Like some million others out there, I watched the Chrome OS Open Source presentation on several of youtube’s movies, and have mixed feelings about its use in todays world. For reference, here are some interesting videos you might want to look into.
- Chrome OS Open Source Project Announcement (1h19m)
- Google Chrome OS UI Concept Video (1m55s)
- What Is Google Chrome OS? (3m21s)
There’s a wide variety of design documentation out in the open for you to look into, as well as the source code itself, for you to evaluate. There’s also a developer build Virtual Machine for VMware’s Player, that you can download and boot up – to get the look ‘n feel right. If you want to run it in VMware’s Server, you’ll need to convert the machine first.
Chrome OS is counting on the following events to further expand:
- More Netbooks are being sold and used, every day
- More users are migrating to “the cloud“, using webapplications that store all your data on outside servers (facebook, youtube, flickr, …)
- Phones gaining computer capabilities, and laptops migrating more to phones
Trends in the industry leading to the Chrome OS
In Chrome OS: every application is a web application. That’s the power, and the weakness of Chrome OS. While there’s a trend of moving all applications towards the web, and I’m no big fan of it. There are the obvious advantages (easier administration, one place for storage, backups …), and the obvious disadvantages (security, lack of ownership, lack of browser capabilities, …). You’ll have your standpoint on this, I’m sure – this is just how I feel.
When is Google OS useful to you? When you donate all your privacy concerns to Google, and “migrate” to “the cloud” – using all Google Applications that run in your webbrowser. GMail, Google Docs, Wave, … are all webapplications that run great in a browser, and it’s a focus of Google – but it’s not a focus of 95% of all the other software being developed. You’re limited with Chrome OS in ways you’ll only realize as soon as you use it. And then you’ll switch back.
Chrome OS is interesting project, it’s incredible that it’s all open-source. They are quite fast to build an OS, they are planning to be on market in the end of next year! A disadvantage of this “fast to market”-plan is that they can’t support a lot of hardware. Chrome OS will only run on accurate selected hardware: the best and newest wireless cards, no hard disks, but solid drives,… It’s “not difficult” to boot in 7 seconds if you have the top of the bill of hardware components in your notebook. ;)
Also, everything is a web application on the cloud, nothing will be stored on your own computer. A lot of opportunities, but as you mentioned already, you must indeed have to trust a lot in Google capabilities to secure your personal data.
There is a long road ahead to make Chrome OS a valid alternative OS, but I like the way they do!
ps. Did you hear the question about Microsoft Silverlight and the partnership with Microsoft in the Q&A section of “Chrome OS Open Source Project Announcement”-youtube movie? No comments! :)