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Google's Chrome OS: "It Just Works"

John Paczkowski — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 17:51:03 +0000

Speaking at Microsoft’s Worldwide Partner Conference in New Orleans this past July, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said of Google’s forthcoming Chrome OS, “Who knows what this thing is?”

Today, he found out. The operating system, a direct challenge to Microsoft Windows, was on display at a media gathering at the Google HQ this morning.

Sundar Pichai, vice president of product management, and Matthew Papakipos, engineering director for Google Chrome OS, presided over the event, which the company described as a “technical announcement.”

That meant that Google (GOOG) was not releasing a beta of the operating system this week, as had been rumored.

That said, it was an overview of Chrome, as well as Google’s plans for its launch in 2010, so let the Chrome OS liveblogging begin:

There will be no beta today. Pichai says Google is still a year away from an official launch. However, the company is making the code available today.
Pichai says that a year after launch, the Chrome browser has some 40 millions users. He boasts about the browser’s speed, noting that it handles Javascript 39 times faster than Microsoft’s (MSFT) Internet Explorer. There will be three more big Chrome announcements sometime in the future: Chrome for Mac, Chrome for Linux and the debut of Chrome Extensions.
Google’s goal is to ensure that Web applications function as well as desktop apps. Pichai says that the company is figuring out a way for Web apps to safely take advantage of the operating system in the way desktop apps do. A few examples: Graphics, video/audio applications, real-time communication, notification and local storage.

“By 2010 we expect to have all these things built into Chrome,” Pichai adds.
The advent of Chrome coincides with a perfect storm of converging trends, Pichai says, noting the tremendous popularity of netbooks during the recession, the growing acceptance of cloud apps and the rapid innovation in mobile devices. Smartphones are becoming more like laptops, Pichai adds, and laptops are becoming more like smartphones. Is there a better level of computing available for these devices?

There is, according to Pichai, and Google believes it is Chrome OS.
Among Chrome OS’s advantages, Pichai says: Speed, simplicity and security. Every application will be a Web application. There will be no desktop apps. Chrome OS is essentially a browser with a few modifications. All data in the Chrome OS resides in the cloud. Pichai: “We want all of personal computing to work that way….If I lose my Chrome machine, I should be able to go out, buy a new [one] and re-create my previous computing experience easily.”

Chrome OS will run completely inside the browser security model, he adds, noting that security is one of Google’s top priorities along with speed. “Turning on a PC should be like turning on your TV,” he says.
Chrome OS is very similar in appearance to the Chrome browser. “Chrome OS is Chrome,” says Pichai. Google made it look like a browser, because the browser is familiar.
And indeed, Chrome OS does look quite a bit like a browser. Multiple apps load into tabs, for example. It also features “Panels,” which Pichai describes as persistent lightweight windows. “All Chrome data resides in the cloud. Anything you put in the machine is immediately available to you anywhere.”
As netbooks become more advanced and battery life improves, they will evolve into entertainment devices, says Pichai, who notes that via Google Books, a netbook can become an e-reader, and, through YouTube, a video device.
A quick demo of the user interface, which seems very simple and intuitive. “It just works,” says Pichai in an unintentional nod to Apple (AAPL).

An interesting remark: Anyone who writes an app for the Web has written an app for Chrome, says Pichai, joking that Microsoft is already developing for it.
Speed, simplicity and security, says Pichai. We’re trying to make the computing experience delightful.

With that, Pichai hands the stage over to Engineering Director Matt Papakipos.

Papakipos, too, offers the “we want to make computing delightful” sound byte and notes once again that turning on the PC should be like turning on the TV.
Chrome OS eliminates the bootloader, auto-launching the browser. The OS also auto-updates itself, making sure that it’s always current with security patches, etc. Everything from the firmware to the kernel is secured with a cryptographic signature to ensure a secure boot. In the event malware is detected, the system repairs itself automatically.
The basic application security protocol for current operating systems allows apps the same privileges as the user. This presents obvious security issues. Whenever you install a new app, you’re taking a risk, says Papakipos.

But Web applications like those that Chrome OS use, are different. They are Web apps, so they don’t have system-level privileges. Additionally, all apps run in secured sandboxes that are separate from one other and from the OS. Finally, all apps must be signed and verified before each use.
In terms of file systems, Chrome’s is locked down. It’s a read-only root-file system, obviously quite different from other operating systems. All user data are encrypted and synched to the cloud. Essentially, Google uses the PC for caching. Again, if you should lose your machine, you buy a new one, fire it up and it synchs with the cloud, restoring your previous computing experience.
How will Google bring Chrome OS to market? The company is working with vendors to specify reference hardware. You cannot download and install Chrome on just any device, you will have to purchase a Chrome device. Google is looking at a launch window of late 2010, before the holidays.
Google sounds very concerned about the end-user Chrome OS experience. Pichai says the company wants to ensure that the displays, keyboard, etc., on the netbooks that run Chrome are robust and easy to use.
Pichai wraps things up, but before the Q&A, we’re shown a short explanatory video. “The first thing I want to do when I fire up my computer is browse the Internet….If there isn’t any Internet, I might not even use my computer….What if when you pressed on, your PC turned on, what if your operating system was more like a Web browser…what if it was a browser?…Chrome OS is a totally rethought computer that lets you focus on the Internet, which is what most of use our computers for these days anyway.”

Q&A

At this point, Pichai opens the event to questions:

If you’re specifying hardware components, do you must have an idea of what they’ll cost?

A: We expect Chrome netbooks to be in the price range of what people have come to expect….We are not specifying a price target. Price will be determined at the OEM level.

Will the APIs support W3C standards?

A: We’re working very closely with the W3C to standardize as much as we can….In general, we want to see everything standardized across multiple browsers.

Will there be an application store?

A: The Web offers hundreds of millions of applications. Our job is to make people aware of them.

What about desktop applications that are not available on the Web?

A: We expect most of our users to have a second machine at home….Chrome OS is about a delightful experience on the Web….If you’re a lawyer spending your entire day on contracts, etc., this is not the machine for you.

Will you support Microsoft Silverlight?

A: In the case of certain selection plug-ins, we are working to integrate them. No comment beyond that.

Since Chrome is open source, could people build their own variations?

A: Yes. We expect people will do many interesting things with it.

Do you see Chrome running on laptops or desktops?

A: We’re initially focused on netbook-like form factors–clamshells, etc. That said, the OS is being developed to work on other devices.

Is there any level of offline access? What happens when I’m on a plane and don’t want to pay for Wi-Fi?

A: Chrome devices are primarily intended to be Internet-connected. That said, it will have some caching abilities so, for example, you could play a game offline.

Virtualization?

A: Yes. You could run Chrome today on a virtual machine.

Are you working with outfits like Adobe to, say, build a Web-friendly version of Photoshop?

A: We’re very excited by things like Photoshop on the Web and we’re working hard to make that possible.

Will Android apps work on Chrome? Are there plans for third-party apps?

A: [Pichai dodges this one.] If it’s a Web app, it will work on Chrome. The Web works very, very well for our purposes.

Will Chrome work on both X86 and ARM?

A: Yes.

Is there a direct business model for Chrome OS or is this another variation of the-more-people-that-use-the-Web-the-better-for-Google?

A: We are working with partners. No plans for advertising. That said, Pichai notes again that anything that runs on the Web will run on Chrome. And of course, AdWords does, indeed, run on the Web.

[Sergey Brin joins the Q&A]

Do you want Android Apps to run on Chrome?

A: We are focused on creating the use case in which everything is a Web application, but hopefully we can do more in the future.

How does Chrome handle peripherals? Can it print?

A: Most keyboards, cameras, phones, etc., will work. In terms of printing…yes, Chrome OS will print and we’re working hard to make that possible.

What is Chrome’s strategic position for Google?

A: [Brin]: Call us dumb businessmen, but we really focus on user needs rather than focus on business strategies. We believe that the Web platform is a much simpler way of computing for individuals to use, and that’s a very important need in the market right now. That’s what we’re trying to fulfill.

Adobe Sacks Nine Percent of Workforce

John Paczkowski — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 22:42:12 +0000

Add Adobe to the fast-growing list of tech companies sacking employees in November. In an 8-K filing made today with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the company said it will cut nine percent of its workforce, approximately 680 jobs, to better cope with flaccid demand for its software.

Cuts at Adobe (ADBE) will occur worldwide and are intended to bring costs in line with its 2010 budget and “the realities of the business environment,” the company said in a statement. They follow a similar round of cuts made in 2008 that claimed the livelihoods of about 600 people.

Eolas Sues Internet

John Paczkowski — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 18:29:45 +0000

Three years after squeezing a settlement out of Microsoft for alleged infringements of its controversial patent on embedded Web applications, Eolas Technologies hopes to do the same to a bunch of other big tech outfits.

This morning, the research and development company filed suit against nearly two dozen companies, accusing them of violating two of its patents–U.S. Patent No. 5,838,906, the same one Microsoft allegedly ran afoul of, and No. 7,599,985, an extension of the 906 patent that covers embedded apps using AJAX. Among the companies named in the suit: Adobe (ADBE), Amazon (AMZN), Apple (AAPL), eBay (EBAY), Google (GOOG)–including YouTube–Sun (JAVA) and Yahoo (YHOO).

“All we want is what’s fair,” Eolas Chairman Dr. Michael Doyle said in a statement. “We developed these technologies over 15 years ago and demonstrated them widely, years before the marketplace had heard of interactive applications embedded in Web pages tapping into powerful remote resources. Profiting from someone else’s innovation without payment is fundamentally unfair.”

Sadly, “what’s fair” in this case threatens the very fabric of the Web, as Tim Berners-Lee, the computer scientist credited with inventing the World Wide Web argued back in 2003 when Eolas was pursuing Microsoft (MSFT). “The ’906 patent will cause cascades of incompatibility to ripple through the Web,” Berners-Lee said in an appeal to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. “[It] is a substantial setback for global interoperability and the success of the open Web.”

New Verizon Ad Hits AT&T Where It Hurts

John Paczkowski — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 18:00:07 +0000

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When PDFs Attack

John Paczkowski — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 19:00:01 +0000

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Econalypto: A Rightsizing Roundup

John Paczkowski — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 13:24:19 +0000

With IBM quietly contributing another 2,800 or so employees to the next Bureau of Labor Statistics Unemployment report, this seems like a fine time to pay respects to those who’ve gone before them. And there are many. In the past six months thousands of workers have been right-sized and offboarded. Rebalanced and rationalized. “Smartsized.”

Sacked.

A quick scan of the carnage.

8,000 whacked at Sprint (S)
6,000 let go at Royal Philips (PHG)
1,100 sacked at AMD (AMD)
4,000 adjusting to new economic realities at Motorola (MOT)
3,000 laid off at Seagate (STX)
And a few hundred at Oracle (ORCL), as well
1,900 declared redundant at Dell (DELL)
5,000 losing their jobs at Microsoft (MSFT)
1,000 managers and 5,000 contractors pink-slipped at Alcatel-Lucent (ALU)
1,500 gone at Yahoo (YHOO)
12,000 released into the wild at AT&T (T)
600 cut loose at Adobe (ADBE)
6,000 aligned with the global economic climate at Sun (JAVA)
And at Nortel (NT) 1,300 positions cut on top of the 1,200 previously announced

Grim isn’t it? Sad thing is, this is just a simple snapshot of what’s been happening in tech. According to the Department of Labor, employers in the states shed 524,000 workers in December, 2.6 million in all of 2008. That makes the last year the worst for layoffs since 1945, when 2.75 million jobs were lost. And that’s frightening, because according to some experts, we’ll get no respite in 2009. “We are very early in the cycle,” Peter Morici, a professor at the Robert H. Smith School of Business at the University of Maryland told BusinessWeek, adding that we’ve so far only seen a sliver of the job losses to come. “We are going to see the fury of the Old Testament for what we have done to the economy.”

Install Latest Version of the Adobe Flash Player? But It's the Last Play of the Game!!!

John Paczkowski — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 15:16:32 +0000

Globally, we spend about 25 times more time watching TV than using a computer. Little wonder, then, that companies like Intel have been striving for years to make the PC the fulcrum of the digital living room or at the very least, to make it look like a TV. But the idea of a living room PC just never quite caught on. Seems TV viewers–shocker!–like the TV viewing experience and don’t much want to see it compromised by a browser, keyboard and whatnot. So in August 2008, Intel (INTC) took a different tack, releasing the Media Processor CE 3100, a purpose-built System on Chips (SoCs), designed to bring the Internet to the TV without undermining the latter’s unique attributes. With hardware-based decoding for broadcast TV and DVD playback and software-based decoding for Internet content, the CE 3100 offered, in the words of Intel, a “richer and more seamless Web-based and video viewing experience.”

Great, another Web-connected TV platform, right? Bet stock quotes and weather reports will look amazing on that Plasma HDTV we’ve got in the living room….

A predictable and understandable response to the CE 3100 when it was first announced, but things have changed a bit since then. Working with Adobe, Intel has optimized the chip to run Flash. Which means consumers will soon be able to stream Flash video to their TVs without a separate set-top box or a PC. And once that happens, YouTube, Netflix and online TV providers like Hulu will almost certainly go mainstream.

And that means the digital living room may have finally arrived. As Forrester Research analyst Paul Jackson noted last summer: “If you look at these things what they boil down to is–is it compelling to use? Am I as a consumer going to sit on my couch with my very expensive TV and think ‘Wow, I really want to go and look at the weather.’ As we have seen, a lot of people are doing that with their laptop on their knee during the Olympics or the Superbowl, which is inconvenient and involves just one person. So getting to the stage where you can bring some of that functionality to the TV without it being disruptive to the viewing experience is what has been missing to date.”

Bailing on Big Tech Trade Shows

John Paczkowski — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 19:00:43 +0000

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If Belkin's Not Exhibiting at Macworld, Who Is?

John Paczkowski — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 18:23:12 +0000

Next month’s Macworld Conference & Expo show floor will be quite a bit easier to navigate than in years past. With registration down by 20 percent over last year, there are likely to be far fewer attendees at the annual marquee Apple (AAPL) event, and with a growing list of companies pulling out of the show, there’ll be fewer booths for them to crowd. Earlier this week, Adobe (ADBE) said it had decided against exhibiting on the show floor. And now a coterie of other companies is joining it, top among them, Belkin, long one of Macworld’s largest exhibitors.

Belkin has confirmed that it’s pulling its booth from the show floor as well. The company has opted instead to hold private meetings with its channel partners. It insists that this isn’t so much a financial decision, as a strategic one–”we’re reallocating show floor funds to hold private product meetings,” a spokesperson told me–but it’s hard not to view it that way, given the continued deterioration of the economy. Interesting to note, though, that sources tell AppleInsider that the company had already paid for its 2009 booth space.

Show organizer IDG must be offering Econalypse refunds….

UPDATE: Belkin won’t be exhibiting at the Consumer Electronics Show, either. “No booth at CES–and it’s for the same reasons why we’re not exhibiting at MacWorld,” a spokesperson tells me. “We learned that a smaller group of our channel partners will be attending CES, and those who are attending are focusing on driving incremental value in 2009. We believe that private meetings in hotel suites are more conducive for this type of discussion, as they are more intimate. So, we are redistributing our resources and funds to help support sell-thru for our retail partners and drive traffic into their stores. Examples: more holiday promotions and programs.”

As of this morning, no participants–potential or otherwise–have pulled out of Super Bowl XLIII, but the trend is looking grim for seasonal blockbusters. We’ll keep you posted.

Cut, Cut, Cutting, Cut

John Paczkowski — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 18:49:01 +0000

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AMD Adjusts Q4 Revenues From "Roughly Flat" to "Roughly Crappy"

John Paczkowski — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 17:22:03 +0000

Oh, they’re all piling on now.

This week has brought with it bad news from Palm (PALM), Research In Motion (RIMM), Adobe (ADBE), AT&T (T) and Nokia (NOK). Now AMD has joined them as well. In a terse statement issued this morning, the company warned that its fourth-quarter revenue will come in significantly lower than previously expected, thanks to souring computer sales.

AMD (AMD), which had expected fourth-quarter revenues to be flat, now sees them falling 25 percent from the third quarter’s $1.59 billion. Ugly news for the company, which has been struggling quite a bit lately. Last month the company said it would cut three percent of its workforce. Now that its facing a 25 percent decline in revenues, will AMD take the scythe to its employees once again?

Adobe Announces Crash® CS4 Professional

John Paczkowski — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 22:56:09 +0000

Well, no wonder Adobe won’t have an exhibition booth at Macworld Conference & Expo 2009–the company’s sacking employees who might have otherwise staffed it….

Citing the standard litany of economic tribulations, Adobe (ADBE) Wednesday reduced its fourth-quarter outlook and said it will cut 600 jobs around the world–about eight percent of its workforce. The company now expects revenue of $912 million to $915 million. In better times, that revenue target range had been $925 million to $955 million. “The global economic crisis significantly impacted our revenue during the fourth quarter,” said CEO Shantanu Narayen. “We have taken action to reduce our operating costs and fine-tune the focus of our resources on key strategic priorities.”

Adobe shares slipped nine percent to $20.50 in after-hours trading.

A Yahoo! Morale Booster

John Paczkowski — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 18:00:32 +0000

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Jobs: What's Adobe's Market Cap, Again?

John Paczkowski — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 01:07:36 +0000

With $25 billion in cash and short-term securities stored away on its balance sheet, Apple (AAPL) is in a uniquely comfortable position from which to weather the econalypse. And perhaps a uniquely opportunistic one, as well. According to CEO Steve Jobs, anyway. To wit: Jobs’s comments Tuesday about Apple’s cash reserves what it might do with them.

We have almost $25 billion safely in the bank and zero debt. This provides us tremendous stability and the ability to invest our way through this downturn. This is what we did during the last downturn–we increased R&D investments and created some of our best new products and businesses, like the Apple retail stores, for one. This downturn may also present some extraordinary opportunities for companies that have the cash to take advantage of them, like Apple does.”

What was that again?

“This downturn may also present some extraordinary opportunities for companies that have the cash to take advantage of them, like Apple does.”

Sanford Bernstein analyst Toni Sacconaghi noted that remark as well and followed up on it during the Q&A. “Steve, you mentioned a couple of times that you thought there were extraordinary opportunities for companies with cash,” he said. “I think you could hire almost every engineer in Silicon Valley on a lifetime employment contract and not really dent that significant cash horde that you have. When you made that statement, are you suggesting that there are significant opportunities for Apple outside of Apple, specifically in terms of acquiring companies?”

Jobs’s reply: “I just meant exactly what I said, which is I think there’s going to be some significant opportunities.”

Could this mean that Apple is considering an acquisition–a major acquisition? It’s hard to say, but the fact that Jobs dropped such a hint at all is certainly interesting. Perhaps it’s time for that long-rumored merger with Adobe (ADBE).

Incidentally, Adobe’s market cap is $14.65 billion. …

Grave New World

John Paczkowski — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 19:00:12 +0000

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