Google Plans to Introduce a PC Operating System

**Logos** · 07-09-2009, 01:53 AM

here:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/07...gle_chrome_os/
source:
http://chrome.blogspot.com/2009/07/g...me-os-faq.html

What companies is Google working with to support Google Chrome OS?
The Google Chrome OS team is currently working with a number of technology companies to design and build devices that deliver an extraordinary end user experience. Among others, these companies include Acer, Adobe, ASUS, Freescale, Hewlett-Packard, Lenovo, Qualcomm, Texas Instruments, and Toshiba.

read here too:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/07..._chrome_redux/

The notion that Google Chrome OS is going to take any serious market share away from Windows is a product of the pathological Silicon Valley attitude that newer is always better, even if nothing has changed. In terms of functionality, web apps have been a regression from their desktop counterparts. Run business apps over a faulty network instead of from your hard disk? What could possibly go wrong? Can I buy an extended warranty with that?

**zalbard** · 07-09-2009, 02:37 AM

They need support of Intel / AMD / Nvidia to assure they can get drivers and run their OS on current hardware. Unless it's just a Linux shell / extension of course...
But I don't see Intel being interested in it much [for example].

**Logos** · 07-09-2009, 02:43 AM

Originally Posted by zalbard

They need support of Intel / AMD / Nvidia to assure they can get drivers and run their OS on current hardware. Unless it's just a Linux shell / extension of course...
But I don't see Intel being interested in it much [for example].

it's Linux. So they're gonna have to rely on currently available and upcoming drivers which means poor support on the ATI side, and better for NVidia. Now again they're Google, and the manufacturers might put some more effort in the process as they usually do for Linux in general.

**YMAA** · 07-09-2009, 04:18 AM

Originally Posted by randomizer

Isn't that selling support more than the OS itself, especially since CentOS is RHEL minus the logo basically?

You can't download anything more than a trial version if you don't have an active subscription. And even if you get your hands on the .iso images without a subscription, you can't get into the Red Hat Network to update the system through RHEL's built-in updater. You can get rpms, binaries, and source distributions manually, but it's so much easier to let yum deal with dependency problems. So yeah, most of the cost of RHEL is for the enterprise-level support but a lot of the packages included in the distribution and the updater aren't free either.

Mandriva One is also a commercial Linux distro, but I'm not sure if it's still a paid version or not. From the site it doesn't look like you have to pay to download it, but you can still buy the installation discs online, so I dunno. You can still buy the PowerPack though, which is a mix of free and nonfree software

In any case, the GNU license allows you to modify and sell GNU software written by another party as long as you cite the original author and clearly state that this is a modification. So no, there won't be any (successful) lawsuits against Google for copyright infringement or any monopoly/trust suits.

Originally Posted by Logos

it's Linux. So they're gonna have to rely on currently available and upcoming drivers which means poor support on the ATI side, and better for NVidia. Now again they're Google, and the manufacturers might put some more effort in the process as they usually do for Linux in general.

Most netbook-style machines use Intel graphics drivers, which have been running on Linux for some time. I'm not sure how terribad ATI's drivers for Linux are (haven't run Linux natively on ATI since I had my X1900XT, and they weren't really all that bad - UT2004 ran natively in Linux quite well), but I don't think it'll be a problem...and here's why. Google plans to run most of Chrome OS' functionality on remote servers, right? This probably includes any games anyone would want to run, which means that there's a good chance any processing done for the game's visuals will be done on a cloud server. That's purely conjecture and I could be dead wrong, but there's already services available that will let users run Crysis on sh*tty computers that have a decent internet connection because a remote computer runs the game for them. Google definitely has the resources for this kind of endeavor, I could see them doing GPU processing remotely if the apps are being run elsewhere anyway.

*: By "free" I mean freedom of use, not freedom of price. The GNU doesn't care how much a piece of software costs, it's only specifies the usage rights people have after they obtain it.

**_galactic_** · 07-09-2009, 04:36 AM

http://gizmodo.com/5310757/are-these...os-screenshots

edit:
ooh no, it's fake chromeos ss http://chromeosleak.wordpress.com/

**zalbard** · 07-09-2009, 04:43 AM

Originally Posted by Logos

it's Linux

Then what's the point?

There are 396739674896 Linux distributives and applications for them already...

**gallardo** · 07-09-2009, 04:54 AM

One thing I don't understand. Will this OS cost money or will it be free? They said it will be open-sauce, but does that necessarily mean it'll be free?

**XS_Rich** · 07-09-2009, 05:01 AM

Originally Posted by gallardo

One thing I don't understand. Will this OS cost money or will it be free? They said it will be open-sauce, but does that necessarily mean it'll be free?

Free according to their FAQ:

http://chrome.blogspot.com/2009/07/g...me-os-faq.html

**Logos** · 07-09-2009, 05:44 AM

Intel drivers have been a huge issue in Linux recently, just browse Linux forums to have an idea. Depending on the chip, it goes from very average performance to just a no go for many (especially on KDE). As to ATI drivers, from what I've read, they've been improved at some point in a recent past, and they're back to very problematic, like before.
My experience on Linux has been limited to an old ATI 9800 that use to run KDE 3.5 and Compiz Fusion quite well in fact, until some new drivers not requiring XGL anymore screwed everything. Now I've been running Mandriva on an Intel chip...lucky me KDE 4 desktop effects and Compiz run fine (no possible anti-aliasing or vsync of course

). Lucky me because most other users running other Intel chips were going nuts, as well as the distro developers trying to grant some sort of viability to what Intel provided.

Now as to web servers running graphics processes for you there's not much I can tell, never tried...

**Logos** · 07-09-2009, 05:47 AM

Originally Posted by zalbard

Then what's the point?

There are 396739674896 Linux distributives and applications for them already...

hard to say indeed, as they (Google) said themselves their web apps could run in any browser on any OS...or install Chrome in Ubuntu, and you got Chrome OS...now wait a minute...just realizing that the (official) availability of Chrome (just the browser) in Linux has been seriously delayed...could that be related to...oh no

**RADCOM** · 07-09-2009, 06:29 AM

Dumb terminal>mainframe, thin client> Mega Server, lightweight computer >cloud notice a pattern here lol. There was a game company that proposed playing games over a network through a terminal services like set up recently. I'd certainly try it when it's released, why not? I personally think cloud will be good from a business perspective but I'd rather keep my private info private as in on my hard drive and access it remotely if necessary. Trust big companies like you trust politicians......

**Unoid** · 07-09-2009, 10:47 AM

I see why google didn't wish to work with INTEL on Moblin, they had their own competing OS they wanted to release.

I still like Moblin.

**HuffPCair** · 07-09-2009, 11:21 AM

I really do not get why they are doing this but I did read at engadget that they did a restart desktop-to-desktop in 25 seconds on an asus laptop i believe, which is pretty impressive, but I am sure this OS is no where near being completed.

I like Unoid still like Moblin better so far from what I have seen.

**Gamekiller** · 07-09-2009, 05:02 PM

To me Google is innovative and I look forward to this new OS.

**randomizer** · 07-09-2009, 10:41 PM

Originally Posted by Logos

Intel drivers have been a huge issue in Linux recently, just browse Linux forums to have an idea.

I thought that was an Ubuntu-specific bug (including all *buntu derivatives), rather than a Linux bug.

**Logos** · 07-10-2009, 12:02 AM

Originally Posted by randomizer

I thought that was an Ubuntu-specific bug (including all *buntu derivatives), rather than a Linux bug.

no, it's been a huge issue for Mandriva and Fedora as well. As to Suse, last time I tried it, there were simply no driver at all, vesa only (at least for my chip). This has probably changed in the meantime, that was many weeks ago. The issue seems to be bound to the switch to KDE 4. I guess Gnome is less affected.

**Calmatory** · 07-10-2009, 01:37 AM

Originally Posted by Gamekiller

To me Google is innovative and I look forward to this new OS.

To me Google has quite a lot of control over internet and I suspect that one day they will turn evil. Not today, not tomorrow, but maybe in 5-10 years.

**Logos** · 07-10-2009, 01:45 AM

Originally Posted by Calmatory

To me Google has quite a lot of control over internet and I suspect that one day they will turn evil. Not today, not tomorrow, but maybe in 5-10 years.

that's optimistic...the way I see it Google is already controlling so much, and it's always "to improve the user's experience"

...and Chrome OS might just make things worse. There's already no better source of information for government services than Google. And it's no secret that Google collaborates fully with authorities anywhere their search engine is locally implemented, anywhere, starting with the USA...and guess what, with China as well (not comparing country policies there, just Google practices).

**Logos** · 07-10-2009, 07:14 AM

read this about Chrome OS possible side effects...

**XS Janus** · 07-10-2009, 08:21 AM

It will turn evil the day after the founders had enough, and just wanna live out their lives on "new projects".
Until that day this picture is only a joke: