Technknowledge

A basic principle of warfare is never to fight on terrain chosen — or dominated — by your enemy. This principle seemed to explain why, as Google rose to challenge Microsoft as the world's most powerful technology company, the one market it eschewed was that for operating systems. That territory was dominated by Bill Gates & Co and so Google concentrated on building dominance in areas where Microsoft was feeble or non-existent: search, cloud computing, web applications, advertising. It all seemed so sensible.

But then last July, Google gave notice that it had changed tack by revealing it was working on a radical new operating system called Chrome OS. Just over a week ago, the product was officially launched at the company's Californian HQ, which left the technology community intrigued and puzzled, and the mainstream media salivating over the prospect of a head-to-head battle between Google and Microsoft.

The first computers equipped to run Chrome won't hit stores until late next year, but we now know what they will look like. Essentially they will be "netbooks", but with a difference: all the software on them will come from Google, via the internet. And Google will make the key decisions about the hardware on which its new system will run.

As the Guardian's Jack Schofield put it: "If Chrome OS takes off, it will give Google an unprecedented degree of power over PC vendors, who will only be able to use products that Google specifies and supports. Google will control and maintain the operating system remotely, so if it doesn't want you to have something, you can't have it."

The degree of power Google seeks over hardware is akin to that demanded by Apple, hitherto the leading exponent of control freakery in the technology business. For example, Chrome netbooks won't be allowed to use hard disks – because flash (ie solid-state) drives boot faster and Google is obsessed with reducing boot-up times. And if you want to install your own wi-fi card in your netbook, forget it: Google will specify which wi-fi cards its software will support.

Implicit in Google's operating system strategy are two radical ideas. The first is that we have definitively moved into the era where the network – not the PC – is the computer. The idea is that most people can now get all the computing services they need – web browsing, email, instant messaging, word processing, spreadsheets, blogging, telephony, etc – via the net, so they no longer need to have a machine capable of running a bloated, clunky operating system. All they need instead is an internet-ready device that can get its operating system from the network "cloud" and then get on with the real work of the day.

The second radical idea embedded in the Google scheme is the notion that what people really need is an information appliance that "just works". Sundar Pichai, the Google vice-president who launched the system, claimed that the aim was to make the Chrome OS work like a TV: you turn it on and in a few seconds you can get the programme you want. No more interminable delays while the computer boots up, checks its memory and loads the operating system before it deigns to give you so much as a log-on prompt.

The flip side of all this, of course, is that Chrome netbooks will be the ultimate in tethered devices. You may own the machine, just as you may think you own your Apple iPhone, but in fact Google controls it, just as Apple controls the phone. If, for example, you've tinkered with the device overnight, and the Google server detects the change as you hook up to the net, then the operating system may be remotely deleted and a fresh version installed without your knowledge or consent. Google will argue that this is for your own good – that it's an effective defence against the viruses, trojans and malware that plague current users of Microsoft operating systems.

And so it is. But it's also a limitation on your freedom. In his 2008 book, The Future of the Internet – and how to stop it, Harvard academic Jonathan Zittrain painted a vivid picture of the dangers of a world in which most people's access to the internet is via tethered devices controlled by powerful companies. If Chrome OS takes off we will have taken a giant leap into that nightmare. For 1984 read 2010.

Google's smashing new operating system Chrome arrived today for the public. And as expected, the OS has become an instant hit with bloggers and tech enthusiasts.

Chrome is not your average operating system that forces to you be stuck with a desktop, in fact Google's OS is almost completely browser based and its focus is to get you started with the web as soon as possible. The best part? The OS boots in just seven seconds. So does that mean it is doom for Microsoft Windows? We can't say yet, but Google certainly knows how to humble Microsoft, and in the age of real time networking and media, a fast OS is just what the doctor ordered.

Google is all for making the web as user friendly as possible, and the company is ready to invest as much as possible for the same. No wonder why Google created an OS that is web-based. The fact is that you are always browsing when you're using Chrome. The apps in Chrome load in seconds, and since every one of them is a web app, your web experience effectively becomes faster and smoother. And the damn thing is for free!

Here’s how Google describes Chrome OS on their blog: '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.

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. While no computer can be made completely secure, we’re going to make life much harder (and less profitable) for the bad guys. If you dig security, read the Chrome OS Security Overview or watch the video.

Most of all, we are obsessed with speed. We are taking out every unnecessary process, optimizing many operations and running everything possible in parallel. This means you can go from turning on the computer to surfing the web in a few seconds. Our obsession with speed goes all the way down to the metal. We are specifying reference hardware components to create the fastest experience for Google Chrome OS.'

It's not every brand new operating system that gets open sourced a year before it hits the retail Increase Customer Sales with Email Marketing -- Free Trial from VerticalResponse shelves. Then again, Chrome OS isn't just any OS, and Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) isn't just any company.

Indeed, that's just what Google did last week, making its brand new Chrome OS freely available for download by developers far and wide. Devices running the new operating system, on the other hand, are not expected until the fourth quarter of next year.

"We are doing this early, a year before Google Chrome OS will be ready for users, because we are eager to engage with partners, the open source community and developers," wrote Caesar Sengupta, Google's group product manager, and Matt Papakipos, engineering director, on the Official Google Blog.

"As with the Google Chrome browser, development will be done in the open from this point on," they explained. "This means the code is free, accessible to anyone and open for contributions."
Optimized Hardware

It may seem counterintuitive to release the free code first and then expect to sell it running on actual devices a year later, when -- theoretically, at least -- it could have been run on existing hardware in the meantime.

Yet the hardware that's developed between now and then will make all the difference, Eitan Bencuya, a Google spokesperson, told LinuxInsider.

"The usage case where Chrome OS really shines is when it's combined with hardware that takes advantage of it," Bencuya explained.
Fast Hardware

Speed, for example, is one of the operating system's defining characteristics, he pointed out.

Accordingly, unnecessary processes are being removed, operations are being optimized, and as many things will run in parallel as possible in the new operating system.

Those changes will also dig down into the hardware level.

"Our obsession with speed goes all the way down to the metal," Sengupta and Papakipos explained. "We are specifying reference hardware components to create the fastest experience for Google Chrome OS."
A Security Sandbox

Similarly, many of the operating system's enhanced security features will rest on optimized hardware as well, Bencuya added.

Using Chrome OS, each application is contained within a security sandbox, making it harder for malware and viruses to infect a computer.

In addition, if a computer does get compromised, it is designed to fix itself with a reboot. Users' files are kept on a separate partition of the hard drive, meaning that they won't get lost in such a case, Bencuya explained.
Waiting for ARM

Most likely, the operating system is waiting for ARM-based hardware to come out, Jim McGregor, chief technology strategist with In-Stat, told LinuxInsider.

Currently, "all the solutions are x86-based, for the most part," McGregor explained. "There are OEMs that have announced netbooks with ARM (Nasdaq: ARMHY) processors, but there are no products yet."

As a result, "we're kind of at this void in the market now where we're waiting for everything to go towards the Internet," but the pieces aren't all in place yet, he noted. "We're kind of playing catch-up and waiting for this ubiquitous environment to take hold."
Necessary Pieces

ARM will likely begin to encroach on apps that are traditionally seen on the x86, McGregor said -- but that won't happen overnight.

"Intel wants to get into the handset," while ARM wants to go beyond the handset and "into everything else," he explained.

In order for that to happen, the hardware, software and ecosystem must be in place, he pointed out -- "it's kind of a buildup."
Carrier Support

Google is putting in place two of those pieces -- "the software base and the ecosystem infrastructure, with their app store and stuff like that -- but they need the right hardware devices out there too," emphasized McGregor.

In fact, there's a fourth consideration as well, he noted, and that's channel support. "Since these will be connected devices, most likely that will be a matter of some major carriers signing on."