Google Chrome OS: A Free Alternative To Windows 7 - Page 2

newbymick · 07-18-2009, 02:30 PM

So none of you read the article in Linux Format (issue 120) headed

"What on earth is Chromium"

and I quote

LXF - Er, wait a minute - I've heard of this. Isn't it called Chrome?
Chrome is a web browser, but that's the name given to the finished, stable product released on WINDOWS. Chromium is the name of the open source project behind Chrome

LXF - Wow. Chrome is open source?
It certainly is! When it announced the project, Google said it was making it free because it was based on so much other free software - KHTML - aka WebKit - is the core of the browser, for example

Coburn64 · 07-18-2009, 10:37 PM

Google Chrome OS does look quite interesting, but will it allow 3rd party apps to be installed?

Otherwise you'd have to use Google-only apps, like Google Page Creator and Google Office (Google Docs & Speadsheets). I also heard it'll be cross-platform compatible, which is a plus, I guess...

chickenlinux · 07-19-2009, 08:53 AM

Google OS on netbooks by 2010?!
I thought netbooks actually did *some* things other than go on the 'net!

I hope GoogleOS doesn't become popular enough that people think they invented Linux or something... that'd really suck.

dragonslayer48dx · 07-19-2009, 11:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Coburn64

Google Chrome OS does look quite interesting, but will it allow 3rd party apps to be installed?

Otherwise you'd have to use Google-only apps, like Google Page Creator and Google Office (Google Docs & Speadsheets). I also heard it'll be cross-platform compatible, which is a plus, I guess...

For locally installed apps: Because it's Linux-based, third-party apps should work, although one might need to compile from source (not sure of their intentions concerning repos).

For Cloud Services: Since the app actually runs on the server and communicates with your PC through standard web protocols, it would be 'cross-platform' compatible, there.

Cheers

newbymick · 07-20-2009, 05:16 AM

http://blogs.zdnet.com/Howlett/?p=1065

Krishnan Subramanian at Cloud Ave lends a more level headed view:

"Instead of doing their own OS, they could have rallied behind one of the Linux distros, say Damn Small Linux, and helped them get traction among the hardware vendors. This is a move by Google to deflect the high handed tactics by Microsoft in the netbook market but it appears to me like a redundant one. I feel that they should have supported one of the existing distros. However, if they had taken that route, there is no way they could have pushed the Google Chrome browser (and their services) tightly integrated with the Linux distro. In short, it is a desperate attempt by Google to stop Microsoft in the netbook game and, also, push the Google Chrome browser to the masses at a point in time when IE’s market share is going downhill."