Chrome OS Screen Shot

Google had announced the Chrome (or Chromium) OS quite some time back. All we knew about Google’s operating system was that it will be very fast and will be focusing primarily on the cloud. Today Google held an event to announce the open sourcing of the chrome OS project. We also got to know a few more details about the Chrome OS.

Chrome OS is different

Google’s new OS is not like the conventional operating systems. It is different. It is not built from the core and is based on the Linux kernel like the Android OS. But it is far different from the Android, Linux, Mac OS and Windows. It is not even like the browser based operating systems. So here, we have compiled a list of the features which make chrome OS different than the traditional operating systems.

Features Which Make Chrome OS Different

1) Chrome OS is not installable

You won’t be able to install Chrome OS on your computer! You will have to buy a computer with Chrome OS pre installed.

2) Chrome OS works with netbooks only

For now, Google is focusing on the netbooks only. With its launch in late 2010, chrome OS will only be able to run on netbooks. Laptops and desktops “may” get a support later but it is not a focus yet!

3) There is no hard drive support

Yes, I am not joking at all. There would be no hard disk in the devices which are shipped with Chromes OS pre installed. Well, not exactly. In fact the OS itself will be saved on a hard drive but there would be no hard drive for the users to let them save their data. You won’t be able to save movies and songs on your hard disk. Even your files would not be available on your hard disk. Strange?

4) User data is stored on the RAM

All the user data will be stored in the temporary memory which is washed out as soon as you reboot the system. Lo!

5) You cannot access anything but Chrome web browser

There is nothing in the Chrome OS but a browser. Your computer boots into a browser and it shuts down from the browser. You don’t have a desktop, you don’t have a start menu, you don’t have a local search, you don’t have an application launch feature. Nothing but a browser!

6) No other browser is supported

You won’t be able to install Firefox on the Chrome OS. You will have to stick to the Chrome web browser.

7) There are no software applications supported

Users will not be able to install any software on their computers with chrome OS running. You wouldn’t be able to install your favorite games and not even an Office suite.

8 ) Chrome OS auto updates and auto recovers itself

Chrome OS updates itself in a matter of moments. Every time you use your chrome computer, you have the latest version of the operating system. Whenever something goes wrong, Chrome OS auto fixes itself and you are up and going again in a few moments after a reboot.

9) Chrome OS boots only in 7 seconds

Cool eh?!

10) You depend on Google for everything

You have to go back to the concept of ‘dump terminals‘ of the early days of computing. You depend on Google’s cloud for everything. If the cloud goes down (like Gmail does) all the computers in the world running Chrome OS may go down!

One Answer to All Strange Things!

The answer is “Chrome OS is cloud based”. Yup! That’s the answer!

There’s no hard drive? All data is stored on the cloud!

No applications supported? You’ll rely on the web applications! Like Google Docs and Zoho for office needs, Picknic for photo editing, some other service for video editing etc.

Other questions like why is Firefox not supported, why do we have to depend on Google only, why can’t we install Chrome OS on the computer of our own choice and so on are yet to be answered.

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