Google Chrome OS

We have been watching the development of Google chrome OS with interest. What has been very interesting is the numer of commenters that don’t seem to get it. Predicting it’s failure before even a full release. Here at BetaPond we firmly believe that ChromeOS will be a huge success.

Like most people - I suspect - when we first read first read Nicholas Carr’s thought provoking ideas in The Big Switch, we struggled with the practicalities of how cloud would deliver on the grand vision. However the picture is becoming clearer now.

We think that two key technical underpinnings in HTML 5 will help to deliver on this vision.

1). Offline web applications - This is a big deal - really. Roll forward 2 years and this becomes a global, pattform independent mechanism for software installation and update.

2). Removal/Relaxation of the single origin policy for Ajax requests. Essentially this means that javascript executing in a browser has the ability to access web services anywhere. In otherwords it’s akin to having a full IP stack available to code executing in browser.

Given the ubiquitous nature of javascript and the latest advances in css layout and presentation, you have all of the components of a traditional operating system executing “in browser”. In other words, almost by the back door, the browser just became a virtual machine, and whats more, the programs written for that virtual machine, really will run anywhere (given a few tweaks!).

Google of course realise this, which is why the desktop in Chrome OS is the browser and the browser is the OS.

Yes of course there will be problems with the adoption of Cloud, many of them legal and contractual rather than technical in nature. But make no mistake, the full release of Chrome OS will mark the expansion and rapid adoption of cloud computing by the masses.

Update…just as we were about to post this we note that Google are dumping Gears in favour of HTML 5…

Peter