What Google's Chromium OS Is Reaching For 216
MojoKid sends in a piece that takes a step back from Google's much-analyzed OS to look at what it is trying to accomplish. "Last week, Google open-sourced its Chromium OS project, more than a year before the operating system is scheduled for release. In doing so, Google hopes a variety of developers and companies will become involved in the project, and has pledged to release regular updates as well as a comprehensive log of bug reports and fixes. This article takes a look at Google's design vision for Chromium, the unique benefits it offers, and a bit of why Google is throwing its hat into this particular ring in the first place. Chromium, after all, is a Linux-based OS entering the smartbook/netbook market at a time when the product segment is already being well served by a variety of Linux distros, XP, and Windows 7. In the midst of all these options, do we need another operating system? We just might."
More, more! (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:More, more! (Score:4, Interesting)
The more the merrier!
This isn't how it looks to the retailer who has to decide how much shelf space to give the Chromium netbook.
How much he can afford to spend on advertising, service and support for another entry at the low end of the market.
Near the end of its last flirtation with Linux, Walmart.com found it necessary to black flag each Linux netbook it offered with a yellow-bordered bold-faced warning that your Windows software wouldn't run.
The best evidence that returns had become a problem.
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Google is releasing a lightweight Linux distro that can only run a web browser, and it's being treated like something amazing.
There, fixed that for you.
I for one hate waiting for the system to boot, when all I want to do is check my e-mail. Granted, Ubuntu 9.10 boots pretty fast, and 10.04 looks like it'll boot even faster, but you can only get so far without actually removing stuff.
Although if Haiku [haiku-os.org] supported WiFi, it'd already be perfect. Boots in <5 seconds on my Eee PC.
Diversity is good. (Score:5, Insightful)
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Re:Diversity is good. (Score:5, Informative)
There is not an unlimited supply of skilled OS developers despite what people may think and even less of a supply of those willing to freely contribute to projects.
I really can't agree with that. As Google is paying good salaries for developers to work on Chromium, the situation is quite different from the traditional open source labor contribution model.
Re:Diversity is good. (Score:5, Interesting)
Fragmentation means all projects suffer just a little more of not being able to put the much needed cut and polish in or those extra needed features.
Classic authoritarian mistake of thinking, if I just kill off some dudes pet project, then he will do exactly what I want.
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Fragmentation means all projects suffer just a little more of not being able to put the much needed cut and polish in or those extra needed features.
Classic authoritarian mistake of thinking, if I just kill off some dudes pet project, then he will do exactly what I want.
A cow is a race horse designed by commitee.
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Classic authoritarian mistake of thinking, if I just kill off some dudes pet project, then he will do exactly what I want.
What you want is to see him dead and buried.
But it may be enough to get his pet projects removed from the default Ubuntu distro.
Say good-bye to the GIMP.
Say hello to light-weight photo editing apps with an attractive and serviceable UI. Something along the lines of Paint.NET.
Shed the GIMP's excess baggage along the way.
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The rest of the fragmentation is made up of nearly identical clones of Debian and Redhat. This is, out of the box, substantially different.
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Because if there is anything OS developers really want to work on, it is cut and polish.
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You do realize that chromium-os is more or less a special live cd of ubuntu right? (You basically have to install ubuntu in a jail to build it.)
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I for one would wish that a fork would come into existence that would:
-Let it run on all Linux supported HW and not just Google approved HW
-Use the full potentional of a cloud OS but used local storage first and upload later
-Has a one-click-USB-storage-backup-solution-X(tm)
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"I for one would wish that a fork would come into existence that would:
-Let it run on all Linux supported HW and not just Google approved HW
-Use the full potentional of a cloud OS but used local storage first and upload later
-Has a one-click-USB-storage-backup-solution-X(tm)"
PS: and removes phoning home too...
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PS2: and abused the phoning home features as online backup storage with encryption :')
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PS3: At least it's better than XBOX.
RTFA (Score:5, Funny)
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It was an <a> empty a tag </a> without a href attribute. It wouldn't work in any browser.
Sounds like a fantastic web tag! "Designed to not work on Any Browser." :)
Here's the link (Score:5, Informative)
http://hothardware.com/News/Chrome-Detailing-Previewing-Googles-New-Operating-System/ [hothardware.com]
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A year from now, a lot of Chromium's appeal could be riding on what users can do with one when they aren't connected to the Internet or want to save content locally. There are occasions, after all, where 'the cloud' is the very last place you want certain information to reside.
Google has come up with a variation on a thin client and plans to deploy it on laptops. If this OS really is a pure thin client then google is going have their work cut out for them selling these devices because eventually people are going to want want to be able to work offline. There must be some sort of offline capability built into Chrome wich makes it more of a hybrid than a pure thin client/Web OS and it will be interesting to see what the final product look like. Then there is the expense, Wifi isn't
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You're forgetting about Google Gears [google.com]. I think they've been planning their approach for a while now, with Gears-enabled web apps you wouldn't even notice being offline (that is, until you want to access a document that wasn't cached).
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HTML5 renders Gears (almost) obsolete. Any browser that implements HTML5 will be capable of local storage.
Why Chromium? (Score:5, Funny)
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It's a howl that you slag MS at every chance but you still use it. Why don't you just go back to Digg?
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Niche Product (Score:5, Insightful)
I can seriously see the advantages of Chrome OS in an ultra-portable device. . . netbook, smartbook, Crunchpad-like gadget. . . Simplicity and efficiency and speed are needed there, and it could have a real advantage.
NO WAY can I see it replacing my OS on my primary desktop computer (currently an iMac BTW). I can't see web apps replacing: Second Life, iTunes, Aperture, GIMP, my word processors and text editors, games, and a number of other programs.
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Chrome OS comes with a web-based media player. I think Last.fm claims to have streamed the equivalent of 2000 years of music. Web based media players might be the future.
GIMP is such a pain that Ubuntu is dropping it. My wife uses web-based image editting tools exclusively these days.
There has been work on an OpenGL ES framework for full 3D accelerated programing inside the web browser. So there can be a Second Life client that runs natively fully in your browser in the future. It isn't unfeasible.
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It's funny, but that's just what Google [blogspot.com]says it's for too. Why Slashdotters INSIST every new thing completely replace everything that's come before it is beyond me. So what you can't do high-end video editing with ChromeOS? It's for sitting on the couch and reading Slashdot, dammit!
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It's for sitting on the couch and reading Slashdot, dammit!
I already have that. It's called Ubuntu running on a Dell Mini.
And it (the Mini) can do far, far more than that (run XP, Windows 7 or Mac OSX) double and triple dammit!
Televisions, the next frontier! (Score:5, Interesting)
I am convinced that Google will work make Chrome in the TV market. Quick boot time and lack of local apps all point to a non-traditional platform.
Throw in Youtube and Hulu and you have why Comcast is buying NBC. Cable providers will quickly become irrelevant in a few years.
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I think this is actually an interesting idea. Computers encompass much more than just laptops/desktops that we normally thing about.
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Given that 1080p TV's have 1920x1080 resolution, they actually become very nice computer monitors. As such, making Chrome OS part of the operating system for a set top box for cable TV (or eventually a set top box for DirecTV or Dish Network) makes a lot of sense--imagine the Chrome OS interface controlling everything on your DirecTV set top box, including the built-in DVR, through essentially a browser interface.
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Imagine a non-Chrome distro controlling your DVR though a non-browser 10' interface, and imagine the content stored in a way (called "hard disk") that is faster and more reliable than any internet connection can ever hope to achieve, and very likely at a higher bitrate.
The box you describe does indeed make sense, for the boxmaker and service sellers. For the user, though, it sounds like the same living hell they just escaped from some time in the last 10 years.
Out of the Comcast pan and into the Hulu/Netfl
The Network is the Computer (Score:2, Flamebait)
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Sun called, they want their concept back.
The distinction is perhaps less important now, but perhaps you mean Oracle. It was Larry Ellison's vision that included "network computers" which are cut-down desktop machines which rely on central servers for software and storage. He doesn't look kindly on so-called "cloud" computing today, though.
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Sun is a lot like a modern day PARC or Bell Labs. They had some absolutely incredible ideas, with great brains behind them to make the technology work. Unfortunately, they were hopeless at marketing these ideas.
I'm noticing Google begin to trend in this direction, which isn't surprising given that they now employ most of the well-known alumni of the three aforementioned companies. However, Google's past successes (as well as some of their more promising projects such as the Go language) give me some hope
Remember when Google became a search engine? (Score:5, Insightful)
"Chromium, after all, is a Linux-based OS entering the smartbook/netbook market at a time when the product segment is already being well served by a variety of Linux distros, XP, and Windows 7."
Remember when Google entered the search engine space? It was being well served by Yahoo, Dogpile, MSN, Excite and a bunch of other search engine vendors... I mean really, how could they improve internet searching?
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I do remember when Google entered the internet search market. Google gained search share precisely because that market was not being well served by the existing search engines. Google's results were better (thanks to PageRank [wikipedia.org]) which is why more and more users switched to Google as their primary search engine.
In the case of notebook/netbook OSes, the current crop of mainstream contenders (Windows, Mac OS X, Linux) has more functionality than ChromeOS, which makes it very unlikely to displace the current matu
Re:Remember when Google became a search engine? (Score:5, Insightful)
I think that the iPhone has broken the idea that users want MORE functionality. What your average user wants is a good experience with a popular product that has an excellent price point. If they can do what they want to with a device, feel good about owning it, and pay as little as possible for it then that device WILL be a success.
Now all Google needs to do is fire the marketing people behind "droid" and find someone who will make the Chrome OS devices appear trendy while making sure they work well and cost as little as possible.
There's your "beat the world" strategy for any product or service that you care to sell.
Don't like some "features" (Score:2)
To summarize the sales pitch: Chromium gets rid of all the crusty old legacy garbage, moves storage online where it's both universally available and backed up, provides a platform that finally integrates browser and OS, all while providing a fabulous, multimedia-rich online experience. Everything you currently do offline will be available online, seamlessly provided by a content platform that presents a universal, standards-based framework rather than a hodgepodge of browsers, security b
I want it - not for me, but... (Score:2)
I want Chromium OS to come out NOW*, if not sooner. Not for me -- I can install Puppy Linux and play around with dependencies and the like, learning from my mistakes. Heck, I can even run Windows without getting more than a virus or two per decade.
No, I want it for the sweet little old lady who lived a few doors down in my old apartment complex. She doesn't know the first thing about computers. She sends email like a whirling dervish of glurge -- I had to set up my Gmail to filter messages from her into
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I read what you said, and I thought about it, and I realised that my mother needs Chromium OS. You're right. No sarcasm, no jerking about - you are right. Chromium OS isn't really aimed at us, it's aimed at our mothers.
My mum's gonna love it. I'm gonna love it, too, because she can log on to familytree.net or whatever the hell else it is she does, and the cursor won't magically (I haven't installed anything I swear) change into a butterfly, or any of the many hundred million toolbar-related problems won't o
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Doesn't seem so hard: Stable linux distro (Debian?), readonly root fs, $HOME mounted with noexec, autologin enabled and fullscreen Chrome. You could probably do a custom CD in an hour or two.
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Install Microsoft Steady State for her. That will reduce the need for antivirus software.
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Doh! I also wanted to say that along with Steady State you could also install the MS AntiVirus product. No cost for that any of that for home use.
Downside of clouds (Score:2)
Conceptually I don't mind the idea of cloud computing - but it does have one huge issue - it raises the bar for market entry. If it was to become 'the' way to use computers then instead of just needing the resources to serve up an installer for your application you need the resources to allow the masses to run your application.
The only way I see to avoid this is if the cloud the user belongs to somehow downloads your application and runs it in their user space, charging them for resources rather than putti
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Conceptually I don't mind the idea of cloud computing - but it does have one huge issue - it raises the bar for market entry.
I completely don't get this argument. The entire Web is cloud computing. With EC2 you can point and click and enter a credit card, and within minutes you have as much computing power as you want. You can develop your service, deploy it without capitalizing one cent of hardware (that becomes Amazon's problem), route around the entire (failing, legacy) software sales/distribution nightmare. If anything, the barriers to entry are dramatically lowered.
Where you don't get a free ride: Having an idea, identifying
Wrong sort of comparison... (Score:2)
I can see the benefits, they're apparent; but basically what you've got is a dumb terminal....Zobeid is right, it's a niche product...but I would add that it's for a large niche. This will appeal to corporate users and people who don't like computers....
For some people and certain applications (particularly corporate applications) this may make a lot of sense....but I see fallacy in their comparisons to the standard PC, because this device wont be able to do 80% of the things a multipurpose PC can do. It ma
One, Two Punch... (Score:4, Interesting)
One of the big problems people have with cloud computing isn't the computing, it's the storage. I'm sure I speak for a significant percentage of /.s demographic when I say, I don't want other people scrutinizing my private information.
If Chromium were to be companioned with a personal server app/OS (similar to Opera's Unite initiative), this could be game changing.
Require the server and client to use IPv6 and you have built-in security and dynamic publicly route-able addresses.
The potential for Chromium is staggering. Imagine the convergence of Android and Chromium with the aforementioned server component and El Goog won't have enough room for the money.
I wonder if Google has a branch office near me...
Like the iPhone (Score:2)
I think the reasoning is the same as with the iPhone... and definitely does NOT apply to the slashdot crowd: think of your parents, siblings, non-geed friends...
The General Public is willing to sacrifice a lot of flexibility and confidentiality for
- ease of use
- ease of maintenance
- money
- coolness
This may seem anathema to us geeks... but when I get the monthly "my PC's not working" from my dad (ie: a video driver update messed the screen resolution and the icons are no longer in their usual place ^^), I un
The Cambrian explosion view (Score:2, Interesting)
Just my opinion for what it's worth. What gets me is the either/or evaluation of cloud computing. It's either good or bad, dumb or smart, the future or a dead end. What I see is the diversification of the technology landscape, not a monolithic movement in any direction. For some people, cloud computing is the ticket. It's all they need and they are going to love it. For others (like me), I like my island PC, enjoy tinkering with it, but will selectively use elements of cloud computing, such as Gmail.
Smells like an Apple play (Score:2)
This sounds like an Apple move. Create an OS you control on (mostly) controlled hardware.. but then add the kicker of then controlling the other end of the internet as well.
It works, sure. It's just as annoying though--you're stuffed into their box instead of Apple's. Open source or not, Google is at the head.
I think if I had to change from a Microsoft environment I'd switch to a full Linux distro (I've done it before). More flexibility.
-m
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Which from a Google standpoint makes perfect sense.
An OS that is basically one giant web browser, why would you need a local account.
I wouldn't run an Chromium machine, but I completely understand their design goals.
I also think that Cloud Computing is the worse idea in the world, but I seem to be getting shot down by the Myth-Makers. We'll have to see how it goes.
Re:The real reason (Score:5, Interesting)
I also think that Cloud Computing is the worse idea in the world, but I seem to be getting shot down by the Myth-Makers. We'll have to see how it goes.
In some ways I think cloud computing is the new 'outsourcing projects to India' -- both are/were good for some things, but were / will be applied to a bunch of business cases that they really don't make sense for. Both have/will resulted in a lot of failed projects, not because they're inherently bad ideas, but because of myopically focusing on their strengths and ignoring their drawbacks.
Some people, if given a hammer, quickly see everything as a nail. Instead of learning the right lesson from the failures of this strategy, they just try to find a better hammer.
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We've got to fail before we can learn the lessons.
So far there are not enough projects in the clouds to fail and learn from.
So yes a lot of people is going in the cloud and they will see whats there... Many will fail, the one that dont maybe awesomely rewarded (or not)
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Mmmm, so far, we've learned that
1- we can't trust the cloud for availability: gmail outages....
2- we can't trust the cloud to not lose our data (sidekick fiasco)
3- we can't trust the cloud with our confidentiality (all those SSID heists and others)
What more is there to learn ?
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"What more is there to learn ?"
4- we can't trust the cloud to launch nuclear missiles.
Ok turns out we can trust it for that just fine.
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Re:The real reason (Score:5, Insightful)
Mmmm, so far, we've learned about traditional desktop software that
1- we can't trust desktops for availability: my PC needed repair last fall.
2- we can't trust desktops to not lose our data (my hard drive crashed that one time)
3- we can't trust desktops with our confidentiality (some spyware dudes haxored me once)
What more is there to learn? Clearly desktops can never work as a business model.
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1- you can swap PCs, you can't swap the cloud. I always keep an old PC in a closet for such emergencies.
2- You can do backups - and should. We've learned you can't trust the cloud to do backups.
3- I'll concede 3, for the general public, adn because OS maker do such an horrible job of making their OSes secure for the general public. I personally never got hacked, maybe because I'm behind a firewall, don't have admin rights as a matter of course, and don't download and run just anything. The only virus I ever
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1) I can't move from amazon web services to go grid? even if I the data synced?
Even so, when Gmail was down I could get my email from gmail. (only the web frontend was broken, IMAP and POP3 were still available.)
2) Initial outlay to do off site backups is so much higher if using UPS instead of doing it over the wire. Initial setup time is longer on the cloud,
The lesson is not don't use the cloud, the lesson is do not use closed non-portable data storage formats.
3) Did you check to see if there is a wire goi
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I think it depends on how you define cloud computing. If you keep it broad, it's like saying email is the worst thing in the world, because 90% of it is spam. 90% of cloud ideas are dumb are poorly implemented (or thought out), but it doesn't mean that there aren't uses for it to solve problems that are really hard any other way.
Do you think google should get rid of GFS and bigtable and move off their cloud to a more centralized datastore? I
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Maybe, but I would rather not use something that bursts and shoots its data everywhere when it is saturated. Oh wait, did I take the "cloud" metaphor too far? :)
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Obviously, Google is planning on copying Scientology and making all of us their slaves. We will all be forced to view advertisements on web pages without ever being paid for our work.
Re:The real reason (Score:4, Insightful)
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The user will have the choice to reject Google just as the masses moved away from AOL.
Remember when AOL dialup was a Good Thing because of their fast connection speeds, and that at the time their software sucked much less than it does now?
Beware hubris, for it provokes smackdowns. :)
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AOL never really had an application platform. Merely a content platform.
I contend that its much easier to switch from one content platform to the other (eg: from AOL or compuserver to WWW) than to switch from on application platform to the other (eg: windows to MacOS)
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Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean their not out to get you.
Colin Sautar
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If *anything* is changed in the system, the OS downloads it and replaces it again.
Chances are, with the project open sourced, this will be circumvented. Likewise, the restriction of no local users and no hard disks will most likely also be removed by the community.
That is, if the OS is worth running in the first place. I think I'll stick with my *nixes
Re:The real reason (Score:5, Insightful)
I think you have it backwards. We already are without those restrictions simply by using another distro. This is taking GNU/Linux to a new architecture, a new way of operating. If you don't like it, there's still only about 20,000 other distros to pick from, so go there instead.
More likely is that any advance seen here would be added to the other distros post-haste. And that already is happening with chromium - the JS, rendering, and security models are already available on other distros before Chrome OS was even opened up, let alone released.
This is just Google entering the Linux-distro market in an Apple-like way: bundling everything (hardware, software) as a unit to provide a better end-user experience to their target market. If you don't like Macs, don't buy one. If you don't like Chrome OS, don't buy one. I know some people for whom this would be awesome. Just not me.
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I wish people would.....know something......anything....about the subject before making such statements.
Yes, in normal operation the system will heal itself, that's the point and it's what i expect the OS to do. You forgot to mention that there is a developer mode. You can install your own kernel, do whatever you want, and at most you'll get a warning that the system is out of spec or modified. They aren't locking anyone out of their own system, there's no TPM, and Google specifically says that one is not r
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Re:The real reason (Score:5, Insightful)
There's even *already* been announcements that it will be the worst piece of *DRM* ever in front of security. If *anything* is changed in the system, the OS downloads it and replaces it again.
The core OS itself is being treated more like a piece of firmware than a traditional OS. You can update it. You can make changes to settings. You can install programs. But the core of the OS will repair itself if it thinks it is corrupted.
First off, Windows already does this. Secondly, this doesn't mean you can't intentionally change things. Lastly, since Chromium is completely open, you can remove this feature if you don't like it.
DRM stops you from making copies of material you own. This isn't DRM. It's a system recovery feature.
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Despite mostly being flamebait this part of your post raises the question of why there isn't an equivalent to GPL for web applications. Don't tell me Affereo GPL because the AGPL only varies from the GPL by section 13 [fsf.org] which says that if webapps include a method of retrieving source code it can't be removed, but it doesn't say that users of the software get the right to the source code like the GPL does, and it doesn't say that applications
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Is something wrong with using the actual GPL for network-capable/aware/dependent applications? Even web apps could adhere to the licensing, unless I am missing something...
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You're correct as far as saying that web apps could use the GPL or other licenses. However, I believe the problem is that the GPL only covers distribution, and an app sitting on your server and your server only is not being "distributed."
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"It's quite common knowledge that Chrome OS will be locked down."
Sometimes common knowledge isn't all that accurate. No matter WHAT you don't like about ChromeOS, you can fix it. The source code is available. Recompile for whatever architecture you want, use common Linux drivers, modify the conf files to your liking. The same thing has been done with Slackware, Suse, Debian - there is really nothing new here.
Given a kernel and a browser, you can do just about anything you want under the hood. Do it!!
Re:The real reason (Score:5, Insightful)
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Recompile for whatever architecture you want,...
With lots and lots of hacking, (or maybe just a little at this point. the V8 javascript engine is i386/amd64 only at this point, but there is an ongoing effort to port it to all of debian's architectures that at least complies last I checked.
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I agree with what you are saying, but do you really think Google would like everyone blocking their adsense placements and undermining their adwords program?
What business do you think Google is *really* in?
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The ability to block an ad one at a time they can prolly handle. An addon that completely prevents their profit, easily enabled for the masses? Another matter.
Chrome's killer app (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Que? No comprede! Chromium OS doesn't make sens (Score:4, Interesting)
I find Chrome to be twice as fast as Firefox in terms of startup time (both first time (from HD) and subsequent (from RAM)). Chrome OS, in its finished form, will have a similar advantage (3 sec bootup vs. 10-100). Also, I find the Chrome browser's UI better - it doesn't waste 6 lines of screen space like Firefox.
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What makes Chrome better than say Firefox? When I did web site testing I didn't see a speed difference between Firefox and Chrome.
I'm a longtime Firefox fan, but I've been running the developer preview of Chrome on Linux for the last several weeks. The speed difference is awesome. Chrome is up and running and off to the races before the Fox gets out of bed. I didn't expect to be impressed, but now I've switched my desktop and my laptop to use Chrome as the default browser.
What benefits and features can Chrome and Chromium OS give me that Linux and Firefox cannot? What benefits and features can Chrome and Chromium OS give me that Linux and Firefox cannot?
Google is pushing a Web-centric world where there are no desktops and no local apps. If you love your local apps, you're not going to like that.
But in Google's world
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That isn't a bad thing but they are doing it by limiting what you can do with it.
In most circles, limiting functionality to what the majority of targeted customers need, rather than trying to satisfy the needs of any and all potential customers is seen as economical engineering design. Tell me why every Windows user needs administrative tools allowing them to add users to their system. Or why I need an event viewer, even if I have no idea what a system event is or how to deal with it.
The bottom line is t
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I agree with a lot of what you say except that I want to run apps on my computer and not on the web. Just like I can do on my iPod Touch and my Android phone.
I feel this is going too far the other way. However computers are NOT over engineered. They are way under engineered. It takes great engineering to make a complex device simple.
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You don't seem to understand chromeOS at all like most here on slashdot. This isn't supposed to ever be your only computer/OS. The hardware and OS for this is based on the fac tthat you already have two or three "desktop" style computers and want something that is easy to use.
While cooking isn't a slashdotter trait, Say you come across a really great recipe at your desk, but now you want to go make it? well since it is online you could transfer it to your smart phone and squint at the screen as you try
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Or you could just print it for the cost of about 2 cents and have a hard copy which you really don't care if it gets splattered with tomato sauce. ChromeOS is a cloud solution in search of a problem. Thing is, cloud capabilities are a small proper subset of general purpose laptop/netbook capabilities, so why chain yourself to a crippled platform?
I get it that such limitations might work for the extremely light usage crowd (grandma and people who like to pretend to be working adults by using social media sit
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All normal people will print out the recipe on their ink jet printer and take the printed copy to the kitchen to make it.
Only a /.tard would take a netbook or laptop into the kitchen and gunge up the keyboard with ingredients.
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It's a computer where you don't have to think, make decisions, or be competent on the subject of the computer itself. I know what I know as a result of years of formal education, independent reading, and experience. Lots of people don't want to do that; they'd rather learn and do different things. There's nothing wrong with that. Similarly, I'm happy to have a car that's designed to get me places comfortably without me having to learn the internals (which have changed dramatically since I came of drivi
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You sort of got it.
The iPhone's success is from what does which is run a lot of apps.
The iPhone's success is because it is easy to write and better yet to sell apps.
On other platforms it is easy to put apps up for sale but it is very hard to sell them.
I agree the key is what the device can do and not what it can not. Chrome OS can not do a lot of things other platforms can and those platforms can do what Chrome OS can.
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That's the same reason Apple failed to crack the cell phone market. Their iphone experience is ending in complete failure...