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Matthew Miller & Joel Evans
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Google Chrome OS announced, It should just work

By | July 7, 2009, 11:04pm PDT

Summary: We knew it was only a matter of time before Google launched their own competing operating system and with all of the applications and services they have it was a fairly natural progression. Tonight, Google announced the upcoming Google Chrome OS is an open source operating system primarily intended to be rolled out on netbooks. Google stated that netbooks running Google Chrome OS will be available the second half of 2010 so we still have about a year before we see it in action. I have a MSI Wind netbook and enjoy running Windows XP on it, but since I also thoroughly enjoy the Google Chrome browser and many of their services I am very interested in seeing Google Chrome OS running on this device.

We knew it was only a matter of time before Google launched their own competing operating system and with all of the applications and services they have it was a fairly natural progression. Tonight, Google announced the upcoming Google Chrome OS is an open source operating system primarily intended to be rolled out on netbooks. Google stated that netbooks running Google Chrome OS will be available the second half of 2010 so we still have about a year before we see it in action. I have a MSI Wind netbook and enjoy running Windows XP on it, but since I also thoroughly enjoy the Google Chrome browser and many of their services I am very interested in seeing Google Chrome OS running on this device.

Google stated that the OS is designed to be fast and lightweight so you can get to the Internet in seconds. It appears to be highly focused on the “cloud” which makes sense given that Google provides so many cloud services at this time.

I particularly like to hear this statement, “We are going back to the basics and completely redesigning the underlying security architecture of the OS so that users don’t have to deal with viruses, malware and security updates. It should just work.” Isn’t that what we all want?

Google also made sure to mention Android in their announcement and attempts to distinguish it from Google Chrome OS. Even after reading their statement (copied below) a few times I still don’t really see much of a difference between the two. It seems to me that people with Android smartphones spend most of their time on the web too.

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.

Competition in the mobile space is usually always good since it makes everyone who wants to compete push to turn out better products and I am excited to see what the Google Chrome Operating System brings us in 2010, are you?

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Google Inc., Operating System, Google Chrome, Netbook, Google Chrome OS, Netbooks, Nettops & MIDs, Operating Systems, Hardware, Software, Matthew Miller

Matthew Miller is an avid mobile device enthusiast who works during the day as a professional naval architect in Seattle.

Disclosure

Matthew Miller

Matthew is a professional naval architect by day and a mobile gadget freak at all other times. He purchases most of his devices and then sells them on eBay or Craigslist to buy more. Many other devices are sent for review on a 30-day loaner basis and then returned to the carrier or manufacturer. If any are provided as “keeper” or “long term loaner units” this will be clearly disclosed in his reviews.

Biography

Matthew Miller

Matthew Miller is an avid mobile device enthusiast who works during the day as a professional naval architect in Seattle. He is one of three hosts on the MobileTechRoundup podcast and runs the Nokia Experts website. Matthew started using mobile devices in 1997 with a US Robotics Pilot 1000 and has owned over 90 different devices running Palm, Linux, Symbian, Newton, BlackBerry, Mac OS X (iPhone), Google Android, and Windows Mobile operating systems. His current collection includes a Nokia N85, Nokia E71, Nokia 5800, Nokia N810, Apple iPhone, HTC Advantage, T-Mobile G1, Palm Treo Pro, HTC Fuze, MSI Wind, MacBook Pro, and many more, along with tons of accessories and classic devices like the Apple Newton MessagePad 2100 and Sony CLIE UX50. Matthew co-authored Master Visually Windows Mobile 2003, was a member of the Nokia Nseries Blogger relations program, and is a member of the invite-only Microsoft Mobius mobile device evangelist group. He can be found on various discussion forums under the user name of "palmsolo".

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RE: Google Chrome OS announced, It should just work
awontemi 9th Jul 2009
does anyone think they will put google chrome on the already out archos 5's and 7's in perhaps a firmware update?
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Nice for Google USers
emmaelle 7th Jul 2009
This is challenge for the Microsoft. I think Microsoft will be prepare to face this google challenge
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RE: Google Chrome OS announced, It should just work
ozguy 7th Jul 2009
let's wait and see.. "should" is always a dangerous word... Everything "should" always work...
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It's just warmed-over thin-client...
plonk@... 8th Jul 2009
There's no reason it shouldn't work, but calling it an "operating system" seems a bit much based on what I've heard of it so far. It sounds like a thin-client setup, with the OS back on the server somewhere, along with all your data. Better trust whoever is running that with everything...and never have them screw up, go out of business, or make a change you can't live with.

Not for me...
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Netbook needs?
pjotr123 Updated - 8th Jul 2009
My netbook, an Acer Aspire One A150, is already running smoothly on Ubuntu Netbook Remix 9.04. Highly secure and "just works".

What's in it for me, in Google Chrome OS? Right now, I have a full-fledged operating system with killer apps like Open Office, Skype, aMSN, Inkscape, Gimp and Frostwire. What will Google offer me? A mere browser plus some cloud services?
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RE: Google Chrome OS announced, It should just work
nessrapp 8th Jul 2009
proliferation of OSs, android, windows, mac, symbian, webos, linux...

so here is the question, why would anyone choose google chrome OS, when the very same people who might be buying these (developers) might prefer linux, and considering that netbooks/laptops loaded with linux were a complete failure...

I would love to see how this develops or if it'll even take off. It "should" just work, so google thinks it knows so much about internet security, no wonder the first version of google chrome was riddled with vulnerablities..

My opinion, and mine only.. I do not have any confidence in this google chrome os.
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For PETE'S sake, stop the airy spin!!
kaninelupus 9th Jul 2009
"Google Chrome OS announced, It should just work"??

HALF THEIR IDEAS HAVE EITHER FAILED OR NOT EVEN EVENTUATED!!!!! Even Android is a mess!!

"Google stated that the OS is designed to be fast and lightweight so you can get to the Internet in seconds."

A pity noone can actually verify this, as beta-testing (or even alpha-tesing) has not even begun... and this is s'posed to be "oopen-source"!!

"I particularly like to hear this statement, ?We are going back to the basics and completely redesigning the underlying security architecture of the OS so that users don?t have to deal with viruses, malware and security updates. It should just work.? Isn?t that what we all want?"

Do you actually have any clue as to what the hell you are even talking about?? An OS that is a)built off Linux, and b)designed around a pre-existing stack of applications, CANNOT be classed as "building from the ground up".... it's a complete contridiction!!

And to say that the enduser won't have to deal with viruses, malware etc.... again, do you even know what you are on about. XP's BIGGEST flaw was such inbuilt internet spread (ie, using an Explorer which was basically IE in a different suit)... it was a security nightmare. Now Google wants to take that concept ten-fold?? If Chrome OS remains little adopted, then maybe that will hold true; but if it does actually become well adopted, then users had seriously better hope that a good AV/anti-malware suite gets developed, and fast... because providing such a wide face to the Web/Internet is just asking for trouble. And given Google's tendency to "adware" all their products, you've just given the malware developer a perfect entry point!!
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RE: Google Chrome OS announced, It should just work
awontemi 9th Jul 2009
does anyone think they will put google chrome on the already out archos 5's and 7's in perhaps a firmware update?

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