Jeg kan ikke lade være med, at kigge et par dage tilbage, da jeg skrev min post omkring IE8 og FireFox. I den post gav jeg netop udtryk for, at vi ikke bare står overfor midt i en browser krig, men vi står i en krig om hvem der skal dominere klient markedet i den kommende era. Jeg kan heller ikke lade være med, at tænke tilbage på den tid hvor jeg havde en idé om at lave en blog serie om “Næste version af Windows klienten” set med mine egne øjne. Den kom aldrig ud, af politiske årsager, men nu er jeg altså gået igang med den alligevel og den skal nok blive offentliggjort senere på efteråret.
Igår eftermiddags besøgte jeg ZYB, som jeg ofte gør, og havde en time lang snak med Kenneth Auchenberg omkring netop browsere, markedsandele og hvad fremtiden kan bringe. Rent teknisk synes jeg ikke browsere er specielt interessante, men det synes jeg derimod de er, når man snakker om forretnings aspektet i dem. Kenneth havde gode pointer i forhold til det tekniske, og Mads kom med indspark set fra et højere og mere konsumer rettet niveau. Vi var dog alle enige om, at browseren er den nye klient. Altså, browseren er der hvor man i fremtiden vil bruge det meste af sin tid på en computer – period! Sådan er det allerede for rigtige mange mennesker idag, men det kan og vil blive meget mere “normalt” i fremtiden. En ny era!
Jeg glæder mig at se hvad Google har fundet på med deres Chrome OS, men til jer der ikke allerede vidste det, så har Chrome hele tiden været et slags OS. Det har aldrig kun været en browser til at vise sider i, men ligeså meget Google’s platform til deres Gears framework. Et framework der vidst aldrig er kommet helt ud over rampen.
Lad os se på hvad Google skriver på deres egen blog omkring deres nye såkaldte OS.
It's been an exciting nine months since we launched the Google Chrome browser. Already, over 30 million people use it regularly. We designed Google Chrome for people who live on the web — searching for information, checking email, catching up on the news, shopping or just staying in touch with friends. However, the operating systems that browsers run on were designed in an era where there was no web. So today, we're announcing a new project that's a natural extension of Google Chrome — the Google Chrome Operating System. It's our attempt to re-think what operating systems should be.
Her forklares der lidt om hvad en browser er og hvordan brugeren benytter den til idag. Ydermere synes jeg, at det føles som der bliver trukket et gennemsigtigt tæppe væk fra en tom scene, i og med, at de annoncere en “Openration System extension” til deres browser Chrome men undlader at fortælle mere om hvad det indebærer. Det er tyndt synes jeg, men det er deres kendetegn i alt hvad de laver udover deres søgning!
Google Chrome OS is an open source, lightweight operating system that will initially be targeted at netbooks. Later this year we will open-source its code, and netbooks running Google Chrome OS will be available for consumers in the second half of 2010. Because we're already talking to partners about the project, and we'll soon be working with the open source community, we wanted to share our vision now so everyone understands what we are trying to achieve.
Og Google vælger at fortsætte ud af samme spor, et spor de tilsyneladende ikke kan komme ud af. Udmeldingen om, at lave den “naturlige chrome extension” open source kan næppe komme som nogen overraskelse, da OS’et bygger på en Linux kernel.
Speed, simplicity and security are the key aspects of Google Chrome OS. We're designing the OS to be fast and lightweight, to start up and get you onto the web in a few seconds. The user interface is minimal to stay out of your way, and most of the user experience takes place on the web. And as we did for the Google Chrome browser, we are going back to the basics and completely redesigning the underlying security architecture of the OS so that users don't have to deal with viruses, malware and security updates. It should just work.
Ovenstående paragraf er jo heller ikke særligt revolutionerende. Alle ved, at Chrome er lynhurtig, letvægtig og med et skrabet interface. Og at bruger oplevelsen finder sted på webbet er vel næppe en overraskelse. At Google vil holde deres OS fri for malware og vira er utopi, men det lærer de nok hen ad vejen.
Google Chrome OS will run on both x86 as well as ARM chips and we are working with multiple OEMs to bring a number of netbooks to market next year. The software architecture is simple — Google Chrome running within a new windowing system on top of a Linux kernel. For application developers, the web is the platform. All web-based applications will automatically work and new applications can be written using your favorite web technologies. And of course, these apps will run not only on Google Chrome OS, but on any standards-based browser on Windows, Mac and Linux thereby giving developers the largest user base of any platform.
Så har Google i virkligheden udviklet et operativ system eller mangler de downloads til deres browser ? Man kan også køre alle varianter af web applikationer i alle andre browsere, men det har man da vidst kunnet i mange år. Hvad er nyheden ?
Google Chrome OS is a new project, separate from Android. Android was designed from the beginning to work across a variety of devices from phones to set-top boxes to netbooks. Google Chrome OS is being created for people who spend most of their time on the web, and is being designed to power computers ranging from small netbooks to full-size desktop systems. While there are areas where Google Chrome OS and Android overlap, we believe choice will drive innovation for the benefit of everyone, including Google.
Hvad er det Google siger her ?
We hear a lot from our users and their message is clear — computers need to get better. People want to get to their email instantly, without wasting time waiting for their computers to boot and browsers to start up. They want their computers to always run as fast as when they first bought them. They want their data to be accessible to them wherever they are and not have to worry about losing their computer or forgetting to back up files. Even more importantly, they don't want to spend hours configuring their computers to work with every new piece of hardware, or have to worry about constant software updates. And any time our users have a better computing experience, Google benefits as well by having happier users who are more likely to spend time on the Internet.
We have a lot of work to do, and we're definitely going to need a lot of help from the open source community to accomplish this vision. We're excited for what's to come and we hope you are too. Stay tuned for more updates in the fall and have a great summer.
Hvis Google Chome OS kan sørge for at få min maskine til at boote på kortere tid end min Windows7 installation, og samtidig sørge for, at min maskine køre som den gjorde da jeg fik den, så vil jeg da gerne bruge den. Glæder mig til at se hvordan Google vil løse hardware konfigurationen, som de her proklamere er noget af det vigtigste for deres brugere. Google har dog ret i, at der venter en masse arbejde foran jer :)
Jeg synes Google virker som en ret interessant virksomhed, men jeg synes godt nok der er langt imellem deres gode produkter, frameworks og de services de tilbyder. Det synes jeg denne nyhed beviser endnu engang.
Når det drejer sig om kampen om klienten synes jeg der er andre der virker langt mere faretruende end søgegiganten, og det kan du så tænke lidt over i din sommerferie.
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