Comments on: Google Chrome OS Is What Facebook Wanted To Be

By: Joey Santiago

Joey Santiago — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 13:05:25 +0000

A computer is only as obsolete as the software it is running. It seems as though the more powerful computers are getting, the slower applications become. With all this focus as to where the future of computing is headed. What happened to the optimization of an OS kernel? You honestly don't believe that this will bite the industry in the ass later? I believe that Google has the right idea, at least. Chrome is FAST. Attention to user experience is nice. C'mon son. Say what you will. They have to get points for that at least…

By: Aalok The Dude

Aalok The Dude — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 14:09:27 +0000

This is a solution to a problem Google helped create. Google wants applications to move to the cloud. Why? Better maintenance (you don't upgrade the application, a systems administrator in the cloud upgrades the application for you), smaller installed base (even if more users use the software) and as a result, more frequent updates. There is a requirement that websites appear as interactive as desktop apps. Hence Google's purchase of Keyhole (which a Microsoft VP pointed to as an example, 5 years ago, of why you couldn't possibly move away from desktop apps), and Google's experiments with Google Mail and Google Docs (and of course, the competitor Zoho!).

Big problem – web browsers used to run all of this in a SINGLE PROCESS. You wouldn't want to have Microsoft Excel, Word, and Outlook all running in a single process (maybe even one thread!), but that is exactly what happened with web browsers until a year ago. Now imagine Outlook dies on you; you can still use Excel. (Word is a touch subject; Outlook uses Word to render mail messages). Unfortunately, with the old web browsers, everything you had open would die too.

The biggest drivers for a Web OS – speed, and fault isolation. Which is why Microsoft Research is also looking into this (see Gizelle) and many browsers started having threads for each tab that is open.

This is also why Google is investing in SVG (Graphics like Flash and .NET components for your browser! see SVGweb) and an updated javascript engine (V8) (like C# and VB for your .NET GUI components!).

Of course Google isn't referring to Facebook! Facebook may have many apps in the cloud, but it presents itself as a single portal to your browser, just like many enterprise applications.

By: goodforyou

goodforyou — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 09:39:02 +0000

Farley, congrats on not using Facebook and Google. They'll be sending you a sweet prize** for your efforts and achievements in avoiding popular things.

**May be made of tinfoil. May be a hat.

By: Farley

Farley — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 23:41:46 +0000

300 million is not the world. Personaly I won't be using a FB OS or Google. 1) I'm not on Facebook (tired of stalking people who don't actually say anything to eachother, and I don't want to be stalked), and 2) Google I just don't trust.

You know, if you turn your computer off, all this goes away.

By: David Kirkpatrick

David Kirkpatrick — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 15:51:08 +0000

Two things strike me as I watch this video. 1) there is a very deliberate effort to avoid mentioning Facebook, and I don't even think I heard the phrase "social network." That only shows how concerned Google is about Facebook's inroads, because statistically for a growing number of users of the Net worldwide Facebook is their primary activity.

2) If Google takes this path, the current concerns among antitrust regulators worldwide will grow dramatically larger. An OS controlled by Google would raise the prospect that it might in a very Microsoftian way begin to subtly or not-subtly discriminate against competitive services like Yahoo Mail and especially Facebook.

By: Rachel

Rachel — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 19:21:00 +0000

The video…. the video….
Ughhh. Do they ask him to say grammatically incorrect words to sound cool or likeable? THERE’S NO “S” SOUND AT THE END OF THE WORD ANYWAY. EVER!

By: pThomas

pThomas — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 17:37:13 +0000

IMHO HTML5 with all the built in media management will be the biggest jump toward NON-MS os we’ve had in a long time. If you spend most of your computer time in a browser (like i do for both work and play) then why pay for an OS or use a new and untested one. HTML5+Linux will be the OS for the masses.

By: Mario Vidal Fernande

Mario Vidal Fernande — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 17:46:37 +0000

Fact is that Chrome OS is only a netbook platform and Google's desktop operating system is the real Windows killer. Facebook is the most popular social network to date and Google is not trying to become a better Facebook though a(n) operating system.

If Google wants to establish a better social network then Facebook, it will be a simple website with all of Google's features including third-party services. An operating system is only a system which has abilities to do what you would want it to do.

By: Justa Notherguy

Justa Notherguy — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 16:49:48 +0000

Innovate, schminnovate…its soooo tedious, listening to every (fill in the name of your favorite tech company, here) fan, anxious to grab vicarious credit for this minor idea or that incidental feature.

Its sounds too much like a bunch of pensioners who sit around a pot-bellied stove, telling lies. Worse, it put me mind of patent-trolls.* Right now, all that matters is results. So, you can either show me the goods – an intact, useful product that improves/brightens my daily life, at an attractive price – or put a cork in it.

I've yet to see any such thing, from FB. Rather, it looks like yet another walled garden with a heavy emphasis on UGC…like AOL, circa 1997. And I suspect FB will end up in much the same way. Will their operations generate lots of money, before then? Oh, sure. But will they contribute much to the tech-community, in terms of useful IP? Uh, no.

* "We invented 'Click here!' No, seriously!"

By: q

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 15:54:46 +0000

yeah I'm so sold…. NOT!!! (sorry for the childish speech, was just trying to emulate Mr. Cool D00d… from the vid)