Google announces operating system

By Tom Bramwell Published 8 July, 2009

Chrome OS targeting netbooks in 2010.

Google has announced its intention to launch a full-blown operating system next year.

The Google Chrome OS is designed to be fast, simple and secure, getting you online within a few seconds and leaving most of the user experience up to the internet.

There are no immediate implications for PC gaming, but the company has said that all web applications will work out of the gate, and new apps can be written in traditional web languages, ensuring compatibility with Windows, Mac and Linux alongside Chrome OS.

"The software architecture is simple - Google Chrome running within a new windowing system on top of a Linux kernel. For application developers, the web is the platform," the announcement blog post explained.

"As we did for the Google Chrome browser, we are going back to the basics and completely redesigning the underlying security architecture of the OS so that users don't have to deal with viruses, malware and security updates. It should just work."

Google said it will open-source the OS, which will run on x86 or ARM-based chips, later this year. It will initially target netbooks, several of which will launch with Chrome OS installed in the second half of 2010.

Picture of Tom.

About Tom Bramwell

Tom is Operations director of Eurogamer Network and Editor-at-Large of Eurogamer.net. He joined the company in February 2000.

Read more articles from Tom by visiting the Tom Bramwell archive page.

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Comments (66) Latest comment 3 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • drunkymonkey #1 3 years ago

    This is big news...

  • mingster #2 3 years ago

    Its not game worthy at all its a lightweight OS aimed towards speedy netbrowsing.

  • AphoticCosmos #3 3 years ago

    I'll give the inevitable desktop version a whirl [original release is only for netbooks], but unless it's compatible with Windows games then I won't be using it.

    Chrome is a great browser, but an OS is a whole different kettle of fish.

  • BastoJ #4 3 years ago

    It's just a Linux distro (well when it's released), I'd be intriguided if they can out do the likes of Fedora, CentOS, Red Hat, Ubuntu etc. Having said that they might, I just have concerns about using an OS from an advertising agency...

  • Gallilee #5 3 years ago

    I'm all for this but: "completely redesigning the underlying security architecture of the OS so that users don't have to deal with viruses, malware and security updates. It should just work."

    Yeah, good luck with that :)

  • superdelphinus #6 3 years ago

    will be for tech geeks, like their browser

  • phycus #7 3 years ago

    its linux under the hood running the chrome browser as the main gui interface... hardly going to challenge MS / Apple on desktop/laptop - netbook yes, though will be interesting to see how it copes with pnp devices etc.

  • rhubarbandcustard #8 3 years ago

    Google Search - best search engine
    Google Chrome - best browser
    Google Chrome OS - best operating system?

    Probably.

  • Xerx3s #9 3 years ago

    How is this remotely gaming related?! Are you going to report on Michael Jackson's death as well because he made a game a decade or so ago?

  • Xerx3s #10 3 years ago

    "any attempt to take Windows out gets my thumbs up :) "

    Do you post on /. as well?

  • miiiguel #11 3 years ago

    There are already plenty of Linux distro's coming with the netbooks, they work quite well, bar the odd litle thing which mainly comes from years of Win use.
    My father bought one of this netbooks which came with a stripped down Fedora distro, and he only had a problem installing new apps like Skype as things are bit different from the usual "next; next; next", he got the hang of it (I hope).

    Though, I have to agreem this has nothing to do with gaming. One thing these distro's are not aimed to, is gaming.
    Edited by 2 at 08/07/09 @ 12:57

  • Arwin #12 3 years ago

    Cool. One interesting point though: in Europe Microsoft is forced to release Windows 7 without Internet Explorer, so that the user can choose his own browser. What if they demand the same from Chrome OS ... can you even solve that issue here, considering how integrated they are?

  • GundamJehutyKai #13 3 years ago

    Personally I'm cautiously optimistic.

    I'm not really a netbook person so I'm more interested in how it scales up to more powerful systems. There's also the question of what else it will be able to do other than web browse & use google apps based on the web. What about games and media?

    but I have to say that I do not like the chrome browser. I like some of the tech behind it but I just can't use it as a browser. Not sure if that's a bad omen...

  • MENTAL1ST Verified Senior Software Engineer, Picsel UK Ltd. #14 3 years ago

    its linux under the hood

    that makes it pretty much the same as macos.

    Whether there is any impact for gamers depends on its popularity initially, followed by whether a distribution system for putting native-code games on it is added. Remember, there was no app store when iPhone came out at first.
    Edited by 2 at 08/07/09 @ 13:07

  • El-Dev #15 3 years ago

    MS will slash the cost of their OS to compete with it if it gains some momentum.

  • SeesThroughAll #16 3 years ago

    I second all who question the relevance of these, admitedly interesting, news on a gaming website.

    Basing my opinion on the Chrome browser, this upcoming OS will be designed based on an obsession on speed, and remain slim on features. While I appreciate that, I certainly don't expect it to run any games at all any time soon.

    I just hope it will have an intuitive API. :)

  • SeesThroughAll #17 3 years ago

    its linux under the hood

    that makes it pretty much the same as macos.

    MacOS is based on FreeBSD, not Linux. There are a lot of similar features and they are partially compatible, but the implementation is different. And most important, the BSD license is, unlike GPL, not what business people call "viral".

  • makeamazing #18 3 years ago

    Only recently got into MAC (for Iphone stuff), and just loving it. Apple add so much quality software for free, while MS gives you mspaint and other crap that hasnt changed in years, while keeping the cost up.

    I think anything that can make MS sit up and take notice that their OS has pretty much stagnated for 10+ years and is very expensive, then all the better. I dont expect Google OS to be that good to begin with, but maybe after a few iterations it will allow games and maybe even a Virtual PC type situation etc.

  • ps3owner #19 3 years ago

    wow. now (soon) I can do everything with Google, I am sure they'd love that. They can then generate targeted adds on my desktop and in chrome as well as in my gmail account... can't wait for google to tell me what I like.

    I'll skip this... + as has been said before, this is hardly games related news... It would be if it said "Google OS will support all games from the start"... which it won't.

  • Garulon #20 3 years ago

    This is going to be a sales disaster for Google, just like all the Linux Netbooks get returned once Uncle Jim can't plug his camera in to upload photos to Facebook. It's going to be hilarious watching Google slink away from this in twelve months.

  • MENTAL1ST Verified Senior Software Engineer, Picsel UK Ltd. #21 3 years ago

    MacOS is based on FreeBSD, not Linux

    They're all just different flavours of Unix. Source licsenses mean very little to end-users.

  • SeesThroughAll #22 3 years ago

    @ Lord: touche :)
    Edited by 1 at 08/07/09 @ 14:06

  • woodyrulesok #23 3 years ago

    I'll give any new os a go, I have issues with windows, osx and fedora (admittedly I use core6 which is pretty out of date now).

  • photoboy #24 3 years ago

    @rhubarbandcustard

    Google Search - best search engine for recording what porn you're looking at
    Google Chrome - best browser that doesn't have enough features to challenge Firefox
    Google Chrome OS - best operating system for doing what Linux already does but nosing through all your documents while it does it

    Fixed those for you. ;)

  • dr_zoidthrob #25 3 years ago

    /Kent Brockman/ I for one welcome our Google overlords

  • mashk #26 3 years ago

    "This is going to be a sales disaster for Google"

    It's free!!

    That's the point!

  • miiiguel #27 3 years ago

    "It's free!!"

    There is no free lunch
    Milton Friedman
    Edited by 1 at 08/07/09 @ 14:48

  • schnide #28 3 years ago

    Given that this in the long run could alter what your games are played on, I think this is relevant enough. Chill out people!

  • Ryze #29 3 years ago

    People - to begin with, browser based games on Netbooks will work just great, I'm sure.

    They should run better on the same hardware than they would on XP due to there being less overhead from running the OS.

    Google Linux is definitely interesting...

  • sneetch #30 3 years ago

    @PatAU
    I see the MS fanboys/viral marketers are on defense mode judging by the pattern of post ratings here.

    Quick, someone evangelise natal!

    Yes, that's right, it's all "the man", man! Nice tin-foil hat btw.

    I'd love to see a lightweight (and preferably free) gaming OS so that I don't have a ton of random OS shite lagging up my PC but it's highly unlikely that you could pry the devs away from windows so it'll have to do for now.

    And it'll be paid for by Google ads most likely.

  • RexRunti #31 3 years ago

    makeamazing: Only recently got into MAC (for Iphone stuff), and just loving it. Apple add so much quality software for free, while MS gives you mspaint and other crap that hasnt changed in years, while keeping the cost up.

    The problem is when MS include quality software like Internet Explorer or Media Player the EU give them a big slap for being anti competitive. I wonder if the EU will come down hard on Google if they don't allow you to use different browsers or if their search engine defaults to Google.

  • miiiguel #32 3 years ago

    ^ that was really stupid, though I wish I could read those characters, they're sexy.

  • Dunk_13 #33 3 years ago

    @RexRunti

    did you just list internet explorer as quality??

  • Xerx3s #34 3 years ago

    makeamazing: You complain about cost and then continue on about how good apple stuff is. I'm also interested in what all these supposedly free - just to humour you we will assume that there is such a thing as free in this world - applications are.

  • kangarootoo #35 3 years ago

    "and i doubt it has Apple or Microsoft worried just yet."

    I bet it bloody has (well, not so much Apple, as they operate a closed platform and don't generate a significant proportion of their revenue from their OS). Everything Google has touched so far has turned to google, I see no reason why this should be any different.


    @Garulon

    "It's going to be hilarious watching Google slink away from this in twelve months."

    Yeah, like they did before when they.... oh.


    Seriously, gamers predicting the failings og Google on a games website forum is mildly ludicrous. Google are one of the strongest "new tech R&D" companies on the planet right now. If they decide they are going to start developing ANYTHING new, you can bet every other tech company working anywhere near that area will sit up and take notice.

  • Collymilad #36 3 years ago

    "MS is in danger of being fucked over.

    Apple own the portable media market
    Nintendo own the console market
    Firefox/Opera/Google are making massive inroads in the browser market

    Can MS support a 360, Zune, Windows OS and Live Anywhere market with equal focus on all four? Something has to give, or they will all become integrated completely.

    The same weakness Sony had with too many interests and too many challengers is going to see MS challenged in what is their biggest market by who is undeniably their biggest potential competitor.

    Can't wait. "

    Yeah because Sony and MS have comparable size/earnings.

    Oh wait, they don't.

  • miiiguel #37 3 years ago

    "Seriously, gamers predicting the failings og Google on a games website forum is mildly ludicrous. "

    Though, some gamers can be, sysadmins in their non-ludic activities? Anyway, while in the consumer electronics they might have some impact, I fail to see Google with their buisness model based on advertising getting a foot in the datacenter or even in smaller buisness where vanilla *nixes are trully free and detached of any need of steady income. Those Google boys do not work for free, as much as we like to think they're some sort of Paris Commune. That means a fail? Not really, true.

  • kangarootoo #38 3 years ago

    @miiiguel

    I'm not sure being a sys admin really qualifies someone to predict the future business successes of Google.

    I suppose what this boils down to is that if anyone states with certainty "this will fail", I tend to presume them to be not very knowledgeable on the subject :)


    "I fail to see Google with their buisness model based on advertising getting a foot in the datacenter or even in smaller buisness"

    But that isn't their target market right now. They are clearly using netbooks as a test bed for the forseeable. That said, they have been talking about security and stability, which are things that datacentres care about very much - more than almost anything in fact.

    I wouldn't be surprised if they started off with a free OS, but then provided a chargeable version in the future with more business-centric features AND decent support services. We have seen that happen in Unix and Linux circles, and Google are as capable as any company out there of setting up a solid mission critical support structure (indeed, they will already have such a service for their own interbal operations).

  • Spence1115 #39 3 years ago

    The software architecture is simple - Google Chrome running within a new windowing system on top of a Linux kernel

    It's Linux with Chrome running permanently. In other words, you boot up your netbook, you immediately see Chrome and that's it. Nothing else. For the sake of emulating it, set your OS to boot your browser at start up and hide the task bar. That's all. If it was going to ruin Microsoft it would have to do more than this, as online apps haven't destroyed desktop apps and I can't see them managing it.

  • spudsbuckley #40 3 years ago

    Are Google desperate to get bought out by MS or something?

  • miiiguel #41 3 years ago

    "@miiiguel

    I'm not sure being a sys admin really qualifies someone to predict the future business successes of Google. "

    That's not what I meant, what I meant was the opposite, being a person who likes to play video-games (gamer became offesive, imo), does not disqualify someone to have an opinion.
    Edited by 1 at 08/07/09 @ 16:26

  • kangarootoo #42 3 years ago

    I take your point, but I don't see this as the limit of their activities. Rather its the beginning.

    And I don't think the significance of a Google supported Linux OS package should be under estimated. Its all very well saying "its just sitting on a Linux kernel", but what makes the difference in business is (simplified) who will patch that Linux kernel (or shell) should something need fixing. Initially, the answer might be "nobody anytime soon" 'cos its free and non-critical, but I don't see it staying that way.

  • onyxbox #43 3 years ago

    It might make a nice 2nd OS to boot on a PS3.

    HTML 5 with video streaming support and open standards, works well with Google Mail, Calendar etc. and lightweight could be a winning combination for the Sony system (for those who can be arsed to install it that is).

  • kangarootoo #44 3 years ago

    @miiiguel

    Whoa there, I'm not saying someone isn't qualified to have an opinion. Not a bit of it.

    Let me try again.

    I suppose in my usual arsey way, I am just dismissing off the cuff suggestions that Google will bugger this up. I figure that anybody who knows anything about the business Google are in (and are looking at entering) will know that due consideration is the very least that any of their competitors will be giving it.

    EVERYBODY is entitled to voice an opinion, but whether that opinion is fact, informed speculation, or wild and inaccurate hypothesis depends on their knowledge of the subject (and perhaps their objectivity).

    I didn't mean to use gamer a a negative... well, ok I did but I shouldn't have. I suppose the reason I did it is because these pages have a habit of producing some oddly self-confident statements that have no real basis in knowledge. You know the sort of thing I mean, comments that usually start off "Its simple, company X should just do blah blah" and so on.

    Google are a company that almost sprang out of nowhere, and yet they are now one of the biggest technical concerns on the planet. And they got there by a) developing brilliant technology and continually investing in R&D, and b) predicting what a market needs (or even creating the need themselves) and investing in serving that need.

    For someone, anyone, to just read an article about one of their new ventures and state with all certainty "They can't compete with MS or Apple" just seems woefully naive to me.


    I've got a big mouth and a big head though, so sometimes I don't express myself in quite the way that I should :)
    Edited by 2 at 08/07/09 @ 16:38

  • miiiguel #45 3 years ago

    @ kangaroo

    "@miiiguel

    Whoa there, I'm not saying someone isn't qualified to have an opinion. Not a bit of it.

    Let me try again.

    I suppose in my usual arsey way, I am just dismissing off the cuff suggestions that Google will bugger this up. "


    yay, no problem it just, kinda, sounded like "a person that likes to play video-games" (uuufff... "gamer" is easy, I give you that...), is devoid of any credible analitic capability. Then again, I have a very active nervous system.
    Anyway, regarding Google buisness model you are indeed correct, imo, there's something fishy going on, like I said, they're not a Commune. While MS/(insert any IT company here) have a basic and understandable (and easily "bashable";) buisness model - give me you money, I give you my product - Google does something else, though, they still need the money, make no mistake. And we're not the only ones who find this all a bit strange, I remeber an interview with Ballmer on Portugues TV where the guy admitted that Google is a mistery to him for the same reasons, they do need to make money, (Milton Friedman quote here... again).
    Edited by 1 at 08/07/09 @ 16:50

  • RexRunti #46 3 years ago

    The problem is that it's not Windows vs Chrome, it's Windows vs Chrome vs Redhat vs Unix vs Unbuntu vs OS X vs SUSE vs Hundreds of other operating systems.

    To be fair I expect google to grab quite a large share of the netbook market as it's pretty fresh (unlike the OS and search engine markets) at first but google don't have any significant USPs here compared with any of the other operating systems, (especially since Windows 7 seems to have been designed with one eye on netbooks). Afterall it's not like Android has really overtaken the smart phone market and it's not like Windows Mobile (or any other OS) has any sort of monoploly there.

  • kangarootoo #47 3 years ago

    Android is still pretty new. We are still on the first generation aren't we?

    I remember when google was just a search engine, and then it slowly started being the "best" search engine and before long searching was being called "googling".

    Then they released a web based email client, and half the people in the world started using it.

    I don't expect big things from their OS adventures anytime in the next 3 years, but I expect that have a plan that is rather longer than that.

  • SeesThroughAll #48 3 years ago

    Wasn't already estabilished that google's sources of income are advertising and market research?

    Seriously, I remember planning to install Google Desktop Search some years ago, and giving up on that notion, as soon as I read the Terms of Use carefully enough.

    @kangarootoo: Keep in mind, there is an enterprise version of gmail that I'm quite sure is not free ;)
    Edited by 1 at 08/07/09 @ 17:39

  • miiiguel #49 3 years ago

    "sources of income are advertising and market research? "

    That's more creepy than fishy, tbh.

  • Rodchenko #50 3 years ago

    Netbooks get returned once Uncle Jim can't plug his camera in to upload photos to Facebook. It's going to be hilarious watching Google slink away from this in twelve months.

    Since when is Uncle Jim the target audience for netbooks?

  • Ryze #51 3 years ago

    I've not read all of the comments, but the other potential use for this is for the 'cloud' based systems such as Dave Perry's Gaikai.

    It'd be nice to see how well this'd playback H.264 video in the browser on an average netbook.

  • SeesThroughAll #52 3 years ago

    "That's more creepy than fishy, tbh."

    Yes, pretty creepy.

  • man.the.king #53 3 years ago

    @miiiguel

    "That's not what I meant, what I meant was the opposite, being a person who likes to play video-games (gamer became offesive, imo), does not disqualify someone to have an opinion."

    Hey miiiguel, I think kangarootoo was referring to this particular post of Garulon's (and NOT all gamers in general, although his usage of the term was unfortunately equivocal), which imo was a pretty fanboyish post - I mean, I assume most people here know which platform Garulon loves, and his criticism of Google's effort seemed a bit sophomoric.
    Edited by 2 at 08/07/09 @ 19:38

  • makeamazing #54 3 years ago

    makeamazing: You complain about cost and then continue on about how good apple stuff is. I'm also interested in what all these supposedly free

    @Xerx3s, Im complaining about the cost of the OS, not any hardware costs.. Vista is not very cost effective. It doesnt contain anything of much use except for the ability to use a PC and hasnt moved forward in many years. I purchased an Mac Mini which came with iLife, Free of charge, which is just an amazing bit of productivity software. You may not agree, but after years of using MS OS's, some of the things that Apple do in their OS, should have been in Vista years ago (MS Task Bar in Vista is pants, so is the file browsing). Dont you find it strange that there are tons of neat programs on the web allowing you to change how Windows does things such as folder browsing, program access, tagging etc etc, its because Windows isnt that intuitive.

    @wush, the comment still stands, Vista wasnt that good, I didnt mind it, but ALOT of people (developers included) hated it. Dont get me started on UAC.

    The problem is when MS include quality software like Internet Explorer or Media Player the EU give them a big slap for being anti competitive

    Yes I hate the EU for that. IE is just a free browser, is totally the wrong thing to be going after, there are much more serious Anti competative issues going on than who has a free browser installed. I do believe that has done more damage to improving the long term of future Windows than anything. Who knows what the next thing they decide shouldnt be included.

    Im not saying this because I am anti MS, in fact i have purchased alot of MS software over the years, but its just not that smooth (looks at office 2007), the same problems and issues that have plagued it for over 10 years. It seems that other software is moving forward and the OS/MS software is not getting anywhere fast. This may be the reason that MS isnt going to be doing longterm major releases anymore, so they can release features more often.

    Anyway regardless of if you agree or not, another company getting involved in OS's is a GOOD thing for all involved. Because anything Google does well, you can bet the others will follow.

  • SwedBear #55 3 years ago

    I anything this is a direct competitor to the Moblin OS that Intel is pushing. I installed it today and while not running directly in a browser it is a very slimmed and quite nice interface.

    About Google making an OS ... when will someone start to question Google's influence and acess to our data?

    Google now gets tons of data from our searches
    They get our surfing habits through adsense which you find basically everywhere now
    Many many sites use Google Analytics for their stats which gives google even more info about your surfing habits
    Gmail gives them access to the contents of all mail (for ad-purposes and anonymously but still ...)
    Everyone using Google Docs, Google Calendar etc. again gives Google access to the content
    The Android OS is tightly tied to all Google services
    Chrome at least in the beginning was collecting surfing data

    And now they want to create another OS for Netbooks etc. which most probably will give them even more data of surfing bhabits, app usage etc., all for their purpose to serve ads ...

    At which point will they have access to too much data? If it was any other company that google (imagine if Microsoft did this) people would be up in arms but just because Google say "do no harm" and are "cool and hip" it is ok?

    Don't get me wrong. I use some Google services and am currently trying to learn programming in Android for my HTC Magic so I'm not necessarily anti-Google. I just think that people are taking Google's data-mining a bit lighter than they would if it was any other company. The idea that in some distant future we would all run Google OS on our computer, Google OS on our phones, Google Gmail, Google Search, use various Google Apps to do all our office stuff, GTalk fo messaging, Youtube for videos, Picassa for images etc. etc. - doesn't it scare anyone else that we are handing that much data to one company?

  • itsfuzzy #56 3 years ago

    designed to be fast, simple and secure, getting you online within a few seconds

    Isnt that what most Linux OS do? And they are mostly free

  • miiiguel #57 3 years ago

    "Dont you find it strange that there are tons of neat programs on the web allowing you to change how Windows does things such as folder browsing, program access, tagging etc etc, its because Windows isnt that intuitive."

    No, that's because Windows is used by milions and milions of users. Take the windows manager I use in my SuSE box, TWM, which is used by 7 persons in the whole world, and I can assure you there aren't many ready-made configurations tailored to many types of users. I can guaratee that it's not because it's perfect.
    Thing is - and please let's try to avoid the fanboy route - MS has an image problem, like Swed said Google can get away with fishy stunts (I'm not say they're evil not even that their going the unethical route, just saying they managed to build a "nice/cool dudes" image, where ppl almost forget that they do not work for free), I'm sure MS couldn't. That said, I think I feel more confortable in actually paying for my products - old style trading process - than having my life datamined.

  • makeamazing #58 3 years ago

    Even though Ive been using windows stuff since 3.11, its not gone anywhere good since 95/98. If anyone thinks the folder searching/browsing is good in Windows, well then they are well and truely mad. Guess i'm not going to convince some people... but some people are used to what they have and dont like change As for the 3rd party apps, there is a reason why many people are turning to them to change the way the desktop works... thats because..... you know the answer and its not just because lots of people use windows. :)

    As for Google, I agree, they are just as fishy as any other major company.. and at some point everyone will be on their back, and the EU will be after them (which I think they already are). But as i said, the more companies involved the more innovation, how can that be bad... its not :)

  • miiiguel #59 3 years ago

    If anyone thinks the folder searching/browsing is good in Windows, well then they are well and truely mad. Guess i'm not going to convince some people...

    If that was for me, I can only say you really don't know me. I just use Windows for Exchange at work, for searching I use...ksh's find , which is awesome - though you wont find me saying MS are evil on earth because I had a blue screen back in '98. There's this strange idea that if one dude enjoys to waste his free time on a 360 he must ass wipe MS, or indeed if he likes to do the same on a PS3 he's forced to type M$.
    Edited by 3 at 08/07/09 @ 23:05

  • Skurmedel #60 3 years ago

    miiiguel, aren't you? All the cool kids here are doing it :) If a man can't have his console war, what should he do with his spare time?

  • Matthew_Hornet #61 3 years ago

    "will be for tech geeks, like their browser"
    Wait, what? Chrome is for geeks? What the hell do you browse on, the Wii? I don't even use the damn thing, but I still have to admit it's the simplest and most straightforward of all the browsers. If I was going to give one of them to my parents to use, it'd be Chrome.

    In that same vein, I hope the Chrome OS uses the same principle once it reaches desktop. I'd love for my parents to use a simple, secure piece of tech on their home PC instead of Windows. It would save so much time on the cleanup every time I drop by.

    Also someone complained that old folks are sending back netbooks because their cameras don't work with Linux? Really? You couldn't pick a better example? I mean, something that's actually true? Out of all the things actually barring Linux netbooks from wide use, and you had to go and make stuff up?

    But I agree with the guy complaining that datacenters and small businesses aren't going to use Google OS. After all, we all know how MacOS X failed without corporate support...
    Hey, wait a minute...
    You know, I understand that working as a sysadmin in a large company you might have a skewed view on the market, but not every product is meant for JPMorgan Chase to buy. There are such things as small consumers. A fuckton of them, actually.

  • Matthew_Hornet #62 3 years ago

    Also I recall someone claiming the EU barred Internet Explorer from Windows because it was 'quality software'.

    You might want to rethink that line of reasoning, man.

  • L0cky #63 3 years ago

    If anyone thinks the folder searching/browsing is good in Windows, well then they are well and truely mad. Guess i'm not going to convince some people... but some people are used to what they have and dont like change As for the 3rd party apps, there is a reason why many people are turning to them to change the way the desktop works...

    Examples please :) I find most apps are simply alternatives rather than solutions; and it's down to the user's subjective preference. finder on Mac, and konquerer on kde aren't any better.

    Also someone complained that old folks are sending back netbooks because their cameras don't work with Linux? Really? You couldn't pick a better example? I mean, something that's actually true?

    Let me google that for you

  • Matthew_Hornet #64 3 years ago

    "Let me google that for you"

    Using the specialized site instead of just pointing to a Google search was really thoughtful of you. You could have spent that 30 seconds reading what I wrote instead.

    I never claimed that Linux netbooks *aren't* being returned - it's common knowledge. I said that out of many reasons for why that may be the case, incompatibility with digital cameras is REALLY low on the list. But look at me writing, when in all likelihood you won't read this far again.

  • homerbert #65 3 years ago

    It's interesting reading up on this. It does seem to be one of those situations where the more knowlegable folk are heaving with prejudices. Slashdot is full of "I'm not computing online, what about my privacy?" and "why not use another Linux Distro?", while here is full of "This is just a web browser" and "This doesn't affect games".

    Moving the PC market from a hardware based scenario to a thin client web based scenario will change PC gaming forever, if it succeeds. There's quite an overlap between what Google want to do and what Onlive et al want to do. Yes, to begin with it will just be easy and cheap netbooks, but that's the beginning. Once you wean managers off windows and have school children grow up realising there are alternatives, you've broken MS's hold of the PC market.

    The potential portability of it is astounding. As long as the basic functions are flexible you could throw it on anything because the programs are web based. You could have one on anything from a phone to a PS3.

    I'm not saying it will definitely revolutionise the world, but if it takes off, it'll have vast ramifications for world of computers.

    Eoin

  • homerbert #66 3 years ago



    I have a fairly decent insight into how Google works, due to friends working there. They're pretty open about how they make their money. They make money through ads. The more stuff they make, the stronger their brand, the more searches they get,the more profit they make. As for data mining, if you think Google are bad, you should look at what their competitors do. There are so many morally dubious tracking tools that they don't use that a lot of their rivals do. Scary stuff.

    It's also worth noting how ideologically pure the Google CEOs are. They are basically hippies. It's not an accident that they make so much stuff open source. At the moment they're one of the most morally sound companies in the world (due to employee treatment, environmental work, charitable donations etc) It may be worth arguing that we're in world's tallest midget teritory here.

    I have no doubt that in 10 years time Google will be just as bad as MS are now, but for the moment they'rea very well behaved company and I'd rather deal with Open source software from them than closed software from MS (as that way we know what Google are up to)

    Eoin