb’s on bill gates head, I don’t know why they don’t do that, I can’t imagine the weak security features the chrome OS will have, and the NO SUPPORT feature, it would be another shade of windows … LINUX … I’m not saying Microsoft Vista OS is great … noo I think is just crap, and yeah! XP in my new computer … an 8 years old OS, that’s incredible, Microsoft just do crap OS. GOOGLE must made an OS in a desktop enviroment, pretty sure I bought that, windows 7 would be as bad as Vista.
If you see deepFacebook simulates a basic OS in web but neeeever I will thing is a real OS.
Best regards to all.
John
Ridiculous. It will be another Google halfA$$ effort. They always start things and never fully finish them. Chrome, Google Voice, every other little app they have on Google.com. None of them fully developed products for a consumer marketplace. Microsoft has nothing to fear. The only thing that they have ever lost to those clowns was the search engine and even that is a halfA$$ effort. Linux has been open source forever, but it’s not for 90% of the marketplace. i guarantee you that whatever Google comes up with will be equally foreign to the majority of PC owners.
HUGE. Why wouldn’t android be a good netbook OS, though? Couple improvements here and there?
Rumor has it that Arrington will be putting it on his tablet.
AFAICT, this is exactly the sort of OS that would run on the CrunchPad. Web-based, low-power.
Oh my my…this is serious muscle !
Marvin
http://yousuggest.us
Wow! can’t wait to get my hand on that gem!
I’d love to see an OS developed from scratch. If they make it simple and lightweight… as Chrome (the browser) all well known OS must be on high alert with this one..
It’s not an OS from scratch, it’s being built on a Linux kernel. If they are going that route, you can bet they will use as much of the Linux stack as they need. It will likely be a striped down Linux OS like Android.
It’s a nice idea, and for a lot of people now a days, a bloated OS like Windows is not needed (or desired).
First – test !
OMGosh!!
I want to see it, I need to see it!
Wow. This is going to be huge. So long as this isn’t a joke/invalid sources. I really hope it has minesweeper though!
I don’t think they joke about something like this too often on the Google blog
yes.. its on wsj… stock market will react to this news tomorrow….
how?
There will be buyers and sellers. Stock prices will fluctuate.
Mark my word. You heard it here first.
i had heard that a few people had android running on their netbooks. wow. this is awesome. Ubuntu is a great experience on netbooks. it feels so light and snappy.
this is HUGE news! around the same time we hear microsoft announcing windows 8 perhaps we might hear an announcemnt from google for a full blown OS. “the futures so bright, i got to wear shades.”
Free targeted ad’s on your computer with tracking cookies.
I see this bad for Apple also.
This might be a blessing for security companies and software companies that make software to block ad’s
do u have any idea what Open Source really is?
Free labor for Google?
oh dear lol
too funny!!!
I think the question is, “Do you know what free software is?”.
Remember people: free as in free speach, not free beer.
Chrome has come in nicely into the browser market. But a full fledged OS is a different ball game altogether.
Google has put the separate pieces in place over time, so if they get it right together, it should be really interesting. And with Wave in the works, next year could get very interesting between them and MS.
Sure, but Google’s point in all of this is to prove that you no longer need a full OS (or won’t in say, two or three years). We’ll see how that plays out.
Most people are indulging extremes with this idea, wondering aloud whether it’s going to dominate or not. Well, that doesn’t matter. Think of how many grandmas, parents, children, and other lamer n00bs this idea covers. They can play Freecell online just fine, they don’t need DOS to do it.
Everything else in that (huge) usage model is covered, and I think that covers at least half of the laptop and casual/lifestyle computing market.
Google Vs. Microsoft – Round 2. Its gonna be awesome.
Round 2?? Hasn’t this bout had several rounds over 11 years? Just sayin..
Round 1 being Bing Vs. Google in the search market and now this in the Operating System market. They haven’t had a big showdown on such a big scale before as far as I remember.
fitting picture
noone will use this. Why?
because it will be nothing like windows, and if it is similar, it will most likely be violating microsoft’s intellectual property.
Tell that to the numerous Windows-lookalike themes for Linux.
you’re right and remind me again how many users use M$ and how many are using Linux?
It all comes down to drivers and software…
Linux supports a heck of a lot more hardware than Microsoft AND has better software.
no.
ad populum arguments are worthless
controversial twitter promo, dude!
Google sure isn’t playing. They knew what they were doing when the entered the search engine.
Now they want it all. Who can play them?
Simple thing.. Its inevitable that Google is leader in search, mail, opensource (ie. Google Code), RSS aggregation and can upset many things with the power pack people it have within the company.
If you ask someone to choose between MS and Google mostly ans would be Google because of its brand and user friendliness.
Google Chrome has many flaws but still many in my circle moved to it from well settled Firefox because of its simplicity.
Chrome OS would be same. i really agree to some of the comments. Such as funny but targeted ads is and will be there. How real it is? I can’t say, ask Lary.
As far as full fledge OS is considered, just think Google already has Code, Wave, Android, Translate, Apps, Gmail, Talk, Orkut, Friends Connect, Search, Mobile, Reader, Youtube all in its pocket. How easy it would be to connect and give full fledge OS considered Opensource resources it has.
this is going to be good!
WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOT
Nice title! This looks amazing!
I like Googles angle. Kinda like the CrunchPad—web browser based OS. Could be cool. If anyone where to pioneer a web based OS it should be Google.
Chrome on stripped down Linux is not a new OS.
“stripped down Linux”… post your sources pls
ok, my bad. they just admitted that, let’s go on…
From the aforementioned official Google blog: “Google Chrome OS will run on both x86 as well as ARM chips and we are working with multiple OEMs to bring a number of netbooks to market next year. The software architecture is simple — Google Chrome running within a new windowing system on top of a Linux kernel…”
Yep, “Sleepless In Seattle”, and we ain’t talking about a movie, either.
Somewhere, Linus Torvalds is smiling.
We’re sleeping fine in Seattle tonight. I bet Balmer will be tossing and turning over in Redmond tonight though.
I feel bad for Jolicloud … that’s the worst possible news a start-up like that can have… ouch…
everybody relax.
http://www.nyti...;ref=technology
Sounds like it will be linux-based – guessing Chrome for Linux and OS X will be coming out soon =)
you’d hope so
If Gmail & other Google Apps can be in BETA for so many years that even my nanny can’t remember, I wonder what will happen to their OS. Chrome OS will have to wait for the next few years to see the day light.
On more +ve note, was this they were waiting for to move their Apps away from BETA, good they did it before only
yeah, wonder if that was planned
This is huge, though expected. We have this viewpoint for some time now, that Google will be creating a large and more compelling ecosystem by tightly integrating the Browser, Google Apps, other Google offerings and the OS. Android is for mobile, but this one is huge. Can’t wait.
Agree about Google creating a new ecosystem.
“…but Google notes that any app developed for Google Chrome OS will work in any standards-compliant browser on any OS.”
Sounds like javascript to me?
Gleb
Exactly like Javascript.
Then that would mean that the UI will be HTML / CSS based.
So what about the Webkit as the OS UI renderer?
Exciting times ahead
Actually, Android can run on x86. It’s called live-android and it looks pretty good. Do you have a take on that?
haven’t seen it, though apparently it’s not good enough for Google is they’re going with another OS for x86.
“a new windowing system on top of a Linux kernel.”
I believe what Google means is that it will not be using X-Windows, but something new they have built, like OS X on top of the Mach kernel.
Wow, a non announcement about a non-existent OS being reported as an actual product. Great stuff TechCrunch!
Quote from Google blog, ‘We have a lot of work to do, and we’re definitely going to need a lot of help from the open source community to accomplish this vision.’
It is really sad that people cannot see the forest for the trees around Google…the so called book deal for authors, no transparency and competition around search, perpetual beta products and now this dribble -
‘People want to get to their email instantly, without wasting time waiting for their computers to boot and browsers to start up. They want their computers to always run as fast as when they first bought them. They want their data to be accessible to them wherever they are and not have to worry about losing their computer or forgetting to back up files. Even more importantly, they don’t want to spend hours configuring their computers to work with every new piece of hardware, or have to worry about constant software updates.’
My Sony Vaio z running Windows 7 64bit boots in under 20 seconds and took no time to install and setup. I can access all my files anywhere on my mobile, in the cloud or on my multiple PC’s using Live Mesh.
It never ceases to amaze me the drunken salivation that comes about whenever Google or the Linux community rave about something or spread FUD or make their never ending doom and gloom predictions (which so far have come to nought). Google does not develop or release ‘open source’ products or technologies and from their own blog, ‘Google benefits as well by having happier users who are more likely to spend time on the Internet.’
bizarre argument
But to your point, Google is just so COOL!
How is Google cool?
They are simply going to release a stripped down Linux OS and badge it Chrome.
Google want lots of people (aka open source community) to help them Googlise it and then Google will say it’s something new and make millions of dollars off the back of ‘free’ work done by others?
You think that’s cool? Seriously…..
You angry, angry little man.
More google related news
http://www.docs...ystem-by-Google
wow, great comeback… except you probably should have said ‘CEWL’ to give yourself more credibility.
Yeah, totally huge non-announcement.
How is it a ’significant’ announcement being reported by people like yourself as ‘Google drops a nuclear bomb….’ and you are saying it will be a new OS built from the ground up?
How is a new flavour of a Linux Distro + a web browser a ‘nuclear bomb’ on Microsoft? Seriously….
I am sure Microsoft are quaking in their boots.
I can’t wait for the Microsoft announcement on Monday which Scoble is sitting on.
Your link baiting (un-substantiated) headlines are getting really boring……
wow…great point
james
20 seconds to boot? Seriously? And you consider it fast?
It’s cool how Google announce developments of such major magnitude in such a low key way.
No press releases, fanfare or journalist events – just a simple blog post from a Director or Engineering.
Perhaps Chrome OS will end up powering Crunchpad Mach II
They know that people like TC will have a virtual orgasm and plaster the news all over the place. They know their audience very well.
I believe this will be akin to a bootloader to allow chrome to start, with a few functionalities like being capable of running a Wine-esque Windows emulator, and supporting media apps / plugins etc.
exactly this is what came to my mind after reading updates
adding a very advanced browser (lets call it chorme, though I prefer firefox) in startup while booting whatever OS you choose (Ubuntu/XP). Google, please don’t waste smart earned $ from free ads on all things under the sun/moon/galaxy.
It will most probably run Javascript Apps, in a Webkit environment.
There’s no need to emulate Windows
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Also, put together Google’s Native Client (that aims to run any native code on top of the browser) and you have a pretty solid Web OS. “Web” being the keyword here. Android would be much more suitable for a full-fledged operating system that can actually compete with Windows. A web-OS simply wouldn’t be general purpose enough to compete with Windows.
I like that “the web is the platform.”
Lots of pie in the sky claims without much reason to believe them, no matter how entrenched in the web Chrome OS will be.
Google does great stuff, but I’ll believe it when I see it…….in more than a year, and well after Windows 7 has entrenched itself.
Look on the bright side for Microsoft we might get an actual version of Midori soon
Chrome ain’t got nothing on Apple!
Speaking of, where is the damn Mac version already?
Did you mean “Google drops a nuclear bomb on Ubuntu?”
Seriously, can everyone just relax?? Why do you think people go out of their way to install XP on their netbooks when they have these linux-based systems coming right out of the box, or they have the option of Ubuntu, or a bunch of other variants?
It’s because they want Windows, and they want their Windows apps. PERIOD. And as long as Google won’t be able to offer that (and it certainly won’t with this), it’ll be much more of a threat to Ubuntu (which is already niche) than to XP.
So let’s all just breathe and again, stop putting Google on a golden pedestal.
I think Apple has proven that some people can live without Windows apps per se. I’d expect Google is studying that marketing dynamic.
I can’t wait…
Make it work on the Mac Hardware, and I’m sold…
make it work with ALL our hardware and we’ll be happy… mostly – until internet connection goes down or I need to run a non-web app.
Definitely a great fit for a small market, but I can’t help but wonder about hardware and peripheral support. There are plenty of devices that users need when on internet, like printers, webcams, cameras (for photos), skype/voip hardware.
With Microsoft paying so much development money (baksheesh) to hardware manufacturers, don’t look for a great deal of official vendor support of anything other than Windows and Mac OS. Though some folks have started figuring out that if they open-source their Mac drivers, *nix support magically appears right quick… it’s almost pointless to do that with Windows drivers, as too much of the underlying environment (and gross defects therein) impacts the driver architecture…
You ask too much.
This will bomb
I don’t think it’s a good idea to run _everything_ through a browser. (When all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail). It bothers me that google would try to develop two separate OSes; seems to be too much overlap between a mobile device and a netbook to have separate OSes. In the future will I have to start up a browser just to get a terminal?
yes
Oh man, this is massively exciting. I was getting board with technology…but now I can go on…lol
bored!
“I was getting board [on] with technology”
there are already netbooks running Linux based ubuntu. It is too early to tell if it is a windows competitor. It could be just chrome code ported to linux. If it is just browser/netbook focus, it won’t dent windows market share much.
Its good. Healthy competition helps everyone. Eagerly awaiting the launch..
It will have NOTHING on Windows 7
It will have speed and price. Price alone is enough to convince most people. Walmart provides a great example of this.
True. But you get what you pay for.
No you don’t. My £26 premium cycle lock just came to pieces after nine months whereas my previous dirt cheap one had lasted 5 years. The price is what you can persuade someone to part with. If you don’t get the seller to justify every cent you will find yourself spending money on nothing, or at most a brand label if you’re lucky. I was deliciously entertained by some folk in Africa last Autumn who had bought an expensive computer system that didn’t do what they needed in favour of a cheap one that did. Reason? Spending money was a sign of status. I shouldn’t laugh given that there were people starving in the streets but the damage had been done by then, so at least one can take it with good humour.
Spending money without damn good justification is the habit of idiots. Spend it carefully and use what’s left to do good. Read your Aristotle. Some truths never change.
Yes… Very exciting news of the day. Cant wait any more.
Question:
Will I be able to run firefox?
No?
So it’s more like Google nuclear bombing everyone?
No?
That’s just Mozilla. And that too is available for free. Google just wants to hurt Microsoft’s earnings in OS and applications.
Of course, Ballmer will shoot back:
Will I be able to run Outlook?
How about all those Windows games?
Will I be required to type in a license key?
Very cool indeed. @Arrington, way early for even a 0.02 cents assessment, but do you want to weigh in here about CrunchPad “powered by Google”??
in all likelihood, more of a slingshot – like docs or chrome.
Bullshit. Linux is Unix clone… 40 years old. Chrome runs Javascript. However fast they claim it is, it’s slower than native code.
True Windows is a steaming pile of junk, and slow to boot, but there’s nothing revolutionary about this.
Frankly the pendulum’s swung too far to “web will replace the desktop”. Go ahead and run your JS mp3 player while I laugh. No Flash doesn’t count — it’s native code.
When will Google go so far as to cause an antitrust investigation? There’s a reason IE sucks, and it’s called monopoly. The same will happen with Google. They’re not saints.
don’t forget that Google has a “native client” project underway as well. Now we see why
have you seen Palm’s webOS?
core device’s services are available to JS frontend, so what’s the problem with JS-controlled mp3-player playing local files?
Flash-plugin is native, not the apps, inside it’s just the same thing like JS called ActionScript.
And davebroham is right above, there is a native client which can be used for all other things like gaming and other stuff.
How to avoid monopoly charges … hmm … make it open source – duh.
hahahah 100% right
lol seriously. Microsoft = PWNED!
For the last 15 years, Microsoft’s master business plan seems to have been, “Wait until somebody else has a hit. Then copy it.” So even if this Chrome OS thing gets any significant traction, it won’t take time for MS to have it’s own version of OS on the cloud.
My point being it is silly to call it a nuclear bomb. What r you in kindergarten?
A good measure of how alive an OS is is how quickly it can adapt to new situations. Take Xen virtualistion. It took a Cambridge team six months to port Linux to Xen. Microsoft sent in money and personnell to help with the Windows port. It took over two years. In the tech world that’s forever. Windows is dead in the water. Can’t move fast enough, it’s just brutishly well funded enough to kill any innovation that might threaten it.. so far! I don’t care which OS wins – that’s not my game – but I am a dyed in the wool researcher. Anything that slows idea to implementation is the enemy. By that rule MS is the biggest enemy of all – and a viciously hostile one too to the likes of me.