Chrome OS: Imminent?
By Harry McCracken | Friday, November 13, 2009 at 10:27 am
TechCrunch’s Michael Arrington is reporting that Google plans to release an early version of its Chrome OS netbook operating system next week. It’s presumably a very early version, since Google says that machines running Chrome OS won’t arrive until the second half of next year.
Google says that Chrome OS will be Linux-based, Web-centric, and designed to eliminate installation and security headaches. Other than that, though, it hasn’t had much to say about the OS. (Among the major remaining questions: Just how useful will a Chrome OS netbook be when it’s not connected to the Internet?) Consequently, it’s been hard to have much of an opinion at all about the product other than that it should be fun to see what happens as Google launches yet another salvo at Microsoft. Stay tuned for some answers, I hope…
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Chrome OS: The Great Unveiling | Technologizer Says:
November 18th, 2009 at 4:45 am[…] sounds like it’ll be the closest thing to an official introduction that the company’s Chrome OS for netbooks has gotten to date: While this will be more of a technical announcement, we will be […]
November 13th, 2009 at 10:40 am
Hmmm…perhaps I should hurry and put Haiku onto my semi-retired Sony laptop, to get that out of the way before ChromeOS.
November 13th, 2009 at 12:56 pm
Well, I don’t like the idea. To me it just sounds like less customization, slower os, a whole bunch of problems…. I’ll have to see how it does before i consider going to it. However, I’d NEVER drop Windows for something like that. Posted to my blog (and trackbacked to you):
http://dailyrampager.wordpress.com/2009/11/13/chrome-os-coming/
November 13th, 2009 at 2:07 pm
Sweet idea. Moving netbooks to an ARM-based platform would be sweet if they can:
1) Enable most of the things we want to do on the web, including video playback
2) Bring about that instant-on capability we all want, keep hearing promised, but never seem to find
3) Bring the netbook hardware costs down
4) Increase battery life
5) Keep up with the latest radio standards – lets leave 802.11b and “2.5G” behind, okay?
If Chrome OS is just an also-ran for Intel Atom platforms, basically Google Apps for Linux, then I’m not terribly interested.
November 13th, 2009 at 2:23 pm
“Web-centric” in Gogle’s mind is synonymous with ‘ad-based’. a veru uninviting prospect.
November 13th, 2009 at 6:13 pm
“1) Enable most of the things we want to do on the web, including video playback” Unlikely, with a dinky net book processor.
“2) Bring about that instant-on capability we all want, keep hearing promised, but never seem to find”
Wake from sleep on computers is already near-instantaneous.
“3) Bring the netbook hardware costs down”
Dollars to donuts you’ll still end up paying the Windows Tax.
“4) Increase battery life”
Remains to be seen.
““Web-centric” in Google’s mind is synonymous with ‘ad-based’. a very uninviting prospect.”
Agreed
November 14th, 2009 at 12:05 am
I’m testing out Ubuntu 9.10 on an older laptop right now, and I can say that if ChromeOS runs anything like Chrome on Ubuntu, you can count me out. For the price (free), Ubuntu is OK. However, it STILL doesn’t match up to XP. I’m willing to overlook certain shortcomings, but fonts in Linux (both the selection and the way they’re rendered) are incredibly bad. Somehow, Chrome (well, Chromium) manages to handle fonts even worse than Firefox does on Linux.
For ChromeOS to be accepted, it’s going to have to be a massive departure from the Linux that exists today, and I don’t know if Google is up to that challenge. At the same time, it’s going to need to be SIGNIFICANTLY faster and cheaper than XP and Win7 Starter, which is probably not possible. Microsoft only charges OEMs $25 or so for Windows on netbooks. I’d rather have Windows for $25 than Linux for free, even on a $300 netbook.
The only way that Google could bring the cost down low enough to make me consider ChromeOS is if OEMs actually introduce super low-cost ARM-based “smartbooks” with instant-on, and all-day battery-life. Even then, I think most people would still end up choosing a $300 XP/Atom netbook over a $200 ChromeOS smartbook.
November 14th, 2009 at 5:29 am
” I can say that if ChromeOS runs anything like Chrome on Ubuntu, you can count me out.”
What do you mean? LINUX tends to be much faster than Windows.
“fonts in Linux (both the selection and the way they’re rendered) are incredibly bad.”
Not surprising from a “geek” OS. But fonts ALSO render horribly in Windows, and that doesn’t stop people from using it.
November 16th, 2009 at 2:52 am
@Tom: What I meant to say is that Chromium on Linux is a lot worse than Firefox. If I were a regular Linux user, I’d certainly choose Firefox over Chrome (just like I do on Windows). Building an OS around a browser that doesn’t even run well on that OS seems ridiculous to me.
Also, I don’t know what you mean by “a ‘geek’ OS.” I think that the term “geek” has morphed over the years, and I use it to mean “someone who’s abnormally passionate about a particular subject.” I find it incredibly shocking that among all the open-source-geeks who create Linux, that there isn’t at least one font-geek willing to step up and create some fonts that don’t make Windows and Mac users want to vomit.
Also, I’m not sure what sort of font rendering you prefer, but I greatly prefer Microsoft’s “ClearType” over Apple’s “BlurryText”. I understand that it’s really a matter of opinion, but if there’s one thing Windows and Mac users can agree on, it’s that fonts in Linux are bad. It’s a shame, because they don’t have to be bad; text looks amazing on my Palm Pre.
November 18th, 2009 at 4:40 am
i tried Chrome OS and it is pretty much like a scaled down version of Ubuntu. Chrome is just based on Linux and there is nothing new about it.
December 28th, 2009 at 7:17 pm
Chrome OS is just another rebranded Linux GUI, it would be much better if Google came up with an OS that would directly compete with Windows.
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