For those who’ve been hiding under a rock for the last month, Google showed off a preview of it’s Chrome OS to the ever expectant tech world. They also made available some developer releases of the OS and detailed what it can and more importantly can’t run on.
So, what’s Chrome OS (COS) all about? Well you’ve seen the big G’s Chrome web browser, it’s quick, it’s slick and it’s minimalist. Guess what? Chrome OS is basically more of the same. It’s Chrome the browser stretched into an OS front end that’s built on top of Linux, where everything including accessing files is done through the browser. OK, sounds interesting, but what about apps? Well, COS relies on web apps, which have been integrated into the browser using persistent app tabs. Applications like Hulu, Gmail, Gdocs, Twitter and Facebook are all up there ready for when you need them. Applications that typically run in the background, like Gtalk, have application windows that can be minimised to ‘panels’ down at the bottom of the screen keeping them out of the way till you need them. Google’s also built a pretty good notification system into the OS that pulls in notifications for new email, pushed updates from IM, calendar and Twitter, replicating some of the best features from many of today’s mobile phone OS. The ethos of the OS is just like that of the browser, get out of your way and do it fast.
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