Google’s Chrome OS project, first announced in July, will become available for download within a week, we’ve heard from a reliable source. Google previously said to expect an early version of the OS in the fall.
What can we expect? Driver support will likely be a weak point. We’ve heard at various times that Google has a legion of engineers working on the not so glamorous task of building hardware drivers. And we’ve also heard conflicting rumors that Google is mostly relying on hardware manufacturers to create those drivers. Whatever the truth, and it’s likely in between, having a robust set of functioning drivers is extremely important to Chrome OS’s success. People will want to download this to whatever computer they use and have it just work.
We expect Google will be careful with messaging around the launch, and endorse a small set of devices for installation. EEE PC netbooks, for example, may be one set of devices that Google will say are ready to use Chrome OS. There will likely be others as well, but don’t expect to be able to install it on whatever laptop or desktop machine you have from day one. Google has previously said they are working with Acer, Adobe, ASUS, Freescale, Hewlett-Packard, Lenovo, Qualcomm, Texas Instruments, and Toshiba on the project.
We’ve seen convincing and not so convincing screenshots of Chrome OS over the last several months. The good news is the speculation is about to end, and you can try it out yourself. If you have one of the supported devices, that is.
Wow! Looking forward to see that early…
Another hype Google launch! Another useless product!
Yes, another useless product, like that search engine no one uses because its so slow and never finds the right results, that map thing that nobody links to all the time and that browser they do that it so rubbish because it loads pages too quickly and doesn’t fill half your screen up tool bars you don’t want to use.
You evidently don’t live in the same world I do.
He was being sarcastic.
WIN
Google acts more like a military operation than a normal company. All their ventures seem to be useless and obscure at first, but a year or two later you start to see how it fits into the puzzle.
Remember when they took over GrandCentral two years ago? Seemed pointless at the time, now Google provides a free calling loop with voice and Gizmo(Which they now own.) This merge started over two years ago but no one knew.
Also, Someone has to pioneer new ideas for things to be accepted in the future. Hell, think of the first hybrid car. Who wanted that? Now the Prius is actually a nice car and is being bought up.
Google has a plan, you just may not see it yet. And I beleive that is how they like it.
I could not agree more!
cant wait!
it is fantastic to see the Great Google Plan unroll. Im exciting to see how Chrome OS and Wave will integrate all other services google provides..
@font, in which world you are? learn how to use search engine, enter correct tag result will be correct.
what makes you so sure?
So…its going to basically be linux with url shortcuts?
ha
ha
Yeah, It is going to be like Linux, but to start your computer and install anything you won’t be asked to stand on your head and gargle peanut butter.
@#*%&…..faint
Agreed.
What more special they can offer in a Linux Distribution. There are a lot out there in different flavors.
It will get some support because Google’s trademark is attached.
There was already a supposed leaked version and nothing useful in it except that you will find shortcuts of Google’s applications at desktop
supposed… do you really think those where real screenshots?
Yes *nervous laugh*. =/
They can bring a much tighter interface. Netbooks have one big problem: low resolution screens. It can be painful to browse the net on a 1024×600 screen, since the vertical resolution is so low.
By integrating the browser and the window manager, you can remove a lot of the cruft. You can get an experience closer to full-screen browsing without losing the main OS interface.
It also has the potential to be quite light-weight. Most people seem to use netbooks to surf the web. Why run a full copy of Windows or a full Linux distro if you only really need one app? So there’s also the potential to make better use of available CPU and RAM resources.
Media playback is an issue, but by integrating playback functionality into the browser (they’ve already got a bunch of codecs built in for HTML5) you’ve got that covered too.
I also see potential for patching the underlying OS to help accelerate the browser. It makes it a heck of a lot easier when you control the entire software stack from the kernel down to the browser. You can patch the kernel or X server without worrying about compatibility; you only need to run one app. You can strip some things down and customize others.
I truly, truly hope that they’re not using X!
From the UNIX Hater’s Handbook: http://www.art.net/~hopkins/Don/unix-haters/x-windows/disaster.html
You pretty much covered it. Why have these bloated OS’s when more and more programs will be web based using rich internet applications, AJAX framework…If you are using any SaaS like Saleforce, you already understand.
From the google blog post on chrome:
” Google Chrome running within a new windowing system on top of a Linux kernel. ”
” The X.Org project provides an open source implementation of the X Window System..”
Got a trial of the beta version earlier this year, and it needed work, so I’ll at least give this a second look. Everything new has i’ts detractors, but I think this might be worth a shot.
Right… If this news is reliable then it is big.. Let us see how Google takes on Windows and OS-X. Waiting for it impatiently.
What ‘with in a week’?
Acer has launched a Netbook 2 days ago featuring Google OS in India (may be else where in the world too).
Just visit Acer’s website to confirm.
That ships with Android not ChromeOS.
Dude, you better post us a link. I just checked and couldn’t find it
http://www.liliputing.com/2009/10/acer-aspire-d250-with-google-android-starts-making-the-rounds.html
The netbook your speaking of has Android on it, not Google Chrome OS.
no they haven’t… stop lying you idiot..
Do you expect anything better from these third world losers? Apparently they can’t even differentiate between Android and ChromeOS…Ugh, hate these people
John ,
Grow up.
I don’t have words for how disrespectful John Devour comment is.
Admin, please delete the post.
I want to have Chrome OS run on my $80 ARM9 based laptop that I just reviewed at: http://techvideoblog.com/reviews/80-android-laptop-menq-easypc-e790/
This is where Chrome OS will shine, running on sub $100 laptops, basically bringing a fully usable full desktop browser experience to the absolute lowest hardware requirements, since Chrome is so good at utilizing all the hardware ressources. They could store Tabs in storage and quickly within milliseconds render it in full screen, thus it would feel just like normal browsing even on a $80 ARM powered laptop with only 64mb of ram.
I think it will be just a try and go OS. People will try it because of it’s hype and will let it go away from their PC after sometime..
Regards
http://www.smartbloggerz.com
Typhoon a.k.a Sushant
Oh, if only it would run on that. Sadly, I think it’ll only be running on x86 PCs at the start… and drivers for that thing? Forget it. Later on, I could see this happening… if more manufacturers start making ARM-based laptops.
Even so, I like the look of that laptop… maybe I should get one for myself since it’s going to run Android.
But hold on, only 64 MB of RAM? That’s low even for a phone… not sure how well that would run.
ARM, lol. You better have the lightest weight OS on the planet. Tegra, Medfield (Atom) and soon Bobcat will have that market on lockdown. Actually Atom already does…
Huh? Tegra is an ARM processor. ARM pretty much owns the entire market right up to MIDs (virtually every cell/smart phone from the iPhone to the Palm Pre use ARM processors). The Nintendo GBA through DS use ARM processors.
x86 only really gets any traction once you move all the way up to netbooks, and even then ARM is making inroads; Atom can’t really touch ARM for power/performance ratio yet. ARM’s chips (particularly the Cortex A9, the sucessor to the Cortex A8 used in the iPhone, Palm Pre, and current nVidia Tegra) can out-perform low and mid range Atom chips, can give high-end Atom chips a run for their money, and cost a fraction as much.
x86 isn’t going to be pushing down into MIDs or lower any time soon, and ARM is looking like they have a pretty good chance of pushing into low-end netbooks. They’ll probably run Linux, but Microsoft has an ARM port of Windows in the forms of Windows CE and Windows Mobile. They might try pushing those out to netbooks if they want to run on ARM-based products.
Is this supposed to be funny? More like annoying. This ‘review’ is um… terrible. And Windows CE?
I want to have Chrome OS run on my $80 ARM9 based laptop that I just reviewed at: http://techvideoblog.com/reviews/80-android-laptop-menq-easypc-e790/
This is where Chrome OS will shine, running on sub $100 laptops, basically bringing a fully usable full desktop browser experience to the absolute lowest hardware requirements, since Chrome is so good at utilizing all the hardware ressources. They could store Tabs in storage and quickly within milliseconds render it in full screen, thus it would feel just like normal browsing even on a $80 ARM powered laptop with only 64mb of ram.
pffft just going to be the next M$ windows clone
Not sure about you guys but, I’m not taking this news very seriously. =) Can’t afford to be another laughing stock in the end. This is the compiled version of that story
http://bit.ly/Chrome-OS-the-real-deal
Okay guys. Hold your horses just yet. Like us we are happy for this release but this could be another fake propaganda like what we have a couple of months ago.
As for now, google is still not releasing any updates for the release. If it’s next week, they will release a pre-announcement, ayt?
http://bit.ly/chrome-OS-hopefully-not-another-fake-release-again
kudus to all who waited
wow, another useless linux…
If it had compatability with microsoft apps and programs, we would be talking, but so far, it doesn’t look too promising with those “cloud” apps.
Competition is a bitch!
As a developer, its just a matter of time before windows of any platform can be run in a linux shell.
yay, a gimped OS that cant do a fraction what windows can do. but zomg its by google. it must be good. like orkut, the myspace killer. or picasa, the photobucket killer.
MySpace is working hard to kill itself – and pretty successful in doing so.
Picasa is much much better than Photobucket which is mostly famous for its “too much bandwidth used” pictures which I see more often the actual picture that I was expecting.
So try again!
PS: It doesn’t help that Windows can do much more if the stuff that it does is:
- not reliably done
- slow or requires a monster of a machine
- hard to use
and that the os in general closed and therefore of debatable security.
[...] Techcrunch is reporting that Google Chrome OS isving you didn’t have a clue, didn’t you? In case you’ve not been following the tech news here in 2009, Windows is kicking it just fine with underpowered netbooks and old machines now, and includes a host of features that are in fact reliable and easy to use.
That said, I’m looking forward to giving Chrome a shot to see what’s up.
“We expect Google will be careful with messaging around the launch, and endorse a small set of devices for installation. EEE PC netbooks, for example, may be one set of devices that Google will say are ready to use Chrome OS. There will likely be others as well, but don’t expect to be able to install it on whatever laptop or desktop machine you have from day one.”
Can you imagine the reaction that would have come out if “Google” and “Chrome OS” were replaced last month with “Microsoft” and “Windows 7″? Holy cow, the words “total fail” and “epic fail” would have flooded the Internet.
But you’re right – it’s Google, so it _must_ be good, ’cause they do no evil. Slow and steady wins the race, after all. They are looking out for the consumer…
I don’t get the “Google is goodness” belief system that seems rampant. And this is from a guy who bought the DROID on its release day.
so soon? u sure?
nope.
November was exactly what I was expecting, it makes sense. The first ARM smartbooks sold before Christmas or shown at CES will run it. Chrome browser on Linux for ARM is where the revolution is at.
what about the crunchpad? wasnt that supposed to be launch in Nov too?
releasing crunchpad…. whenever it’s ready… just like duke nukem…
Should be interesting. The reaction to this alpha/beta release will finally show whether or not people are ready to move all their data and applications to the web.
Right, time to dig out that old useless Dell machine I’m got lying around at wipe for now geeky new OS fun…
Problem is that there will probably be no graphics drivers for those old machines but you never know .
Most Linux Distros usually run Ok right out of the box on my old computer but windows needs the Intel 80812 graphics driver .
What.. Already? o_O
Crunchpad in two weeks?
There’s been a Crunchpad sighting.
http://www.gizmotastic.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/big-foot-crunchpad1.jpg
Wow really? Can’t wait for it.
Why? What makes you so unhappy with whatever it is you’ve got now?
What an interesting stawman…
How many years for business users to adopt, 3 5, 10?
its google’s product, so maybe it took much sooner~
Don’t kid yourself. Google Chrome OS is not for business users – at least certainly not for knowledge workers.
There is still much resistance to putting all of a company’s data in the cloud. Yes companies like Salesforce.com are doing well, but that doesn’t mean there’s a mass migration happening. There’s still a lot of uncertainty amongst enterprises of all sizes, and no one’s going to be conquering so much fear in 3-5 years.
10 years is possible, but it would still require a huge shift in the security of hosted/SaaS providers and standardization of the various platforms. There’s far too many desktop apps still running that aren’t available via a web interface to let a huge shift happen anytime soon.
Why would I ever do that – put my data someplace else? I am quite happy with it here, in my local storage. And it’s very secure when I am not here – since I turn the power off when I leave.
I’m ready for it.
If it’s based on the Linux kernel, how’s that there are no drivers yet? Linux already runs on many netbooks today. Am I missing something?
Exactly what I was thinking
You’re right for wondering that. If it is based on a vanilla Linux kernel, then it’ll be fine for nearly everything except graphics cards. Graphics are mostly handled by X under Linux. Chrome is doing away with X altogether and writing their own windowing system from scratch.
This might be the long-term-right-thing to do (X goes back to 1984, and it’s creaky and everyone knows it). But it does mean they won’t be able to leverage (did I really just use that word) the vast numbers of graphics drivers available for X.org right now.
On the other hand, they’re probably not doing 3D, which is the real MF when doing drivers, so I don’t expect it will take them long to get that fixed. And I suspect that, given the target market for Chrome OS (weaktops), a generic VESA driver will work just fine across the board once it’s written.
Nicely timed on Google’s part anyway. I ordered myself an Acer One just a few days ago. Feels good man.
I wonder if it would really be reliable. I hope it doesn’t conflict with Windows.
They had most of the pieces together already so a fall release is not so surprising. I suspect an early release will also give people a head start to start building drivers for it. Good move.
Huh. Already? Well, if this is true… no news for a while, and then we get this.
I hope it’s true. Wow.
so we have the OS coming out this soon? I agree with Amit on this, the early release might just boost the task of developing drivers faster.
That’s great news for Mac users.
Chrome is by far the best browser – simple and super fast.
I just wonder whether the speed will be lost on mac laptop users with their tiny keyboards and annoying mouse pad
I found it useless without extension support.
LOL, look! It’s a Firefox fanboy…
Didn’t know they still existed.
They Do! Don’t think new means mass adaption.
Per the following source, Firefox has almost SIX times share of Chrome:
http://www.w3schools.com/browsers/browsers_stats.asp
I never understood this desire to use some new app. I got Firefox and it’s working fine. If there are still some websites that do not work with it, I got IE for that purpose. What will any new browser bring me? I am not saying I won’t even try, but unless they come up with some new idea, I’ll try and forget about it, as I did with Chrome -it’s the same thing, just different wrapping.
Why use IE when you can Use ieTab? Get extension for firefox
Dev build has extension support
I found it useless even though I do not use extensions.
Well, let’s bet on it: http://bit.ly/3tE8MH
Chrome OS is not an OS in itself. As per details earlier when google announced chrome OS, it will be a windowing system (kind of virtual machine) on top of Linux. I do not understand why there is a need for new drivers. Existing Linux Driver should work. Google should be creating data passing mechanism between virtual machine and actual hardware drivers.
May be I am missing something important.
AFAIK architecture will similart to Android which basically run on Linux.
That’s a relief .. because Linux hardware driver support is fantastic.
Exciting. Yay for ending the anticipation that’s been fueling the “leaked screenshots!” craze.
I like the “not so convincing” screenshots more than the “convincing” screenshots. The “convincing” ones look like Chrome browser in Linux. Nothing more.
The “convincing” ones *are* the Chrome browser in Linux, just with a little notification area in the corner and a few new features.
No, seriously. It’s all right there in the Chromium source code.
Looking For that Hungry…. Cool Google The Great… I am using Google Chrome. they are best
Thats great, But seems so soon.
Anyway! i’m excited to use it.
So soon, well, the 20 thousand Google engineers have been working on this anti-bloat optimized Ubuntu variant for more than 5 years in all of their 20% time projects.. I wouldn’t say it’s too soon, but awesome for sure.
Not too soon, just unexpectedly soon.
i hope they were being paid for this time.
Yep – Google employees get 1 day a week to work on what ever project they want.
As A Former Google Employee (2007) Google Has Already Dominated The Desktop It’s Only A Matter Of Time, This Isn’t The Only Thing They Have Many Many More Surprises Bet On Google Like U Bet On My Coffee
They Will Deliver c|_|
Lol, were you a Janitor or something?
Wow how exciting, Just what I was waiting for.
I’ll stick to Windows 7
So will I.
I like competition, but outside of search I just don’t get excited about Google.
But I know Tech crunch is a PR firm, so I expect nothing less than subjective cheer leading from Mike and MG.
Have you never used Google Maps, GMail, Picasa?
Google Chrome is not a bad browser at all.
Google Reader is the best RSS reader I’ve ever used.
Lots of Google products are simply fantastic. There have been plenty of duds, but you take risks in developing innovative products. To only churn out successful products means you axed a lot prematurely… Who knows if something’s going to be successful or not?
So here we have Chrome OS. I have no doubt Google is capable of a great product, and I have no doubt linux is capable of delivering great performance and handling beautiful visuals of user interface, so I’m at least doing to keep a huge eye out for Chrome OS.
Cheerleading? Maybe, but when you’re cheering for a good team, maybe you’ll be cheering for the winner come the end of the season. :/
Ehh, wait a sec, we don’t have Chrome OS yet. All we have is the hype. A successful product must bring more to the market than a nice interface. Mac OS is nice-looking according to some people and it’s also sort of successful, I mean Apple seems to be making money on it (which is really the only measure of success – or you believe they are actually out to please you?). So far I have not heard anything like – Chrome OS brings this new thing, one does not get this anywhere else and we really need it. If not, then – what’s all the excitement about?
The excitement is about all these other successful Google products. Google has brought just as many unsuccessful projects to the table as well, though, and has often resorted to buying services (e.g. YouTube). However, perhaps this OS and the environment it brings will hit the mark? I personally love Android so far, so maybe this will be as nice? I’m not going to buy a netbook any time soon, but I definitely might try the Chrome OS user interface out anyway if I can run its browser on Ubuntu given there was a leak of a primitive build of Chrome OS’s browser that ran on Debian, I’m going to guess I will be able to).
oh so sweet
Quite early…
Is there any way to retrofit a virtual layer (e.g., VMWare) between the metal and the OS so that I can run both my current Windows and any other OS, like the prospective Chrome OS?
And just to preempt any comments… no, I do not have a clue….
VMWare has a product for that, here is a link to it: http://www.vmware.com/products/esx/
early launch means developer community can help write drivers and applications to flesh out the OS. do I get a cut of Google’s profit if I develop something which helps them out? layoffs are looming in IT where I work…
If there’s any truth to your comments about the Drivers Mike that should be a serious warning sign for Google. They need to look no further than the Company that they dislike the most, Microsoft and how the “driver” issue tilted the entire Company with regards to Vista.
So Google Chrome OS Beta will arrive in November 2009.
It should come out of beta in… what… 2014?
Nice dig!