State of the Union- Google Chrome OS

Posted on 19 November 2009, at 2:24 pm, by Amy Zunk

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As was mentioned here yesterday, today was the big developer and press Google Chrome OS event. Today was the day Google pulled back the curtain and let the blogsphere know about the mystery that is the new Chrome OS platform.

Early adopters and developers alike can grab a copy of the source code today to play with. It has been released as open source. So, if you really really wanted, you could build your own Chrome OS. Those of us who don’t have those mad skillz we will have to wait until late 2010. I am sensing it will be a Google Chrome OS Christmas next year.

So what is Chrome OS really? Well, from what was said and shown at the event, this isnt your mother’s operating system.

Major points:

Project is all open source, great for the community to get its hands dirty and make something we will all benefit from
Web, Web, Web. Chrome OS is ALL web based. Its not going to be a traditional OS with local applications installed on it. Its all from the web.
Connectivity required. You need some time of Internet connection to make this work. Google is supporting 802.11n for its wireless standard.
Good news- will run on netbooks. Bad news- will require SSD drives. Worse news- will run on hardware spec’d out by Google, so running it on your netbook now may not be an option– unless someone wants to make a Googletosh-type install? So it looks like we have to invest in yet another computer.
Fast boot times since its not a traditional OS. 7 seconds in the demo shown. This means no more walking to get coffee while your machine boots up.
If you like Chrome the browser, you will like Chrome the OS. Its the same look and feel with the same support for HTML 5, codecs, Flash, etc et al. Applications open in tabs, just like web sites do now.
Web apps are Chrome apps, since they are designed to run in a web browser
On security: “Chrome OS barely trusts itself. Every time you restart your computer the operating system verifies the integrity of its code. If your system has been compromised, it is designed to fix itself with a reboot.” This will make the security folks a little twitchy..or out of work
No support for Android applications at this time.

Google wants to make sure its fast, easy, and ready for the Internet savvy user.

And for the rest of us who just want a peek of this new OS:

For a complete archive of the event, ReadWriteWeb and Gearlog have transcripts of the entire event available.

Right now, there is going to be a lot of speculation about Chrome OS. But remember, we are a whole year away from the final product. Who knows what will change between now and then?

Sidebar: Coming soon for Chrome, the browser: Chrome for Mac will be ready this year. Chrome for Linux is coming along “very well.” Extensions are coming soon as well (with automatic updates).

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