The fact that Chrome OS will be entirely open source is great news because this should allow Ubuntu to take advantage of Google powerful software development team. Many Ubuntu developers, Cannonical in particular, are already helping to integrate Chrome browser into the Ubuntu desktop.
Could this mean the end of GNOME for Ubuntu? I am not sure on that one, but this may be something to watch. I am not entirely sure that introducing another windows management system is an entirely good thing for Linux either. There is already a lot of confusing out there among users between KDE, GNOME, Xfce, etc. But maybe the umbrella of development and backing backing of Linux by Google will help bring Chrome OS to the forefront. But, one of the great things that has always been true with Linux is that you have a choice, right?
Here is a link to the Google Chrome OS Announcement
1 comment:
I tried Google Chrome OS the other day on a virtual machine. I couldn't log in because I didn't seem to be able to bridge the network connection. You need to authenticate with your google account ID. I saw from comments on several websites that I was not alone with this problem. You ask in your post whether Google Chrome OS will mean the end of Ubuntu. I say no, it doesn't, because the market is different. Chrome OS looks completely like Chrome Browser, is thought for netbooks, and users are thought to use applications on the cloud. Ubuntu on the other hand runs on different kinds of machines from netbooks, over laptops and desktop pcs, to servers, and provides many applications (you mention gimp in another post) which you install locally. With Ubuntu you can change and customize as you want, while Chrome OS users probably won't. If anything, Chrome OS and Ubuntu inspire each other. You may have read that Google is paying Ubuntu developers to work on Chrome OS. A thing I want to see in my ubuntu is faster boot time. The 6 seconds of Chrome OS could be a next step for Ubuntu (on the other hand, why not instant-on?). Just my 2 cents.
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