Google Chrome OS is built to run on both x86 architecture chips and ARM chips, like the ones increasingly found in netbooks. It is also working with multiple OEMs to get the new OS up and running next year.
This Chrome OS will be lightweight and fast just like the browser itself. But also just like the browser, it will be open-sourced.
Google says the software architecture will basically be the current Chrome browser running inside “a new windowing system on top of a Linux kernel.” So in other words, it basically is the web as an OS. And applications developers will develop for it just as they would on the web. This is similar to the approach Palm has taken with its new webOS for the Palm Pre, but Google notes that any app developed for Google Chrome OS will work in any standards-compliant browser on any OS.
Chrome OS will be all about the web apps. And no doubt HTML 5 is going to be a huge part of all of this. A lot of people are still wary about running web apps for when their computer isn’t connected to the web. But HTML 5 has the potential to change that, as you’ll be able to work in the browser even when not connected, and upload when you are again.
Google plans to release the open source code for Chrome OS later this year ahead of the launch next year. Don’t be surprised if this code drops around the same time as Windows 7.
Original artice : http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/07/07/google-drops-a-nuclear-bomb-on-microsoft-and-its-made-of-chrome/
When they say Linux, they are talking about the kernel only. Linux distributions include a windowing system (X.org — don’t see XFree86 anymore) and a desktop (Gnome, KDE, Xfce; or at least a window manager). Google appears to in the process of getting rid of X windowing system, window managers, desktops, etc. and replacing them with the necessary GUI application management integrated with the Chrome browser sitting atop the Linux Kernal. Though technically a Linux distribution, all current distributions are based on X for a GUI or use a Unix-type shell for an interface. It appears that Google will replace all of that with a simple windowing system that will integrate extensively with the Chrome browser and use the Linux kernel to run the hardware.
Will it be a challenge for other linux OSs….