Google Chrome OS

There's a lot of buzz regarding Google Chrome and how it might grow to become a full-fledged OS and become a "Windows Killer."

This is probably due to the way Google Chrome implements some OS-like mechanisms to manage its tabs and processes.

It didn't take long for some high-profile sites to announce Chrome as a Windows Killer and, of course, for others to say that's stupid.

Personally, I have no doubt that the trend is towards web-based things. Netbooks are alread advertising "online" disk space, some companies are working on realtime online 3D rendering... Imagining a world where you can access everything, from office suites like Google Docs to impressive 3D games, through a browser isn't that farfetched. That's something I have been telling my friends for a longtime - though I also tell them this isn't something that will happen now or next year; it will take a bit longer, but eventually it will happen.

In that sense, I look at Chrome as a step in the right direction - even though I also believe Google's purpose is to push forward so that other browsers keep up, and not really to become an opponent to them.


So, taking that article as reference it tells us that traditionally, processes were organized like this:

And later on evolved to this, with runtime languages like Java and .Net:

... and then it concludes Google Chrome as an OS is stupid because it would turn things into this:

Ok, I understand all those layers look nice for explaining his purposes, and that *right now* this is the case for anyone wanting to try Chrome on Linux, but...

People shouldn't forget Chrome is an Open Source project and it's just a matter of time till it works natively on Linux. In fact, Chrome is already compiling fine, even though it usable yet.

But, more realistically, you'll be able to get rid of all those extra layers:

And end up with something like this:

Which becomes a lot more attractive and acceptable.
Considering we can even imagine getting a Chrome-like browser in an embedded Linus OS like Splashtop, things start looking even better - and this is something Splashtop (and other's, I'm sure) are working on; this isn't just "wishful thinking."

Though a browser will never be an OS in the true sense of the word, it can become very close... and that's what I mean when I talk about Chrome (and other future browsers) as becoming our future "operating systems."