CrystalXP.net

A few days ago, rumors had circulated that Google's Chrome Operating System (Chrome OS) will appear this week.

Remember, in July we had already spoke about Chrome OS, the free open source operating system of Google based on Linux kernel for netbooks (read the article here). Besides, since Google announced it, there were some rumors and many fakes.

Normaly scheduled for the second half of 2010, up to know Google didn't unveil not much information about Chrome OS. Chrome OS will be free, it will start up in a few seconds and will instantaneously connect with Internet in order to access web applications without users have to deal with viruses, malware and security updates.

The key aspects of Google Chrome OS: speed, simplicity, free ans turned 100% towards web.

Today, we know now more about Google Chrome OS. Indeed, yesterday at their Mountain View, California headquarters, Google has organised a presentation of Chrome OS.

The conference was directed by Sundar Pichai, vice-president of product management for Google's Chrome OS, and Matthew Papakipos, engineering Director, and we could follow it in live through Windows Media ou Real.



For this occasion, Google has also announced that Chrome OS has now been open-sourced as part of The Chromium OS Projects and is open and free to the development community. It includes the current code base, user interface experiments, and some initial designs for ongoing development.

So how is Chrome OS?

Chrome OS is based on Linux kernel and Chrome web browser. Besides the interface of Chrome OS is like Chrome.

For the moment Chrome OS is destined for netbooks which support SSD. It will also support both x86 and ARM hardware. Chrome OS is very light, it starts up in a few seconds, "like a TV and not like a PC", and all apps are web apps. The entire experience takes place within the browser and there are no conventional desktop applications. This means users do not have to deal with installing, managing and updating programs.



Software will be web applications located in the web browser tabs. And Chrome OS runs on HTML5 and supports also Flash





"Unlike traditional operating systems, Chrome OS doesn't trust the applications you run. Each application is contained within a security sandbox making it harder for malware and viruses to infect your compute (one of the main elements which characterize Chrome is the isolation process for each tab in a sandbox in order to prevent one tab from crashing another and to improve protection from rogue sites. Every time you restart your computer the operating system verifies the integrity of its code. If your system has been compromised, it is designed to fix itself with a reboot.







There are many other videos at The Google Chrome Channel.

The first netbooks with Chrome OS will appear at the end of 2010.

So what can we say now about Chrome OS?

It will mostly concern people who have internet. We can see Chrome like an advanced Internet Browser.

With Chrome OS, Internet becomes the main support for your PC to record documents. It becomes a tool that does not require the installation of software like Office. But Chrome OS isn't apparently destined to sophisticated software such as Photoshop. However, there are already some online applications that could be an alternative (for example Aviary suite).

Chrome OS makes Internet the hard drive of your PC.

But if we don't have a, Internet connection, we can't access to our personal datas? :neutral

No, you can use Chrome OS sytem when you don't have an Internet connection. The Chrome browser integrates by default Gears, a technology that enable you to access to some applications such as Google Docs, Gmail, Google Calendar, Remember the Milk, etc., which run online, when you're not connected. So without internet you can still write an email, a letter... And when you will be connected to Internet again, your data will be synchronized and updated.


What do you think of Chrome OS (interface, ergonomics...) ? Do you think you will use it?

I invite you to share with us your feelings about Chrome OS.