Google Chrome, not so fast!

I have recently tweeted about what I want to talk about in this blog post. I'm currently using a Mac, running Snow Leopard with all the latest updates and it's in Wifi. My internet is provided by BT (British Telecoms in the UK) and I expect a 8mb (megabyte) service when I get (usually) 4-5mb. Anyway, enough rambling.

I tested the speed between the Chrome browser, which I believe is still under the BETA release and the traditional Mac browser, Safari 4. I found a significant difference between the speed the 2 browsers were receiving while they took the speedtest side by side. 

To the left we have Chrome and Safari is on the right. 

ChromeSafari

As you can see, Chrome drops the download speed dramatically whereas Safari keeps it strong. I know Google Chrome is still in BETA, but I think this is either a definite bug or something is wrong with their browser. 

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An OS Ménage à Trois

On Thursday, November 19th 2009 Google unveiled a sneak peak at a new, stream-lined operating system. These are my thoughts. Now, as geeks we have options- OS X, Windows, Linux and all the different releases of the three. It has been, for quite some time an "OS Ménage à Trois". But Google has now jumped onto the band wagon. Me personally, I love the look and feel and the capabilities I have with my OS X machine. It is my perfect OS. (Even though every OS is flawed.) Little is known at this point about the new Google operating system, what we do know is this:

- It is designed as an OS for running web-based apps. To perform simple and easy tasks most non-power users look for in a netbook.
- We are most likely to see the Google OS on netbooks, rather than full versions of Windows Vista or Windows 7 starter that are offered currently.
- There is a significant difference between Google OS & Google Chrome. Although they have an abundance of similarities, they are not two of a kind. Stated by another tech blogger... "Google Chrome is to Google OS as Apple Safari is to OS X". Meaning that this new OS isn't just going to be an add-on for Google Chrome, but a whole new piece of software itself.
- It utilizes and runs off of no physical hard drive. Everything within the OS is stored completely in the cloud, on the Google servers. Much like the servers that run the Gmail service.

Personally, I cannot wait to get a hold of some alpha or beta software of this OS. Just to play with it and see what Google is bringing to the table this time. Please share your thoughts. :]

-Thomas Hayden
http://twitter.com/thomas_hayden

Chrome OS: Haven’t You Heard of Linux?

After reading dozens, and I mean dozens of articles about Chrome OS and how it is going to be a hit to Microsoft and Apple. When reading the articles, they usually run down the features of the operating system, and the announcements that Google made about it.

Here is an example list from ZDnet.

Timing.

Note the 12-18 month delivery: they’ve been watching how M$ freezes the market with “strategic” pre-annoucements.

Pricing.

Free, as in open-source. M$ will have to fight for every dollar from netbook makers. Google should be handing out “Chrome OS” coffee cups to every M$ OEM starting with HP and Dell.

Target.

Developers: “For application developers, the web is the platform. . . . [it will give] developers the largest user base of any platform.”

Goal.

“. . . computers need to get better.” More like a big smartphone and less like a server – a clear swipe at M$.

Market.

“. . . small netbooks to full-size desktop systems.” Google is generously ceding the server OS market to M$ and Linux – for now.

Hm. Sounds a lot like something we know already huh?

Let’s go back to pricing. Notice that it says that it will be free and open-source. Just about every Linux distro is open source and completely free, all you have to do is download the disk image and burn it to a disk (excluding SUSE).

Let’s take a look at the market as well. Is linux aimed at netbooks as well? Yes. Linux is so lightweight, just as Google says Chrome OS will be, that it needs very little memory and processing power to run and still be fast, sometimes as little as 256MB-512MB of RAM.

I’m surprised Google gave the OS a target. You shouldn’t be “targeting” any certain group, if you are making an operating system, it’s best that you advertise it to be the best for EVERYONE, not a certain group. Bad on Google’s part. Even if they are including developer tools to really make it “special” for developers, it seems very un-google-like to not target the entire user base.

What’s all the hype about?

JD

My Bite Into Apple

http://mybiteintoapple.com