Tag Archives: chrome os

The Advantages Of Working In A Chrome Notebook

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You could lose 25 notebooks in a row, but your data is always going to be safe. That’s the line Google will try to sell with the Chrome Notebook. I love this video. I just wished I could see all 25 notebooks destroyed. The guys at Google must have had fun making this video.

I assume the notebook being featured is the CR-48 that we’ve all heard about. The first accident was quite humorous. They dropped a cup of coffee, a toaster, and even the kitchen sink! Hilarious. Freezing the laptop in nitrogen and ramming a spike through it, was entertaining. Incinerating it in high heat was ok.

Based on what I’ve seen, I think I’ll wait for the second generation of Chrome OS notebooks that could withstand coffee spills, ice cream meltdowns, kitchen sinks, freezing nitrogen and intense heat.

This video shows the Chrome OS main selling point, that everything is going to be in the cloud in the future. Your data is always going to be safe and accessible from any computer, laptop, or any computer running a different OS, since everything is going to be based in the cloud.

In a few years, network connectivity is not going to be an issue since I predict most devices, including computers will have built-in broadband support.

Chrome Web Store Is Just Around The Corner

Google Chrome 8 is just around the corner. Expect a Chrome Web Store to emerge along with the latest browser. The online store will be similar to Apple and Android stores, but built towards web users.

The online store is going to be an open marketplace where developers and millions of users will sell and buy web applications. Users will be able to download amazing web applications by way of the Chrome browser.

The web applications are going to be searchable. In addition, applications are going to be ranked by user reviews. For more information about the Chrome Web Store, watch this video from the 2010 Google I/O Keynote address on Day 1.

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Google Phasing Out Windows

From Datamation.com:

It’s not like Google was ever going to be a showcase customer for Microsoft, but a report that the search giant is phasing out Microsoft Windows underscores security concerns that have long dogged the widely-used software.

According to a report in the Financial Times, Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) began moving employees to other operating systems back in January after its systems were hacked by what the company said were operatives working out of China, a charge corroborated by Internet infrastructure provider VeriSign .

Google was one of at least two dozen U.S. businesses targeted in the attacks that security firm McAfee (NYSE: MFE) said exploited a flaw in Microsoft’s Internet Explorer browser. Google has long been a strong supporter of Linux, and the FT report said employees are being moved to Linux and Apple’s Mac OS.

Excellent move. It also paves the way for Google to test Chrome OS.

Diet Chromium OS

Google Chrome OS requires a 4GB USB stick. If you need a smaller version, check out Diet Chromium OS which need only 1GB. From the Yahoo article:

Many of the builds thus far have been targeted at specific hardware configurations, such as one made available by a Dell employee designed for the Dell‘s Mini 10V netbook.

The Diet Chromium build has a smaller footprint, but promises wider hardware support. Diet Chromium comes courtesy of a UK student and programmer known as Hexxeh. Hexxeh explains that he constructed the build in order to “fill a gap that hadn’t been filled.” His Web site offers instructions on how to install the lighter Chromium build on Windows, Mac and Linux machines.

Ian Paul will show you how to install a more standard build of Chrome OS right now.

Linux Benefits from Chrome OS

The 2010 release of Google Chrome OS seems light years away, but it generated a few lively discussions on its implications of the OS wars to follow. Will Google’s Chrome OS command a market share? Or does it merely push Microsoft and Apple to move into a more web-centric approach bound to its cloud services. The Tech Czar blog seem to think of the latter.

The key to the Chrome strategy is that Google does not expect to get a large chunk of market share, what they want is to put pressure on Microsoft and Apple to add features similar to what Chrome OS has, which by nature will be very Web-centric.  This minimalist desktop approach that is tightly bound to cloud services is the core of Chrome OS, Microsoft and Apple will be forced to make adjustments that will be in Googles favor, just to compete.

Google is really in a win-win situation, as it was with their Chrome browser, that has a minimal amount of market share but was the initiator of more browser wars focused on Javascript speed and more stable browsing; both of which are central to Google’s cloud services taking off.

If that’s the case, Linux can stand pat and benefit from Google Chrome OS by virtually doing nothing. The focus seems will be on Google Chrome OS and not on Linux. This scenario doesn’t really bother Linux users like myself.

I don’t see current Linux users dropping their distribution and switching allegiance to Google Chrome OS. I’m sure, I’ll try it for curiosity’s sake. In the end, Linux users will be more supported with more and better drivers, and finally, perhaps more software written for the Linux OS. That’s a win for Linux.

It will be interesting to speculate as to what tack Google will take in the next 15 months.

Google Chrome OS

Well, it’s official. Google just introduced Google Chrome OS.

Google Chrome OS is an open source, lightweight operating system that will initially be targeted at netbooks. Later this year we will open-source its code, and netbooks running Google Chrome OS will be available for consumers in the second half of 2010. Because we’re already talking to partners about the project, and we’ll soon be working with the open source community, we wanted to share our vision now so everyone understands what we are trying to achieve.

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.

Does Google Chrome OS overlap with Android?

Google Chrome OS is a new project, separate from Android. Android was designed from the beginning to work across a variety of devices from phones to set-top boxes to netbooks. Google Chrome OS is being created for people who spend most of their time on the web, and is being designed to power computers ranging from small netbooks to full-size desktop systems. While there are areas where Google Chrome OS and Android overlap, we believe choice will drive innovation for the benefit of everyone, including Google.