Chrome OS, Google’s recently announced computer working method, is coming this autumn and promises to revolutionize netbooks and other underpowered machines. Primarily, the OS can be a small, fast-booting platform whose goal is always to run a browser, and from there each of the Google apps along with other internet providers you realize and love. But why bother? Your netbook previously has a browser and accessibility to Google’s applications. What could Chrome do for you and your netbook?
Cost
Netbooks are cheap. So cheap that a disproportionately large chunk of the cost is made up of a Windows license. Ever wondered why the Linux versions of netbooks cost around $50 less? Microsoft tax. Chrome OS is based on Linux and will, like most Google products, be free,
Windows Seven, bringing the price of a $500 netbook down by 10 percent.
Speed
Windows 7 runs faster than Vista on a netbook. Scratch that.
Windows 7 runs on a netbook,
Office 2010 Home And Business,
Windows 7 Home Basic 32 Bit Forrester Research, period. But Chrome OS is designed to operate on low-powered Atom and ARM processors, and web-based applications don’t require that much horsepower on the client end so it should be faster still. Better, it will be small. Google is promising boot times measured in seconds, not minutes, so battery life should also get a boost — it will be possible to cold boot instead of sleeping or hibernating the machine, saving precious juice.
Compatibility
Google says that “[Users] don’t want to spend hours configuring their computers to work with every new piece of hardware, or have to worry about constant software updates.” One of the big problems with using anything but Windows XP on a netbook has been drivers. Try installing OS X on one if you don’t believe us, or any version of Linux not specifically designed for your model. If Google can come up with an OS that can be downloaded, dropped onto any machine and then “just works,” we might just have the ultimate portable OS.
Portability
Netbooks are meant for the road. At home, a bigger pc is almost always better but when traveling, a netbook shines. Swapping between the two is really a pain,
Office Standard 2010 Key, though. With Chrome, you can bet that all of Google’s service — Gmail, Google Docs,
Office 2007 Key Sale, Picasa and so on — will be built-in and have offline entry via Google Gears. If you are a good Google Citizen and use all these companies, you’ll never have to worry about having all your latest data with you, whether you have a net connection or not.
New Applications
With its net companies, Google has been slowly duplicating everything that we can do locally on our computers. Almost. There are a few things that Google doesn’t do yet, most notably a video player and a music jukebox. Sure, there’s YouTube, but what happens when you want to watch something other than a skateboarding dog in a blender? There are open-source options: The awesome VLC video player has just reached v1.0, for example, and the Songbird music player, based on Firefox, can even sync with an iPod. Both by now operate on some flavors of Linux.
Google may use these, buy them or even roll its own. One thing is sure, though: If Google can put out a whole OS that is as clean,
Windows 7 Serial Key, fast and focused as its individual world wide web products, the Chrome OS could be a revolution. A free revolution that could be making Microsoft extremely uncomfortable right now.
Google Announces PC Running Technique to Compete with Windows [Wired - Epicenter]
Product page [Google]
Photo illustration by Charlie Sorrel/Wired.com; Original photo: Jon Snyder/Wired.com
See Also:
Inside Chrome: The Secret Project to Crush IE and Remake the Net
Chrome 2.0 Preview Means Mac, Linux Versions Coming Soon
Chrome 2.0 beta Delivers Impressive Speed Bump
What Mozilla Could Learn From Chrome’s ‘Channel Switcher
As MS pushes out IE8, Google Pushes the Envelope with Chrome