What is this “booting” of which you speak? I restart my browser only when it goes a bit crazy (which, admittedly, is a bit more often these days with Firefox, and boy does it take a long time to shut down, just watch it in task manager).
That’s not a bad market share for not even having been out for a year. That’s comparable to Firefox’s growth rate when it was new, and Firefox should have had an easier time of it then than Chrome does now; IE was so much worse back then, and there were few good alternatives.
Let’s face it: most of the people who would choose Chrome over IE are already using Firefox, which makes it much harder to convert them.
But I don’t think Google cares if it manages to give away a single copy of this. I think this is about attacking Microsoft. The fact that there’s a free Google OS out there will force MS to lower the prices or lose lots of power in the netbook market, and it looks like the netbook market is shaping up to be very popular among the cost-conscious: young people and developing countries, two demographics that aren’t going to be cost-conscious forever, and are going to be major buyers of software in the future.
Even if this just results in lower prices for Windows on netbooks, Google will have thinned the profit margin on one of MS’s few really profitable divisions. And if it provides a good Office suite for those who do use it, they’ll have hit at the other.
Grabbing a big share of the browser market was not the main purpose behind creating Chrome.The whole point was to promote browser development so that more people would start using browser apps instead of OS software. That means Google Docs instead of Microsoft Word, Gmail instead of Outlook, and other things like that.
I think this OS move is just to piss Microsoft off for creating a search engine.
I really just wish Chrome would support extensions, especially Greasemonkey.
Calling Bing a “search engine” reminds me of the “engines” in those little balsa wood airplane kits.
Aren’t most netbook users that would be likely to use a Google OS already using Ubuntu? (Genuine question.)
I seriously doubt it. Eee PCs, which are some of the most visible netbooks, started out running Linux, which is also free. Windows XP was added as an option for later models. So the market had a competing alternative with no cost software from the start.
I don’t think Google’s packaging of a custom GUI and Chrome as a browser on top of a Linux kernel is going to be a greater threat to Microsoft than the existing Linux kernel, Firefox, and OpenOffice combo that people are already getting free.
Or another Linux distribution, yes. In the case of a Linux-based Eee PC, the factory-installed distribution is Xandros, which is a slightly more obscure Debian variant. However, plenty of the Linux enthusiasts switch to a distribution that they’re more comfortably with, including a version of Ubuntu tailored for netbooks (called Eeebuntu).
Would that be this version? There are few programs that run only in Windows these days.
I think the “OS” term is a little misleading. Really Google is just going to package a Linux distro with their own browser (which was open source itself) that is geared towards internet applications - like Google Docs, Google Email, Google Calender, Google… you get the idea. If anyone has the marketing clout to do this, it is Google.
I’m excited because Google seems to have a knack for developing clean, fast, simple interfaces. Pretty much every existing Linux distro looks like it was designed by 15 year old boys so hopefully Google can finally deliver a professional front end to Linux.
I wonder what market they’re going for? Apple has Yuppies, Linux has geeks and companies not wanting to pay for a license, and Windows everyone else, almost.
As for browsers, I say get K-Meleon it rocks and it flies so fast. Like Firefox it’s based on Mozilla’s engine and I’ve never used anything so quick and if you’re a geek you can write your own stuff to it.
Probably a lot of Linux distros would be supplanted by a Google OS, those market segments probably overlap pretty heavily, but Google is a much more mass market option. Even it it’s not easier to install and configure and isn’t more familiar than your typical Ubuntu package many laypeople will still be more comfortable with “Google” as a brand. A lot of Windows and OS X users would probably perfectly happy using Linux but are simply to timid or lazy to try and/or see little need for improvement. Those people think Linux is scary and geeky. Google on the other hand seems like a warm fuzzy friend.
The Google OS thing will be interesting to watch, and the Netbook market might be wonderful if Windows Mobile 7 (or Windows 7 Basic, whatever becomes the netbook/MID OS MS pushes) takes too long and/or is too heavy and cumbersome for netbook use. However I’m reminded of Android which was supposed to sweep the smartphone world like a Tsunami and as of yet is pretty underwhelming and slow to grow.
What is this editor that only runs on Windows? I have yet to find one.
If your editor is Microsoft Office then it runs fine on Ubuntu with WINE for me. I was surprised, and happy.
If you want to see if your windows based editor will work in Linux under Wine you can look it up in the Wine Application Database.
EDIT:
As for google OS, don’t know what to make of it. I love my Android phone, but I’ll have to wait and see how Chrome OS develops to have an opinion on it. First thought is it doesn’t sound good for those of us in the hicks on slow ass edge and dialup.
This - and of course if that “warm fuzziness” helps it to gain some form of critical mass then you will have a serious challenger to Windows. Of course, the second factor will be a really good support network
At launch? You mean, when it was in beta? It’s improved a lot since then (even though I fell in love with it instantly, and had none of the problems you’ve expressed).
They’ve announced that Chrome will be supporting extensions soon.
What does Civilization has to do with Non-Newtonian fluids? (cool video btw)
I think that the Google brand will make a bigger difference than you think. Google is trusted and loved by a huge portion of the marketplace that’s never even heard of Linux.
What doesn’t it have to do with non-newtonian fluids?
Whoops. I previewed the post and assumed since the link was gray (ie, a visited link), it was correct. It was supposed to be a link to instructions on getting Civilization 4 working in Linux. I’m not finding it again. (I don’t think the person I was responding to would make use of it anyway. I just wanted to show how good Windows emulation is these days.)
How much impact does the Windows emulator has on performance?
Ditto, and I’m all over the WWW and very rarely come upon a site that doesn’t work properly in Chrome.
You’re not talking about Wine Is Not an Emulator are you?
Wine is a compatibility layer, it provides the little system hooks and api windows programs need to run natively on Linux. According to this: http://wiki.winehq.org/BenchMark-0.9.5
Wine beat XP in quite a few tests, but lost in some, and failed to complete others. YMMV
Also back on track for the thread one thing I really hope chrome OS has is a proper xserver. No x-server cause no end of grief on android.