Google Chrome OS and Canonical
Congratulations to Google on the open sourcing of Google Chrome OS
When Chrome OS was announced in June we saw this as a positive development, bringing choice to the consumer. We considered how open source development is as much about co-operation as it is about competition. Google have made it clear that they are keen to develop Chrome OS openly and we have had the pleasure of hosting a number of the Google team at the Ubuntu Developer Summit in Dallas over the last few days where we have been able to see that openness in action.
In the interest of transparency, we should declare that Canonical is contributing engineering to Google under contract. In our discussions, Sundar Pichai and Linus Upson made it clear that they want , wherever feasible, to build on existing components and tools from the open source community without unnecessary re-invention. This clear focus should benefit a wide variety of existing projects and we welcome it.
On the consumer side, people will ask about the positioning of Chrome OS and Ubuntu. While the two operating systems share some core components, Google Chrome OS will provide a very different experience to Ubuntu. Ubuntu will continue to be a general purpose OS running both web and native applications such as OpenOffice and will not require specialised hardware.
So 2010 looks set to be a very exciting year. In addition to delivering Ubuntu experiences with both existing and new OEM partners, we will be working with Google on Chrome OS based devices.
Source from Here
Sounds like a good thing, but of course I would prefer they used qt. Maybe Ubuntu could develop some kind of dual boot operation. Either a “Browser only” mode or Netbook remix could become more like Chrome OS.
Exiting times for Linux fans IMO.
Wow…
It sounds crazy…
Thanks to Google 🙂
Future in hands of open source…
I have just watched the boot video of Chromium OS… it is amazing, it took like 2 seconds to boot into gdm. The os seems so cool for most of the people who only cares about web browsing, chatting, and some documents edits. It definitely seems the same way as the browser, fast,simple and reliable.
Congrats Google and Canonical team.
I am still using Ubuntu on my machine but if i had a notebook i would definitely install Chromium OS.
good news – i can’t wait 2010 🙂
@Jonathan:
That’s not really GDM. I believe it’s SLIM.
Anyway, I’m curious what will come of all this. ChromiumOS so far shows tremendous potential in the web apps arena. It will set the stage for a whole new era in how we develop applications for users. Instead of just webpages now it will be be applications such as blender3D like stuff to media players like grooveshark. The interface of ChromiumOS is likely to chance quite a bit at release date.
Google is clearly paving the way for internet only desktops and I think Ubuntu is on their minds, but I suspect there may be tension in the future from powerusers in the linux space. We’ll see.
Imagine a desktop that never needs updating by the user. Imagine a desktop that never needs updated packages. Hmmm.