Open-source Google Chrome OS will be available only on closed line-up of devices

[NewsBytes]

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UPDATE: Google has added videos about several aspects of Chromium OS. You can find them at the end of the post.
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All right, so TechCrunch was off about Google launching the much-hyped Chrome OS this week; but what Google has done is make the source code for it available for download to anyone interested. So basically, the people at Google and external coders can now work on the underlying operating system at the same time, said Sundar Pichai, Vice President of Product Management.
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To read the full news article, click here

[desiibond]

This Chrome OS as it stands right now is a big joke

1) No support for standard HDDs and only SSDs supported
2) Need to buy device approved by Google to run Chrome OS.
3) Everything opens in browser.
4) nothing stored locally. not even the "Hello World" program


1) Everything on the cloud means that you are putting your life in google's hands and you do not have any privacy or your data is always open for someone sitting in server room to read
2) Why should I buy new h/w that is approved by Google just to run one good-for-nothing OS? I should have the freedom of picking the h/w that I like and install the OS
3) Standard HDDs not supported and SSDs to be used and even if we buy this costly SSDs to use for ChromeOS, there is no use as it doesn't store anything except the OS on the drive. In that case, why didnt they let the much cheaper standard HDDs to be used?
3) Everything opens in a browser, including the content of USB.

New orkut interface looks like junk
google wave is extremely buggy and junk
Google is fast losing search engine market share to MS
Android is facing the anger of developers
Now, they come out with a pathetic and mindless ecosystem concept for ChromeOS

What's happening to Google? Too much multitasking damaged their brains or what?

[infra_red_dude]

Originally Posted by desiibond

1) Everything on the cloud means that you are putting your life in google's hands and you do not have any privacy or your data is always open for someone sitting in server room to read
2) Why should I buy new h/w that is approved by Google just to run one good-for-nothing OS? I should have the freedom of picking the h/w that I like and install the OS
3) Standard HDDs not supported and SSDs to be used and even if we buy this costly SSDs to use for ChromeOS, there is no use as it doesn't store anything except the OS on the drive. In that case, why didnt they let the much cheaper standard HDDs to be used?
3) Everything opens in a browser, including the content of USB.

1) Once you are on the internet you forsake your privacy. I don't think this is a valid point!

2) You don't need to buy new hardware. You can get the Chrome OS code and compile it yourself for your hardware. Though, if you have some exotic hardware finding and installing drivers must be a pain in the a$$. In fact, as they said in the press conference, a Chrome OS device is supposed to be used as a secondary computer.

3) To fasten the boot time.

4) No other process runs in the background, so thats all that runs in the OS!

While I don't agree with many points of yours, I fully support you when you say that Chrome OS is junk. Nothing new... Webapps + Custom Linux distro + Gears.

[desiibond]

^^In that case, why not use the ExpressGate that is coming with the motherboards? It's much much faster and boots in 5 seconds?

[amitabhishek]

Cloud based computing is the way forward... It looks like we need to start getting off our comfort zones in Windows and move on to the centralized processing methodologies.the consumer demand will ultimately win this one.. especially when Google move into this area as well.. they must be thinking about it.

[desiibond]

Yes. I do agree that cloud is the future but not letting anything else to be done locally and making user completely depend on cloud at this point of time is clueless.

Look at MS's strategy. All you do is sync your local apps to cloud (skydrive) and access from anywhere and sync them back. That is much better.

[Gauravs90]

Now you can run chrome os in virtualbox or vmware

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1331975

[infra_red_dude]

Originally Posted by desiibond

^^In that case, why not use the ExpressGate that is coming with the motherboards? It's much much faster and boots in 5 seconds?

As a matter of fact, I just tested Chrome OS on an emulated SCSI HDD on a conventional SATA HDD. The boot time is amazingly small - I guess about 13-14 secs or even less! So Chrome OS is not restricted to SSDs.

However... Google Chrome OS = FAIL! I can't find a reboot/shutdown option! The flash player install plugin crashed. Nothing works as of now.... [Yeah, I know its a developer build. But seriously, no shutdown or reboot??!!]

[infra_red_dude]

I installed and used it. Didn't like it much at this stage. My review of Chrome OS:

To satisfy my itching hands I finally pulled Chrome OS sources and compiled them, made a VMWare disk and installed it. I must say I'm not at all impressed by it. The first thing I said was: "WTH! It lacks a Shutdown/Reboot button!" Agreed, it's a developer build, but no shutdown/reboot?? Come on... you must be kidding! Not everybody can drop to the terminal to reboot or shutdown. Yes, to get to the terminal (a geek's haven!) you need to press the key combo: Ctrl + Alt + T. Once there, you find Chrome OS familiar

....

Read more... (Lots of screenshots in there!)