Redouane » Operating Systems http://www.redouane.co.uk Rants and Other Potentially Useful Information Sun, 21 Nov 2010 18:13:58 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 Google New OS Revealed. It’s Called Chrome Too! http://www.redouane.co.uk/google-new-os-revealed-its-called-chrome-too.html http://www.redouane.co.uk/google-new-os-revealed-its-called-chrome-too.html#comments Mon, 13 Jul 2009 10:46:30 +0000 Redouane http://www.redouane.co.uk/?p=41 During the last few months, I’ve noticed that Google and Microsoft appear to be stepping on each others tows by competing on markets that was seen a few years ago as no go even for large organization. It has been clear for a long time that the two giants are also competitors, but now its show time while each one of them is trying to grab as much market share as they could from each other. I’m referring to the search and OS industry. Following the release of Bing by Microsoft in attempt to revive it share of the search engine market and addresses new webmasters claims of Google results no longer relevant as they were, Google hits back with Google Chrome OS.

In some ways, this is sort of expected; Google started as Search Engine, than went into web apps, then mobile market with Android and now the Chrome browser and Operating System. Google main idea of the new OS is to provide a secure, lightweight and Open Source platform. Apparently, it’s an attempt to step in what has been for so long an unshakable Microsoft Market. OK, Linux with flavors such as Ubuntu with a friendly user interface has taken on well, by Windows still owns a very, very wide market share in comparison.

I think the Google attempt to gain personal PC (at least) started with the release of Google Chrome browser. Google was testing the waters and getting data combined from different sources including it search engine. There are also clear needs in the market for an Operating System that is:

- Secure: the number of virus, exploits and other malicious content is not slowing down and users are having a hard time keeping up with threats. An OS designed with security in mind is very much needed.

- Fast: Speed is number 1 priority to many users out there. Nobody likes to wait 10min or more for their systems to start up and then another 15min to deal with various pop-ups and messages that can be from Windows or other 3rd party products. Getting things done fast sounds ideal, but still not achievable by many.

- Simple: Nice and shiny desktop is great, but if gets too complicated the user interest is lost and productivity is affected.

Blog post by Sundar Pichai , Google VP Product Management, suggests that all the above will be available:

“Speed, simplicity and security are the key aspects of Google Chrome OS. We’re designing the OS to be fast and lightweight, to start up and get you onto the web in a few seconds. The user interface is minimal to stay out of your way, and most of the user experience takes place on the web. And as we did for the Google Chrome browser, 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.”

How is this accomplished you may wonder? The answer is in the base OS:

“The software architecture is simple — Google Chrome running within a new windowing system on top of a Linux kernel.” Does this mean another Mac-like OS?

It’s important to note that Google Chrome OS will be shipped in Notebooks first and it’s an OS for the web, meaning that’s designed to use web apps online rather than have traditional software installed.

In summary, there are a lot of goodies promised in the new Chrome OS. Not a lot of details yet or ETA when it’s going to be available. I guess we just have to wait and see.

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