Attention: We have retired the ASP.NET Community Blogs. Learn more >

Chrome is not a browser

Google announced that they developing an OS designed initially for Netbooks computers.  Here’s my attempt to read between the lines.  Reader discretion is advised  ;-)

“Google Chrome OS will be available for consumers in the second half of 2010”
It’s quite unusual for Google to talk about a product that will only be released in a year.  I wonder why.  Oh, Windows 7 running as fast as XP on Netbooks?

“Google Chrome running within a new windowing system on top of a Linux kernel”
Is this a way to prevent current Linux apps to run on the OS?

“All web-based applications will automatically work and new applications can be written using your favorite web technologies”
That’s your common browser based apps but will Flash and Silverlight run?

“And of course, these apps will run not only on Google Chrome OS, but on any standards-based browser on Windows, Mac and Linux thereby giving developers the largest user base of any platform.”
Like we can’t do that right now?

“They want their data to be accessible to them wherever they are and not have to worry about losing their computer or forgetting to back up files”
So no local storage?

“they don't want to spend hours configuring their computers to work with every new piece of hardware”
Sure but what about these printer drivers?  Oh wait, will I be able to print?

“Google benefits as well by having happier users who are more likely to spend time on the Internet”
Read: more ads are served by Google = happier Google.

When Chrome was released a little while ago, I said that the whole thing didn’t make any sense at all.  Why the heck Google is doing it?  Could it be because Google reached some kind of limit with AJAX apps in the current browser generation?  What if Google could control the browser (A.K.A., the RIA runtime)?  Makes more sense now?  This is really a RIA war between Google Apps, Flash and Silverlight and Chrome is an application runtime for Google Apps.

What about Chrome OS?  If you’re Google and you shut Flash and Silverlight out right at the OS level, would that help you?  ;-)

I might be pushing it a little so I’m curious to hear your thoughts.

Bookmark and Share

5 Comments

  • Google wants to enter the desktop OS however they need to relook at what microsoft doing against them in the search business they are pumped up in the search area now and they wants to invest 10 % of their annual revenue in the Search business (Bing) this not a good news for the GOOGLE.So they should be more focussed on the search than the Desktop OS,otherwise thery are making difficult for them to be as dominant than ever.

  • hmm, i see that you are a bit nervous about what google is going to do. :)
    nevertheless, i sense a bit of thruth in your words, but, i think that the market and people (users) will decide. google has to cooperate with hw suppliers and preinstall the system, to be widely spreaded. this system si going to be as i see it a thin client over googles apps and will be missing some functionality, that people will demand. (at least me, but if the majority will accept it, my opinion wont change anything :))
    i cant understand, why google coudnt just create some kind of addon to, for example ubuntu, to integrate his services and already matured system. some kind of contribution to community... im curious about chrome os. i wonder, what about pages created with flash and silverlight. google just cant ignore them...

  • The existing app compatibility point is good. Great Post..

  • "...will I be able to print?"

    Of course you will. I'm sure Google will provide a web-to-print solution to let you print out the current page for a modest fee, and have the results sent to you through the post.

    It may take 4-6 weeks for your print-out to arrive, but at least you won't have the *inconvenience* of having to install your printer driver when you first set up your system - we all know how *difficult* that is, right?!

    If you want a faster option, they may even offer a premium service, where your print-out is delivered by courier. Obviously, you'd have to pay more for that.

    The service will most likely go through a short "Beta" phase of 3-5 years, during which you may receive the wrong documents, or have your documents delivered to the wrong address - but your neighbour won't mind getting your bank statements, personal email, or pr0n through their letterbox, will they??!

  • Lemme see if I got this right.

    Mainframe computers were powerful but the interfaces were limited and the Glass Room Tyrants controlled what and how you could do things.

    Enter the PC. It was slower, but the autonomy and flexibility -- not to mention the authority of the user on his own PC -- more than made up for the limitations.

    The PC has grown to gargantuan proportions in power, storage, capability, communications, presentation, and hardware interaction. With the addition of the Internet and its concomitant transfer protocols, not to mention some standard markup languages for sharing presentations, it can truly be all things to all people.

    Yet, the idyll is not achieved and the Glass Room Tyrants are back, telling us they can give us what PCs cannot: power without concern; applications without license; data without storage. We need only become their thin-clients.

    Is the PC dead? Are the Glass Room Tyrants back? Is the netbook and all else nothing more in the future than terminal sessions on the monolith?

    Job Opening: New Bill Gates wanted to create a flexible, PERSONAL, individual, secure and simple computer, operating system, and software. (Working over the net is a bother, insecure, slow, and extremely limited.)

    Compensation: Unlimited

Comments have been disabled for this content.