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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.

Cisco Tops Estimates

John Paczkowski — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 21:15:02 +0000

As its recent buying binge–three acquisitions in October, alone–suggests, Cisco’s business is in decent shape these days. Posting earnings after market close Wednesday, Cisco reported a fiscal first-quarter profit of $1.8 billion, or 30 cents a share, compared with a profit of $2.2 billion, or 37 cents a share, for the year-earlier period. Sales were $9.02 billion, down from $10.331 billion the company managed last year.

Excluding one-time items, Cisco (CSCO) said it earned 36 cents a share, down from 42 cents a share in the same period last year. Still, that was better than the consensus estimate. Analysts polled by Reuters had expected the company to deliver a profit of 31 cents a share on sales of $8.745 billion.

“Building off what we saw as a clear tipping point in Q4, our Q1 results continued to reflect strong sequential growth trends that meet or exceed expectations during normal economic times,” CEO John Chambers said in a statement.

“We view the improving economic outlook, combined with solid execution on our growth strategy, as creating unparalleled opportunity to drive more value into the core of the network,” Chambers continued. “Simply said, we believe that key market transitions across collaboration, virtualization and video will drive productivity and growth in network loads for the next decade, and are evolving even faster than expected.”

At $24.20, shares in the company are trading up nearly four percent on the news.

Cisco, EMC, and VMware Partner on Giant Cloud Data-Center Thing

John Paczkowski — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 20:47:31 +0000

The long-rumored data center partnership between Cisco, EMC and VMware is at last a reality. The three companies have formed a new joint venture called Acadia. Its purpose: To sell and support V-Block, an integrated data center product that combines Cisco’s (CSCO) Unified Computing System, EMC’s (EMC) storage equipment, and VMWare’s (VMW) virtualization technology.

With V-Block, clients can build “private clouds” from which to draw computing resources. It’s an ambitious effort designed to capture a bigger piece of the IT infrastructure market by offering large unified systems designed to handle most of a business’s computing needs. As Cisco CEO John Chambers noted earlier today, the goal here is to more effectively target the market for cloud infrastructure and services, a market that could be worth as much as $350 billion.

It’s also a market loaded with with fierce competitors, IBM (IBM) and Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) among them. Not that this worries Chambers much. “Will this change the industry?” he asked during a conference call today. “Time will tell. I believe that it will be the partnership that people will look back on and say it changed the data center and clouds forever.”

VMware Gets a Lift

John Paczkowski — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 13:01:30 +0000

Shares of VMware are on the rise this morning, spiking seven percent thanks to some decent earnings.

On Thursday, the virtualization software firm reported a second-quarter profit of 20 cents a share, topping the 19 cents projected by analysts. And while sales fell to $455.7 million, they still exceeded the $452.4 million the Street had been expecting.

In a conference call with analysts, VMware (VMW) execs warned not to read to much into that though, saying they are still cautious about the economy.

“It is clear the global economy has not yet recovered and there is still some uncertainty,” CEO Paul Maritz cautioned. “In a recent survey of 150 CIOs of large businesses, 40 percent expected some downward revision in their budgets in the second half of 2009. That said, there were some signs that customers were moving on with business, even if it was buying just enough just in time.”

Cisco to Rivals: Tonight You Sleep in Hell!

John Paczkowski — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 18:06:48 +0000

Cisco has finally crossed the Rubicon.

Long a partner to the big server makers, the networking equipment giant today became a competitor, announcing an aggressive push into the server market. No longer content to peddle switches and routers alone, Cisco (CSCO) is now selling what it calls a unified computing system–a full-blown data center solution that encompasses everything from servers and storage to connectivity and virtualization services. The move is a brazen challenge to IBM (IBM), HP (HPQ) and other vendor partners with whom Cisco had once cooperated. “We’re going to compete with HP,” Cisco CTO Padmasree Warrior told The Wall Street Journal. “I don’t want to sugarcoat that. There is bound to be change in the landscape of who you compete with and who you partner with.”

Of course, but “change” is rather a tame word for a potentially market-disrupting expansion of Cisco’s business. This is a power grab, plain and simple. A game-changer. Cisco is offering an integrated approach to what’s long been a multivendor arrangement. Whereas before, CIOs would purchase servers from one company, virtualization software from another and networking from yet another, the networking giant is proposing they now purchase them together from a single vendor: Cisco. And that puts it on a collision course with IBM and HP.

“H-P, IBM and Cisco are the new four horsemen of IT infrastructure and they are all fighting to increase their share of the enterprise IT wallet,” Forrester Research analyst James Staten told Marketwatch. “They have all benefited from growth of the market and by taking share from weaker players, but are now needing to go after each other’s strongholds to keep growing. They are definitely leveraging technology evolutions that drive unification, so customers win through this competition, but it’s going to be a bloody fight.”

VMware: The Agony of Defeat

John Paczkowski — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 18:00:38 +0000

[ See post to watch video ]

Announcing Net Nanny, Andrew Cuomo Edition TM

John Paczkowski — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 18:00:12 +0000

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Facing "Head Winds," Yahoo to Cut Jobs

John Paczkowski — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 19:00:15 +0000

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VMW Agonistes

John Paczkowski — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 10:49:46 +0000

You wouldn’t know it from the company’s share price today, but VMware (NYSE: VMW), maker of virtualization software, reported a 150% increase in fourth-quarter profit and an 80% jump in sales to $412 million yesterday. Sadly, investors–presumably the same ones that slapped Apple around after its “best quarter ever”–took a pessimistic view of such growth (which admittedly fell shy of forecasts) and cut the company’s share price by almost 34%.

The stomach-curdling nosedive eradicated about $10 billion in shareholder wealth and dragged VMware’s parent company EMC into the mud as well. The company, which spun off VMware last summer and remains its largest stakeholder, saw its shares slip 6%, though it just reported a strong quarter itself.

Perhaps VMware, which has been lauded as one of the best tech offerings in recent history, is overvalued after all. The company is facing increased competition from powerful rivals. “If you miss your numbers in just your second quarter after going public, that suggests the stock was overhyped,” Trip Chowdhry, an analyst at Global Equities Research, told Reuters. “The story is not as perfect as investors believe. Oracle and Microsoft and Citrix have spoiled VMware’s party.”

Perhaps. But if it’s not, the sudden decline in VMW could present a nice investment opportunity. “Here’s your buy-in discount,” says the Motley Fool. “Enjoy it while you can. It took 10 weeks for VMware’s stock to go from a 52-week low of $51.50 per share to the high-water mark at $125.25. It can happen again, so don’t get caught flat-footed.”

New Cisco Switch Fast Enough to Create Rift in Space-Time Continuum

John Paczkowski — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 22:40:43 +0000

Cisco is calling it its biggest enterprise product launch in 15 years, and given the cloud of hyperbole in which it debuted today the Nexus 7000 data-center switch may be just that.

Like any network switch, the Nexus 7000 controls and directs the flow of data between connected computers. But unlike any network switch, it can transfer data at 15 terabits per second, which–depending on whatever silly illustrative metric you prefer–is fast enough to either:

copy all the searchable Web in less than eight minutes;
download Wikipedia’s database in 10 milliseconds;
download 90,000 Netflix movies in less than 40 seconds;
run 5 million concurrent high-quality videoconferences between New York and San Francisco;
or send a two-megapixel digital photograph of CEO John Chambers to every human being on earth in 28 minutes.

The company claims it can, anyway. “It isn’t often you get to do a clean-sheet design of a system, and that is what we have done over the past four years,” Doug Gourlay, senior director of marketing in the Data Center Solutions unit at Cisco, told SearchDataCenter.com. “The Nexus series is analogous to the Toyota creating the Prius; we have created a new class of data-center switching. We made Ethernet lossless.”

Neat.

For Cisco, which is pushing to increase its presence in the data center and virtualization markets, the Nexus 7000 could be a big winner. “If it works, Cisco would mark off a hugely strategic niche for itself, as a kind of king of virtualization,” Peter Burrows writes in BusinessWeek. “That’s the name of a technology that’s risen to prominence in recent years within pockets of the data center. VMWare, for example, has become corporate tech’s new darling, thanks to software that lets companies spread work among all of their available servers, rather than have them sit idle waiting for their particular job to be called. In storage, gear from companies like Brocade plays a similar role. But until now, no company has figured out a way to easily coordinate these various pools of virtualized gear.”

Dell Announces Plans to Ruin EqualLogic's Customer-Service Rating

John Paczkowski — Mon, 05 Nov 2007 23:44:02 +0000

Its footing in the PC market slipping the way it has been–thanks to a deteriorating reputation for customer service and aggressive rivals–Dell is increasingly turning its attention to storage. In a big way. This morning the company announced plans to acquire storage virtualization outfit EqualLogic for $1.4 billion in cash. If approved by shareholders, the deal would be the biggest acquisition in Dell’s 23-year history.

Why is Dell so hot for a six-year-old company that, according to papers filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in August, made just $68 million in revenue last year and has never been profitable? Well, for one thing, EqualLogic is maker of iSCSI storage-area network virtualization technology–the fastest-growing part of the storage business.

For another, shares of VMware–the current leader of the storage business–have quadrupled since the company went public nearly three months ago (in August EqualLogic filed to go public, something it now won’t have to do).

Finally, it makes Dell more of an enterprise company and less of a box builder. Which is likely a good idea for a company that ranks near the bottom of the American Customer Satisfaction Index’s annual rankings of personal-computer makers.

Sun-Microsoft Deal Creates Rift in Space-Time Continuum

John Paczkowski — Thu, 13 Sep 2007 18:00:29 +0000

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OK. Short Straw Tells McNealy We're Now a 'Microsoft Certified Gold Partner'

John Paczkowski — Thu, 13 Sep 2007 14:27:08 +0000

Sun Microsystems, whose co-founder and Chairman Scott McNealy once described Microsoft’s Internet Information Server as “the Corvair of Web servers–unsafe at any speed” has become a Windows Server OEM.

Extending a partnership first struck in 2004, Sun will now resell and install Windows on its x86-based servers. For Sun, the deal is a way to drive broad adoption of its technologies. “One hundred percent of Sun’s customers use both Solaris and Windows,” said Sun Executive Vice President John Fowler. “We have an opportunity to extend our technology leadership in this critical area with customers that we share.”

For Microsoft, it’s a way to better compete in the virtualization market. Under the terms of today’s agreement, both companies pledged to optimize their server operating system for virtualization of the other’s software. And that’s an important issue for Microsoft. As Microsoft Watch’s Joe Wilcox notes, Windows Server 2008 and Microsoft’s next-generation Viridian virtualization technology have both been delayed. Said Wilcox, “Virtualization interoperability provides a place for Windows Server 2003 on Solaris and an opportunity to better position Windows Server 2003 for consolidation of Solaris servers.”

HP Announces Pretexting Scandal 2.0

John Paczkowski — Thu, 16 Aug 2007 18:00:06 +0000

[ See post to watch video ]

VMware Suffering From Xen-ophobia

John Paczkowski — Wed, 15 Aug 2007 20:01:08 +0000

Well, VMware’s definitely going to get a run for its money now. Not 24 hours after the virtualization leader’s spectacular public offering, Citrix Systems said it would purchase open-source server virtualization outfit XenSource for $500 million in cash and stock.

Five hundred million dollars. Quite a sum–especially when XenSource is burning through $15 million a year in expenses, but generating just “a few million in revenues,” according to Citrix CFO David Henshall.

That said, Citrix expects the server- and desktop-virtualization market to balloon to $5 billion by 2011, and this acquisition will put it in a good position to carve itself a piece. Said Peter Levine, CEO of XenSource: “This move is not about competing for the 5% of the market that is already being served. It’s about steering into the 90% white space that is wide open, both at the server and in new emerging opportunities at the desktop.”

Course, that space won’t be wide open for long. Microsoft is belatedly developing its own virtualization product called Viridian. And when it finally debuts the virtualization land grab will really begin. As the research outfit 451 Group told its clients: “The virtualization market now revolves around three players: market darling VMware; Citrix’s combination of young blood and old money; and the (potential) threat of Microsoft’s Viridian, slated to ship in Q3 2008. Both Citrix and VMware have a 12-month window of opportunity before Microsoft shows its full hand.”