Google Chrome OS – Eating Words and Raising Eyebrows

“We drive into the future using only our rear view mirror.”

- Marshall Mcluhan

It's the only way to go.

Now that the hype has died down a bit, and now that I’ve had a chance to play with very early builds of Chrome OS myself, there are some interesting questions about the new OS that arise as they pertain to the web, and to web hosting in particular. I’ll start by saying this, what Google is doing through Chrome OS will eventually change the way we use computers forever. Bold statement, I know, but here’s my take.

For those who aren’t knee deep in the geeky tech news world, Chrome OS is a new operating system by Google. The premise behind the open-source project is simple, it’s an extremely light-weight operating system that is nothing more than a web browser on top of Linux.

Its file system would be largely inaccessible to the user, its applications would be web based, and again the actual OS would be the Chrome web browser itself. Your documents and preferences would primarily be stored online by Google, in “the cloud” (take a drink), so that if your device were ever lost your data could easily sync back to a new device or to a different computer. By eliminating the distinction between a web browser and an operating system, Google is banking on the idea that most people only use their companion computers to surf the web.

More after the jump…

But how do you USE it?

It’s an intriguing idea, no doubt, but what about videos, games, music, and working on documents offline?

The current iteration of Chrome OS makes heavy use of two key technologies, Google Gears and HTML5. Google Gears is Mountain View’s current framework for using web apps when not connected to the internet. It allows users to use everything from Google Apps to Microsoft Office Live only offline and then automatically update and sync info when a connection returns.

HTML5, on the other hand, is a new web standard that is already partially supported by Mozilla’s Firefox, Apple’s Safari, and Google’s own Chrome web browser. The specification should begin to see wider adoption in 2010 and promises to not only incorporate all of the nifty offline features of Gears, but to eventually streamline rich media content delivery and eliminate the need for plugins like Flash, Silverlight, and even Gears that slow down your web surfing experience.

What’s the big deal?

Chrome OS leverages these technologies to deliver a very fast and very lightweight computing experience. But what makes this such an interesting development for the tech community at large?

The answer to that is complicated and evolving, but in short Google has completely rethought what an operating system is and should be. They are taking sincere risks by assuming that we value convenience and constant connection to our data over rigid privacy and processing power. Chrome OS is a pretty heavy paradigm shift when it comes to how we think about using computers right now…

…but to folks who manage web sites, it isn’t ALL that different.

In a previous blog post, I was skeptical of Chrome OS. The idea, it seemed, was very similar to what the current control panel/server relationship is in the web hosting world. The OS would essentially use a thin client, much like a control panel on a remote server, to manage the resources of what could be a much more powerful machine. Chrome OS seemed much like a ‘traditional’ thin client concept only it was managing data that would traditionally be stored locally, like preferences and documents. The key difference here is that it would be part of the operating system itself as opposed to a third party application on a traditional LAMP stack (Linux Apache MySQL PHP).

At the time, I simply didn’t see what Google could do to Linux to make it more interesting. Linux is Linux, in the grand scheme of things, it isn’t all that different from OS X or Windows right?

Well, no, not really.

Google isn’t trying to make a new flavor of Linux, they’re simply using Linux as an envelope to offer a new flavor of computing experience.

I was sort of on point there in my previous post. Google doesn’t see Chrome OS devices as replacing existing computers. They see Chrome OS devices as companion machines, devices that are always connected to the web and that are designed with communication and social networking in mind. The current iterations of Chrome OS devices seem to focus around what we would call a netbook. A relatively low-powered device, probably with an Atom processor and a crappy screen.

What Chrome OS will probably become is something closer to, or eventually enveloping, Android. An open source mobile-friendly OS with communication at its core. The hardware will at first have specific specs that Google will outline, and it will probably have some sort of wireless 3G or 4G connection included in the Google drafted initial specs.

Developers, Developers, Developers…

Forgetting about hardware, what it will do for software and web development is far more interesting and that’s where it connects with what we do in the web hosting world. Unlike the rest of this post, I can put this succinctly. Chrome OS is encouraging web developers to make web apps with the same quality as local apps. HTML5 allows them to do that, and Chrome OS empowers them to deliver products at a consumer level with the same amount of polish a traditional app would require.

You see, a lot of the software world really hates Google. Mountain View has taken the concepts of many companies, matched them feature for feature, and then offered them for free in exchange for ads and data. People don’t take kindly to being put out of business, and unlike Microsoft who in many cases would simply acquire the company outright, Google would not only eclipse them but make the project open source. That’s a two-fer if I ever saw one.

What Chrome OS has the potential to do, however, is create an entirely new market segment for applications. It can empower developers to finally and convincingly compete with “Free” by offering faster, more usable, and sexier alternatives to the generic Google and Microsoft web apps today. Because everything is open source, the playing field is leveled. Say what you will about Google mining data and shaking up the paid software world, and they do both unabashedly, but it’s indisputable that what they have done and are doing in this particular instance is a benefit to everyone. Essentially, the SDK (Software Development Kit) for Chrome OS is the internet, and that’s pretty darned powerful.

As it always does, the energy for development will move right back up the chain to enterprise as corporate and business interests want the same experiences they’re getting in the consumer space. The philosophy that Google is pushing with Chrome OS could change the way we use our computers entirely. Mountain View needs to be commended for at least trying to do something different.

For companies like ServInt, who provide what are essentially white Linux boxes, there are some interesting ideas that could come from Chrome OS. We already host non-web site related databases, point of sale systems, and plenty of other examples of data-heavy solutions that have little, if anything, to do with our core managed web hosting business. Chrome OS, and the projects that will undoubtedly grow in its wake, promise to bring entirely new markets along with them.

So, I’ll eat my words of just a few weeks ago. Chrome OS is exciting, and it IS breaking new ground, less so for it’s capabilities than for its audacity.

But I’ll keep my eyebrow raised.

Photo by Vermin Inc.