Practical Technology

for practical people.

November 24, 2009
by sjvn01
0 comments

Five things Chrome OS isn’t

Some people still seem a little confused about what Chrome OS is, and isn’t, so here’s my quick guide on what’s really what with this forthcoming operating system.

1. Ready yet

I’m already seeing people proclaiming that it’s awful. Uh, people, it’s not even beta yet. Yes, even now Google Chrome OS works pretty darn well, but what we’re seeing now isn’t even close to what will eventually be shipping. Proclaiming that it’s already a failure or that it deserves a ‘D-‘ grade is, at best, ignorant, and, at worse, deliberate anti-Linux and anti-Google FUDing.

Heck, even I, who has little love for Windows, waited for Vista to be in beta before I started kicking it around. Give it a chance people.

More >

November 24, 2009
by sjvn01
1 Comment

Five reasons Google Chrome OS Security Wins

Google’s Chrome OS has many virtues. Based on a solid foundation of Ubuntu Linux, it uses the Chrome Web browser as its interface to any and all applications. Chrome OS is also not so much a Windows replacement, as it’s an attempt to get rid of the entire traditional idea of a PC desktop. If Google is successful with this, one big reason will be its vastly improved security.

Before I go into why Chrome OS will be much more secure than Windows, I have to point out that Google has one big, honking huge security problem to fix first: it’s reliance on the fatally flawed login/password model. If they can beat that problem, then Chrome is likely to be most secure ‘desktop’ operating system we’ll have ever seen. Here’s why.

First, Google accepts that it’s impossible to make an absolutely secure operating system. They use a phrase to describe this design philosophy that I think every developer should have tattooed on their hands: “The perfect is the enemy of the good.” In other words, Google won’t waste its time on trying to find some perfect system that only exists in fantasy. Instead, Google is spending time on making the best practical security system. This is how it plays out.

More>

November 23, 2009
by sjvn01
0 comments

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.

More >

November 22, 2009
by sjvn01
0 comments

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.

More >

November 19, 2009
by sjvn01
0 comments

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/

More >