Chromium OS source released [LWN.net]

Chromium OS source released

Posted Nov 19, 2009 21:51 UTC (Thu) by adamgundy (subscriber, #5418)
In reply to: Chromium OS source released by MisterIO
Parent article: Chromium OS source released

it's an X-terminal, with one application (chrome browser).

for many people, that's exactly what they want - an 'internet' machine that lets you safely browse the web, send email, etc, with 'appliance' usability. if it's not working, hit the reset button. if 'the internet' is not working, most non-technical computer users regard their machine as a brick...

it's a big kick in the pants for software vendors to web-enable their apps, specifically the whole class of software that can't currently work (eg: games, video editors, anything that chews a lot of local resources). they're obviously putting a lot of effort into allowing those kind of programs to work as web apps - 'native client', 'webgl' (or whatever it's called this week). also worth noting the cryptic comment about a 'solution for ARM native client' - whether that's fat binaries or some sort of x86 emulation (damn, that'd be slow!)

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Chromium OS source released

Posted Nov 20, 2009 6:15 UTC (Fri) by b7j0c (guest, #27559) [Link] (2 responses)

"if 'the internet' is not working, most non-technical computer users regard their machine as a brick..."

is there *anyone* outside of security-sensitive applications that use a standard consumer computer WITHOUT a network connection??

its 2009. a pc with no network IS a brick

Chromium OS source released

Posted Nov 23, 2009 13:57 UTC (Mon) by AAP (guest, #721) [Link] (1 responses)

Awhile back, I was using a computer without internet. Yes, there was a lot I couldn't do, but I could still access and update my documents and keep track of my Quicken bills, even though I couldn't send them until I got the internet back. Without a computer with a local HD, I would have had to use (ugh) pen & paper to keep track of things.

Chromium OS source released

Posted Nov 23, 2009 15:33 UTC (Mon) by kragil (guest, #34373) [Link]

Well, the idea is that all Google web apps will work offline with Gears/HTML5.

So you would just need new web apps .. and Google is betting that those are forthcoming.