Practical Technology

for practical people.

November 23, 2009
by sjvn01
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Where Google Chrome security fails: the password

A lot of people, including me, are excited about Chrome OS, Google’s forthcoming desktop operating system. One of the things that has people worked up is Chrome OS’ improved security over Windows. That’s true. It should be better, and I’ll talk more about that tomorrow, but before you get too excited about that you should know that Chrome has its elephant sized security problem.

You see everything you’ll do on a Chrome OS computer is based on the good old user/password concept. This SSO (single sign on) key unlocks all your information, which is stored on the cloud. This means you can log into your account from any Google Chrome device. That’s the good news. That’s also the bad news.

On Chrome, all your personal information is only a login away. And, when I say all your information, I mean all. This isn’t just access to a critical file or information about one bank account, it’s every file and all the information you keep in those files.

If you could trust people to use good passwords and use them correctly that might not be so bad. But, you can’t.

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November 22, 2009
by sjvn01
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Chrome’s mission: Making Windows obsolete

Some people are already convinced that Google will fail with its Chrome operating system. Others think that Chrome can’t possibly be a threat to Windows. Both groups are so, so wrong.

First, for those who think that Chrome is simply a failure from the word go, their reasoning is pathetically flawed. Chrome will fail because it’s based on Linux they argue. What century are these people from?

The specific complaints, such as “From power management to display support, Linux has long been a minefield of buggy code and half-baked device driver implementations.” reveal that they’re coming from people who know nothing what-so-ever about Linux. Linux is tried and proven.

You don’t have to believe me though. Just look at the world around you. Linux rules on devices from your TiVo DVR to your Droid smartphone to you name it. Linux kicks rump and takes names on supercomputers, where nothing else is even competitive. And, Linux rules stock markets where failure is never an option.

The only place where Linux hasn’t been a strong competitor has been on the desktop. There are many reasons why desktop Linux hasn’t done well; number one with a bullet has been Microsoft’s desktop monopoly. With Google’s backing, however, Chrome avoids the Linux desktop’s real problems.

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November 19, 2009
by sjvn01
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Ubuntu’s Canonical and Google partner to create Chrome

Some people may see Google’s Chrome operating system as competing with existing Linux desktop distributions. Canonical, the company behind popular Linux distribution Ubuntu, isn’t one of them. They’re working with Google to make Chrome.

Before Google announced its netbook operating system plan in July 2009. The company decided to go public with its involvement after Google announced today that they were open-sourcing the Chrome operating system.

In a Canonical blog posting, Chris Kenyon, Canonical’s VP of OEM Services, revealed that "Canonical is contributing engineering to Google under contract." Canonical insiders were not at liberty to say how many developers were working on Chrome, but they did say it was a major project.

This does not mean that Canonical is focusing on Chrome OS in place of Ubuntu. Kenyon wrote: "On the consumer side, people will ask about the positioning of Chrome OS and Ubuntu. While the two operating systems share some core components, Google Chrome OS will provide a very different experience to Ubuntu. Ubuntu will continue to be a general purpose OS running both web and native applications such as OpenOffice and will not require specialized hardware."

When reading between the lines, it’s clear that Canonical and Google are very closely partnered on creating Chrome. Any open-source developer, however, can now access the code and documentation at the newly opened Chromium OS site.

Kenyon also said, "Sundar Pichar [Google VP of Product Management] and Linus Upson [a Google engineering director] made it clear that they want, wherever feasible, to build on existing components and tools from the open source community without unnecessary re-invention. This clear focus should benefit a wide variety of existing projects and we welcome it."

Kenyon concluded, "So 2010 looks set to be a very exciting year. In addition to delivering Ubuntu experiences with both existing and new OEM partners, we will be working with Google on Chrome OS based devices."

Indeed, it should be. Canonical, the company behind the most popular desktop Linux, is working hand-in-glove with Google to create the Chrome netbook operating system.

A version of this story first appeared in ComputerWorld.

November 19, 2009
by sjvn01
1 Comment

Liveblog: Google Chrome operating system arrives

Today, November 19th, we’re finally going to get a good look at Google’s Chrome desktop operating system. Join me as I give a live overview. You can also see it for yourself, with a Real or Windows Media Player at Google’s Investor site.

12:53: Going into this, we know Chrome, the operating system, is a Linux-based desktop operating system that’s designed for primarily for netbooks.

We also know that it will use a new windowing system–sorry KDE, GNOME–and that its primary interface will be the Chrome Web browser. You could argue that is the first Internet-based operating system.

Why does yet another operating system matter? Because this time, the company that’s bringing it to the table, Google, is big enough to give Microsoft and Windows a run for their money on the desktop. The last time that happened was in the late 80s when OS/2 walked the earth.

1:00 Ahead of the announcement, Google has released some of the source code at: http://src.chromium.org/

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November 18, 2009
by sjvn01
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64-bits of protection?

Joe Faulhaber of the Microsoft Malware Protection Center has made the interesting claim that 64-bit Windows 7 is actually safer than ordinary, 32-bit Windows. He’s right. “64-bit Windows [does] has some of the lowest reported malware infection rates in the first half of 2009.” But, that’s not the whole story.

Why? As Faulhaber explains, “Computer viruses are very confused by 64-bit. Taking a look at 64-bit executable code detected by Microsoft anti-malware technologies in the past month, the vast majority is innocent 64-bit files infected by 32-bit viruses. While a 32-bit virus can only see other 32-bit processes, it unfortunately can see the file system, and can tamper with files it finds there.”

That’s the good news. The bad news is that this works only because malware makers haven’t been targeting 64-bit Windows. 64-bit Windows XP and Vista both had stability problems and good old regular 32-bit software often had problems running on it. Because of this few people ran either one.

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November 18, 2009
by sjvn01
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Google Chrome operating system’s first appearance scheduled

While Google is remaining mum about all the details, I’ve learned that they will be demonstrating the new Chrome, Linux-based desktop operating system on Thursday, November 19th.

At this point, I don’t even know if they’ll be releasing it as a beta, although that would be pretty silly of them just to show it off and not let people get their hands on it. Still that may prove to be the case. According to a Google public relations representative, “While this will be more of a technical announcement, we will be showing a few demos that will definitely be of interest to you as well as a complete overview and our launch plans for next year.”

So, while we may not have Google Chrome for Christmas, it appears we will get it sometime in 2010. Last week’s rumors that Chrome would actually be launched in 2010 have been revealed as clearly wrong.

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