I’ve distilled some of the salient points out of the hour and a half presentation that the folks at Google gave about Chrome OS. So, if you don’t have time to watch the entire thing read on.
Google’s main goals with Chrome OS are: 1) speed, 2) simplicity and 3) security.
Speed
The boot process for conventional operating systems involves multiple steps: the firmware, boot loader, kernel loading, starting up of system services and loading of startup-time applications. Much to the average user’s dismay, these operating systems will also still spend time checking for floppy drives which virtually no one has anymore. Once all of this is done, web surfers still have to double-click their favorite browser and wait for that to load as well.
The boot process for Chrome OS in contrast will be much faster. There’s no boot loader to get in the way or system services to start up. The kernel is optimized to load quickly and the browser is started automatically. In addition, Chrome OS does not support magnetic hard disks. All Chrome OS devices will have solid-state drives (hurray!) resulting in much faster load times.
Simplicity
Chrome OS will have far fewer moving parts than Microsoft Windows. There’s much less that can go wrong with this type of approach. You won’t need to install cumbersome and costly anti-spyware and anti-virus programs. The file system is read-only and all user data is encrypted. User data is also seamlessly synchronized with the cloud at all times. So, if you lose your netbook replacing it is a snap. Just get a new one and login. Done.
Chrome OS netbooks will not have the most failure-prone component of today’s desktop: the magnetic hard drive. Google is pushing the hardware vendors to make sure that their netbook keyboards are full-sized and the displays high resolution.
All standard hardware such as keyboards, mice and devices that present themselves as digital storage (e.g., cameras) will work. Google is even promising to support printing but there are not a lot of details about that.
Security
Chrome OS devices will have a fundamentally different usage model than ordinary desktops. Users will not install applications on these devices. Chrome OS will be able to detect malicious processes more easily because all the software that should be running on the device is known in advance. It will have a “verified boot” process wherein it will update itself every time it boots or once a day. Every binary will have a cryptographic signature. If something fails to check out, Chrome OS will download the affected binary, install it and then reboot. Sounds like a pretty nifty way to deal with any possible injections of malware. And it’s certainly less costly and less of a hassle than purchasing yearly subscriptions from McAfee for virus protection on your netbook.
Since all Chrome OS “apps” are really just web apps, they all run inside the browser which has a much stricter security model than conventional applications. Chrome apps run in secured sandboxes where each tab is locked down and protected.
Summary
One point the Google speakers kept making was that there was no such thing as a Chrome “app”. Chrome OS simply runs any and every web application that can run in the Chrome browser. Note that Android applications will not run in Chrome OS because they are not web applications.
Google raised the intriguing prospect of a “Photoshop on the web” application. Count me a skeptic on that point. They’ve also discussed a “native client” facility which would seem to contradict other claims they have made about all applications that run on Chrome OS being web applications. I’ll have to investigate that one further. Note that both x86 and ARM chipsets will be supported.
All in all, it sounds pretty cool. I personally would really like to have a netbook but I do not look forward to the prospect of having yet another Windows system to manage and worry about. It sounds like Google is on the right track to me.
