Google Chrome OS: Speculations Abound, What Do You Think?
I’m very curious to watch how the new will develop. I’ve been reading some of the buzz around it today and have even been reading some of the comments around it. I use (the web browser) everyday, it’s my main browser. As of this week I even got my wife to finally start using it after IE locked up her computer again and she decided it was the last time.
However, I doubt I will be ever using Chrome OS – or will I?
My prediction is that I am already using Chrome OS. If you follow the Chrome Dev Channel blog you’ve probably noticed that as the Google team is hard at work on v3 they are working on versions for Linux and Mac. They have been working on this since v2 was released back in May
According to the Google blog Chrome OS will run on Linux and here are their stated goals:
- run on both x86 as well as ARM chips
- most of the user experience takes place on the web
- Google Chrome running within a new windowing system on top of a Linux kernel
- users don’t have to deal with viruses, malware and security updates
- data to be accessible to them wherever they are and not have to worry about losing their computer or forgetting to back up files
- [users] 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
These seemingly lofty goals are nothing new. For at least a year I’ve been hearing about software that allows you to bypass the OS and quickly boot straight to a “browser only mode”. Two examples are and Presto
Applications
When Chrome was first released Google talked about how the browser was becoming (is?) its own platform for application development. They developed the Chrome JavaScript engine – V8 – to run JavaScript really fast to allow more to be done on the client. The idea is that if the JavaScript engine is “fast enough”, then it is adequate for most applications.
File Storage
Video
The HTML 5 specification now makes video a first-class citizen of your web browser. Chrome supports playing video natively
Security
At least for now Chrome is the most secure web browser available
Applications
As a programmer, would I ever use Chrome OS? Right now, no. Developers require an IDE and debugging tools, source control integration and other such tools. All this requires software running locally on my desktop, but will it always be that way? Maybe not, just consider the Mozilla Labs Bespin
For a graphics designer, you might think the browser might not be adequate either. But there are already services for the novice which allow you to edit photos, and with the addition of VML who’s to say that we’re so far from professional graphics programs hosted in the cloud either?
But for the average computer user, as time progresses people will become less objective of their files being located exclusively on the web. If Google can convince people that Google Docs has all the functionality they need along with other programs people use (photo/video editing) then it’s very conceivable that Chrome OS (and other similar OS’s) could be very successful.
Hardware Integration
So the only piece of this puzzle that isn’t immediately apparent to me at this point is how they will integrate with hardware devices. Maybe because I’m a web programmer and not an OS programmer. Google will need to allow you to get images off your camera, videos off your camcorder. Or at least read from a card reader. Then you need to upload those files to your preferred cloud provider. You’ll need to install devices like web cams and printers.
All this requires drivers and a way to access these devices. How do they plan on doing this without exposing vulnerabilities? Google has stated that if you want to develop applications for Chrome OS your platform is the web – HTML, JavaScript and any server side platform you choose. But the web is not currently allowed to access your devices (for good reason).
Conclusion
Chrome the web browser already does most of what Google has envisioned for their new OS. They just need to integrate it into a Linux distro (something they’ve already accomplished with Android) and provide an interface for managing/accessing hardware devices. I know that “just” is still a long stretch, but not that far away when you consider everything else they’ve already got done.
For now, I already have an operating system which loads in a matter of seconds - about 25, not much longer than it takes to fire up a web browser and load a web page. Windows 7 running on a SSD is pretty darn fast, I’ve written before about it
Almost, 10 years ago, I said “hell no” when Ray Ozzy
What do you think?
I really would like to know what you think. Am I dead wrong? Or dead on? How do you think they’ll integrate hardware? Do you think we’ll ever completely ditch the bloated operating systems of today?