2 weeks ago
So, Google Chrome OS was presented last night. I’m sure you’ve read about it all because it’s everywhere. The official Chromium OS webpage is up. Very exciting. Support for x86 and ARM processors, 7 second boot time, enhanced Google Chrome user interface with drag and drop / dockable panels and all that. Google System has summarized the OS in bullet form.
Here’s the presentation on video and running off an Acer Aspire One netbook.
Looks great and all but the following two seem to worry me:
- No support for local user data. Currently seems like you’ll need a USB storage device to keep your movies and music on.
- No support for HDDs! You’ll need a netbook with a SSD to run Google Chrome. I can count all the netbooks with SSDs on one hand.
The source code is now available for download with installation instructions. This is meant for developers though, it won’t be available to general users for a full year. No word on pricing (cheaper than Windows netbooks? 3G plans etc) and availability yet.
Some videos from Google on their YouTube channel:
What is Google Chrome?
This is how the Chrome OS might turn out (GUI tour):
Further reading:
What Google Needs for the Chrome OS to Succeed - Gizmodo
Everything You Need To Know About Chrome OS - Gizmodo
Chrome OS is what I want, but not what I need - Engadget
Google has its own plan for Netbooks - CNET
And, while we’re making complaints or voicing concern…
Why is it Google can’t make a video with a reasonably loud enough volume? This is an annoying trend. Normalize folks!
:)
It looks like a very limited animal. That’s googlish.
Too cloudy for my tastes.
Also as there are no binarys to run they have cleverly side stepped the problem of having apps compiled for x86 and Arm because everything runs in the browser.
An interesting take but I could never see my self using it.