Foo - Google Chrome OS?

Looks like Google is making a Linux variant and coming onto the fray with their own OS, at first for netbooks, but desktops as well.

I wonder how it will turn out. There is a lot of stuff that goes into an operating system, especially one written for resource-scarce architectures like netbooks.

Looks like Google is making a Linux variant and coming onto the fray with their own OS, at first for netbooks, but desktops as well.Oh goodie, an operating system of which the sole purpose is reporting usage statistics for the purpose of advertising.

Oh goodie, an operating system of which the sole purpose is reporting usage statistics for the purpose of advertising.

Ask pcad: sales is the most important job there is.

I read about this last week and did a quick scan of some of the news sites. From the blurbs (didn't read any full articles) there was some complaints by some that it was little more than an extension of the Google Chrome browser. I piqued my interest too though.

Oh goodie, an operating system of which the sole purpose is reporting usage statistics for the purpose of advertising.

I'm just imagining a character even more annoying than "Clippy", who springs up on the desktop to present you with targeted advertising at the least opportune times.



"Hey champ! It looks like you're trying to sneak up on your opponent for a snipe attack!. Well, Bob's GI Warehouse has all sorts of stealth equipment..."

*you* "Shut up shut up! How the phrack to I get rid of this thing?"

*your enemy* "He's up there behind that wall! Rockets rockets!"

FWOOMP!

- You have been turned into a stain by your enemies. Respawn in 30... 29... 28...

I think it supposed to be oriented toward cloud-computing. So, I'm assuming the main resources on the host computer will be oriented to maintaining individual preferences, etc.

Google has two big things to wrestle with once their OS becomes widespread:

UI issues. UI design is a subtle art, and small things like not having a window shift in front of another when dragging files to be copied means the different between a pleasant time using something, and just throwing in the towel and popping up a command line. For the longest time, the larger Linux window managers have been very clunky and crash prone, where having to kill the X server with control-alt-backspace was a common thing. This has gotten better in the past couple years, but UI design costs a lot of man hours to do right.

Security. Linux distros have historically been decently secure, but in general, a user running Linux is either forced to run as a user (where they can't do much to a system other than a forkbomb), or they know enough what to do and what not to do with a root prompt. Once you get the masses who will do anything to watch the dancing bunny clip downloaded from a dubious site onto an OS, security becomes a big issue. I wonder if Google has the experience to be able to push patches out, and what mechanism they will use to do so.

I have to wonder if t won't turn into a national model of the "Distributed Dumb Terminal on a network" model with some limited standalone capability. Merge this with Google Docs and Gmail, and you have all the document and storage issues covered....

Heck, I use Google Docs to back up Academic Papers off my computers and accessible to me from other systems. I just keep them private.

If they do it right, it could really make a netbook very useful, indeed.

Oddly, I trust MS more than I trust Google. At least we're pretty certain MS isn't tracking every little thing you do for the purpose of trying to sell you something, and to compile valuable marketing and demographic data they can sell on the open market for huge bucks.

The last thing I want is an O/S that scans my private and confidential files for marketing information about me.

I have to wonder if t won't turn into a national model of the "Distributed Dumb Terminal on a network" model with some limited standalone capability. Merge this with Google Docs and Gmail, and you have all the document and storage issues covered....Not a bad observation. I could see it turning in to something like that and quite possibly that might be a good thing.

I just fear my work would find a way to block it. They allow me in to gmail now, but have google documents blocked. Which sucks because google documents is a nice place to store a few files I like to access at any time (like my google spreadsheet check register).

I'm looking forward to Linux ports of Picasa, Chrome Browser to run on Ubuntu/Fedora. Those will probably always be free. Chrome OS will probably cost money (to install on any computer).

I tried Google Chrome browser once before, but stopped for some reason (don't recall).

I just installed and am using it right now. It is very fast, but I'm finding two big problems already.

1. Favicons don't show up in my favorites drop down area. Not a huge deal, but I sometimes quickly find sites by the favicon, not the words.

2. You can't select which sites you can allow popups from. It's either all blocked or all unblocked. This will be a make it or break it deal for me, I think.

I love the Google Chrome browser and am curious about the OS, but as others have said, it's more of a cloud-computing OS, so I am curious to see where it goes...

It will be fun to play with. On the monetizing part, Google is a pretty strong brand; but they've got their work cut out for them against MS & Apple. Or maybe they'll just be okay with whatever revenue they make from it. I don't know what their strategy will be.

@kingtermite, Yeah, Chrome browser is not feature rich. It did somehow become my primary browser. I can't even tell you why.

Chrome browser is not feature rich. It did somehow become my primary browser. I can't even tell you why.
It's my primary browser, too, but I find it odd that not only do you have to install the Flash Plug-in manually, but you have to do it for each user, as well. I hope the OS doesn't use that idea. (I understand why Google does it this way, but it still seems odd to have to do it this way.)

It's my primary browser, too, but I find it odd that not only do you have to install the Flash Plug-in manually, but you have to do it for each user, as well. I hope the OS doesn't use that idea. (I understand why Google does it this way, but it still seems odd to have to do it this way.)

yep. me too.

I'm looking forward to Linux ports of Picasa, Chrome Browser to run on Ubuntu/Fedora. Those will probably always be free. Chrome OS will probably cost money (to install on any computer).

There's a Debian version (http://dev.chromium.org/getting-involved/dev-channel) available for the development builds.

Oh goodie, an operating system of which the sole purpose is reporting usage statistics for the purpose of advertising.

:roflmao2:

It's basically the software side of what TechCrunch is doing with the CrunchPad - which, I believe, has a definite market when people actually start playing with the units...

Chrome is also my default browser... much like big sky, I can't give you a definitive answer why...