Chrome OS and Android "Will Likely Converge" In the Future 155
Posted
by
Soulskill
from the convergent-evolution dept.
from the convergent-evolution dept.
xchg writes "When Google first announced that the company would be pursuing development of two distinct operating systems, many questioned Google's motivation. 'Google executives, including CEO Eric Schmidt, have downplayed the conflict ever since, asking for time to let the projects evolve. And a few days after Chrome OS was revealed, Android chief Andy Rubin said device makers "need different technology for different products," explaining that Android has a lot of unique code that makes it suitable for use in a phone and Chrome has unique benefits of its own. But Brin, speaking informally to reporters after the company's Chrome OS presentation on Thursday, said "Android and Chrome will likely converge over time," citing among other things the common Linux and Webkit code base present in both projects.'"
Google is suffering from success (Score:1, Interesting)
Thus they're pursuing what I call the "spaghetti cannon strategy". They blast buckets of spaghetti up against the wall and hope that some of it will stick.
Eventually any such company becomes large enough that it cannot coordinate what the various bits and pieces are doing. The self-cannabalising overlap of Android and ChromeOS is a symptom of the spaghetti cannon working overtime.
Because god forbid you send any of the profits to the people who paid money to own part of a wildly profitable company.
Re:Google is suffering from success (Score:5, Interesting)
Kernel: Linux
WM: Chrome
GUI kit: HTML + CSS
Media player: Flash and OGG
Graphics library: WebGL
Application store: The internet with Google Gears
Coding language: Javascript
Backup: automatic online gratis storage
Need I even say more? Yes;
Chromium needs semantic file management and a better use of tabs (WM's that can only display fullscreen Windows sucks) and the ability to hook up an extrenal storage device and a one-click-offline-backup-solution and a better way to store webapps offline with Gears.
Okey... 'nuff said. If there is anything that could on the long run kill proprietary, monoplies, vendor lockin, etc, etc. then it is Chromium.
Not that I would make it my primary OS is the near future, but it will be installed on my netbook for sure...
Re:Google is suffering from success (Score:1, Interesting)
Let's take a trip down memory lane.
Network protocol stack: TCP/IP
Application protocols: HTTP, MIME
File format: HTML, GIF, JPEG
Security protocol: SSL (designed by their main competitor)
Scripting language: JavaScript (designed by their main competitor)
User profiling: Cookies (designed by their main competitor)
If there is anything that could on the long run kill proprietary, monoplies (sic), vendor lockin, etc, etc. then it is IE 3. During the early browser wars, Microsoft tried to use open standards [webstandards.org] as a club.
Perhaps they'll both converge on "cancelled" (Score:3, Interesting)
Google has had the foresight to cut their losses before...
I have an Android phone. It was a gift from Google. Admittedly, it was an early version so maybe Android 2.0 looks better, but frankly when compared to an iPhone it looks like a high school science fair project. I'd rather pay for an iPhone than use the Android phone for free.
Re:Perhaps they'll both converge on "cancelled" (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Which will win? (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:First post (Score:1, Interesting)
Hah! The kernel is exactly what we used to call an "Operating System", before people started putting Window Managers on top.
Not interested in Cloud Computing (Score:1, Interesting)
Re:Google is suffering from success (Score:2, Interesting)
What do you mean, "the self-cannabilising overlap"?
Android is a production product that must be stable, reliable, and operate within the constraints of consumer mobile devices today.
Chrome OS is an R&D platform for emerging markets and technologies.
You don't couple your production product with your R&D platform for a market that does not yet exist, unless you want both of them to fail.
The good news for Google is that by talking so publicly about their R&D products, and giving you the opportunity to comment on them, for every one comment like the above trying to second-guess Google, there are a thousand people who are excited and continue to be amazed at what the combination of Google and mobile device technology are making possible, and will make possible in 2-5 years.
MOD UP!!! (Score:3, Interesting)
How true! Instead of trying to confuse things and try to hitchhike a ride on Linux success, people who try to prepend a GNU/ on everything should study history and learn where this "operating system" [wikipedia.org] definition started.
There was a time when every computer was dedicated to running a single program at a time, it often took hours to switch from one program to the other. In many computers configuring hardware to run different tasks involved plugging patch cords into sockets.
An "operating system" was the software that let the computer hardware be shared among different users with less hassle. In that context, the equivalent of what was initially called an operating system would be a set of device drivers and a task scheduler, exactly what Linux alone does.
Of course, language evolves and what was called an "operating system" in the 1960s would not be the same thing today. But that should be for the people to decide, the GNU/ trolls are very obnoxious in trying to force an usage that the general public never came up with spontaneously.