Chrome OS: Google Releases Full Details
Google has thrown another curveball into the mix ahead of next years planned release of Chrome OS, officially releasing details on the OS as well as Open Sourcing the project:
Today we are open-sourcing the project as Chromium OS. We are doing this early, a year before Google Chrome OS will be ready for users, because we are eager to engage with partners, the open source community and developers. As with the Google Chrome browser, development will be done in the open from this point on. This means the code is free, accessible to anyone and open for contributions. The Chromium OS project includes our current code base, user interface experiments and some initial designs for ongoing development. This is the initial sketch and we will color it in over the course of the next year.
Google is looking to change the current “fundamental model of computing”, taking the entire experience into the web-browser:
First, it’s all about the web. All apps are web apps. The entire experience takes place within the browser and there are no conventional desktop applications. This means users do not have to deal with installing, managing and updating programs. Second, because all apps live within the browser, there are significant benefits to security. Unlike traditional operating systems, Chrome OS doesn’t trust the applications you run. Each app is contained within a security sandbox making it harder for malware and viruses to infect your computer.
Certainly a lot to digest, and possibly not exactly what a lot of people were expecting with such a heavy reliance on the “Cloud”. Google said consumers won’t be able to download the operating system – it will only be available on hardware that meets Google’s specifications. Hard disks are banned, for instance. Google plans to officially launch Chrome OS by the end of next year on netbooks and possibly rolling it out to fullscale laptops and Desktop PC’s over time. In the meantime, the company has open-sourced the Chrome OS code. “Google developers will be working on the same code as external developers”.
You can read the full details on the official GoogleBlog: Releasing the Chromium OS Open Source Project
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