14 DAY TRIAL // Inevitable, the advent of a new operating system has to be branded with certain coordinates that position the platform in relation to the ubiquitous Windows OS from Microsoft. Google Chrome OS has in this manner joined the club of non-Windows operating systems, and don’t think for a minute that this does not apply to Microsoft’s itself. The Redmond company is also cooking non-Windows platforms (Singularity and Midori), and time will come when the software giant will have to go against itself on the OS market. However, which such a scenario is most probably reserved for the next decade, the Google Chrome OS has become tangible.
Almost tangible, because the actual bits for the Google Chrome OS aren’t yet available for download. Instead, what the Mountain View-based search giant did was release the source code associated with the Chromium OS project. Users and developers, familiar with the way that the Google Chrome browser is built, already know that it too has a Chromium underlining project. And in fact, the similarities between the Chrome browser and the Chrome OS doesn’t stop at this.
“We released Chromium OS, the open source project behind Google Chrome OS. Google Chrome OS is an operating system that is intended for people who spend most of their time on the web. It aims to provide a computing experience that is fast, simple and secure. The Chromium OS project as you'll see it today is comprised of the code that has been developed thus far, our early experiments with the user interface, and detailed design docs for many parts that are under active development,” said Kan Liu, product manager.
Don’t expect to start running Google Chrome OS on your computer anytime soon. According to Caesar Sengupta, group product manager and Matt Papakipos, engineering director, the actual bits for the operating system won’t be delivered for approximately a year. It will be only ahead of the 2010 holiday season that the first machines equipped with Google Chrome OS will hit store shelves.
Moreover, there will be additional impediments preventing end users from embracing Google Chrome OS. In this regard, the Mountain View-based search giant explained that its own breed of open source OS would be intimately connected with a specific hardware reference. What this means is that the platform will not run on legacy hardware. Computers capable of playing nice with Chrome OS will have to be powered by x86 or ARM CPUs while sporting SSDs. In addition, don’t think for a moment that you’ll be able to install your favorite Windows-based game and start playing, because this will not be the case.
“First, it's all about the web. 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,” Papakipos added. “Second, because all apps live within the browser, there are significant benefits to security. Unlike traditional operating systems, Chrome OS doesn't trust the applications you run. Each app is contained within a security sandbox making it harder for malware and viruses to infect your computer. Furthermore, Chrome OS barely trusts itself. 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.”