Chromium OS source released [LWN.net]

Chromium OS source released

Posted Nov 19, 2009 21:17 UTC (Thu) by tajyrink (subscriber, #2750)
Parent article: Chromium OS source released

I wonder how long Google will remain as "develop behind closed doors, then shout aloud about the openness" house. There is more to FOSS than source code repositories, and thus I haven't yet been very enthusiastic in Android or even this (this at least uses more existing components besides Linux kernel, which is positive). Not that it wouldn't make them successful, Google's name goes a long way.

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Chromium OS source released

Posted Nov 19, 2009 21:34 UTC (Thu) by oak (guest, #2786) [Link] (1 responses)

Well, this seems much more open than Android. They're opening everything
year before it goes out, including their design specifications.

But then, this is mostly just a fixed function (Wed), speed & security
oriented distro that packages upstream open source projects + builds on
their own Chrome variant of WebKit. So there's no reason to keep it or its
development closed.

They want it to spread and outsiders to participate in making it better so
that it can lure a certain slice of Desktop users away from Microsoft.
These users will then be comfortably "locked" to Google's services instead
of to Microsoft software & services.

According to the security overview (which looks nice), it initially
targets following uses & users:
* Computing on the couch
* Use as a lightweight, secondary work computer
* Borrowing a device for use in coffee shops and libraries
* Sharing a second computer among family members

I wonder whether they'll co-operate with Litl. Litl could be even basing
their SW in future to this, but due to competition (other HW vendors using
Chrome), they will then need to lower their device prices.

Chromium OS source released

Posted Nov 19, 2009 21:43 UTC (Thu) by kragil (guest, #34373) [Link]

Yeah,

and the good thing is the very different boot process will make it _VERY_HARD_ to run Windows on those devices.

Probably important because Google will probably pay OEMs to put Chrome OS on those devices. (Their "Less than free" model)