Chrome OS to come within a week?

Seth Weintraub
|
November 13, 2009
|
Share

Techcrunch is reporting that the first releases of ChromeOS, the "mostly just a browser running on Linux OS" from Google is set to launch within a week.  The major work continues to be driver support which spreads out among PC makers' many components and manufacturers.  The new OS will initially target netbooks with a particular aim to give Windows XP users something besides a crippled, expensive Windows 7 to upgrade.

From there, however, Chrome should would on just about any Intel hardware including Macs.  You'll likely be able to test Chrome on Parallels or VMWare on Mac when it is released.

In other Google Chrome news, Google has released specifications to a new application protocol called SPDY that they say is up to 64% faster than the HTTP protocol.  New builds of Chromium are available to test this protocol, but there aren't too many webservers out there using SPDY since Google hasn't released that code yet.

Google is certainly ambitious, if not downright scary, in the scope of its footprint on the web.

 

Comments (12)

9to5Mac Admin (not verified) | November 13, 2009 - 6:25am

yay, another OS to dual-boot to 

9to5Mac Noob (not verified) | November 13, 2009 - 6:50am

Scary is exactly right. They're getting a little too powerful for my liking.

PeterZ (not verified) | November 13, 2009 - 7:37am

Who cares. Talk about a non-factor. 99% of users will take one look and say, "But...I already use Google?"

marcus erronius (not verified) | November 13, 2009 - 6:17pm

That's actually a strength. They already use Google, and they hear that  Chrome OS is faster and more reliable than Windows. There's a good chance that they'll be willing to give it a try, especially if it's coming pre-installed; or if they're already having to upgrade from XP.

9to5Mac Noob (not verified) | November 13, 2009 - 7:52am

Getting scary?  Google's been scary.

LGgeek (not verified) | November 13, 2009 - 8:39am

Sorry  I haven't drunk the google kool-aid. This is just an application running on top of linux , it is a huge stretch to call it it an operating system. Just google hype, they are very good at that along with getting folks to drink the kool-aid.

9to5Mac Noob (not verified) | November 14, 2009 - 6:31am

I think someone needs to define the term Operating System for you. And just in case, you didn't know Linux isn't an Operating System.

9to5Mac Noob (not verified) | November 13, 2009 - 9:41am

We should stop giving Google so much power and influence over our lives!

They control our email, privacy, Internet etc.

Now any stranger can look at my house on the Google's website.

 

Here's hoping that this one goes down the shitter and that no one is dumb enough to download it thereby giving these bastards even more power than they already have!

grognaard (not verified) | November 13, 2009 - 11:40am

 

Anyone know if this is intel chips only?  I have an original Imac G3 that works with OS X leopard but with only 8megs of vram,  it doesn't work "flawlessly" as one would expect.

As my main computer is a 20"  G5 Imac I really don't need the original Imac ,  so I was thinking I might give Chrome a try on this.  If It can be used with a  G3 processor.  Thoughts other than google hate anyone?

MacUser (not verified) | November 13, 2009 - 11:54am

The world's biggest spyware company releasing an operating system. Why spyware program can you use for that?

Riley (not verified) | November 13, 2009 - 11:56am

So if you use the world's biggest spyware company's operating system, what spyware program could you possibly install?

9to5Mac Noob (not verified) | November 14, 2009 - 12:48pm

chrome is fast, stable and has a low footprint irregardless of who developed it from a unix base