Chrome-fed Googasm bares tech pundit futility Last week, Google released a web browser called Chrome, and the online tech media had a powerful Googasm. We were long overdue for another climax like this, having been lightly stimulated with half-baked Google web products in the four years since GMail was released. Every time the media fires off its gravy so violently, it …
Yes, I meant "Work Safe", though "Word Safe" works also. Though as I pointed out I was mentioning college filters, for the computers that they use at college whilst I do my degree. It might be pretty hard for me to do my degree if the filters pick up many uses of the word "fuck" and issue me warnings followed by "gerrof our computers ya fuck-wit!"
I'm all for swearing, but it would be nice to know which articles may fire up a filter which is looking for profanities, especially as the college terms of service is a catch all, you have no idea who would be using the computers, what age they may be etc. and whilst our tutor is a wonderful person, she isn't the admin who set up the filters. Would you really want a college filter to allow students to browse sites where every other word was fuck? I.e. the bbc? Heck the filter would tell me "I'm sorry, you're not allowed to do that" if I were to write the word fuck, which means I have to tone down the emails to my better half.
if you want to compare javascript speeds try this :
http://www2.webkit.org/perf/sunspider-0.9/sunspider.html
Intel q6600 quad core duo 2.4gz 4Gb ram
IE7 - 25077.4ms (Win64)
Iceweasel 2.0.0.16 (gecko 1.8.1.6) 11845.8ms (Debian i386)
Epihpany 2.14.3 (Gecko 1.8) 11792.8ms (Debian i386)
Opera 9.52 - 3948.6ms (Win64)
FF 3.0.1 - 2868.6ms (Win64)
10x improvement is not to be sniffed at if you use javascript heavy sites
Now the jesus browser! Now with web 2.0!!!
I've tried it and it is more like a browser you would use in a kiosk with only an address bar and tabs along the top (NO menus) plus a really useful (NOT!!) browser history as your default page.
It uses less memory than firefox, is a bit more stable, but... it cant run firefox plugins and the rendering engine IS NOT 100% accurate, more like opera at rendering pages, getting the odd bit here and there wrong.
I already tried safari for the pc, now this is a bit better but why the default Microsoft look'n'feel?
there is a GoogleUpdater.exe Process running silently in the background all the time.. I don't trust google being in my browser, they're already all over the web..
Well, I've been working as a software designer for over 20 years, so hopefully you'll consider me tech-savvy enough to not discard my opinion out of hand.
When I got Chrome, my reaction was: This could be the trigger that prompts me to get a Linux-based netbook. I could do all my work in Chrome, and never touch the OS. I'm using Google Docs, Gmail, etc. more and more, and non-cloud based software less and less.
The hyperbole may be overstated in the short term, but over the next few years, this stuff could be the MS killer in my opinion.
What has Google's simple browser got to do with Linux? It doesn't even build on Linux, let alone run, and having poked through the unbelievably vast source code I don't see it being ported any time soon.
* Simple in the sense that having discrete processes is how we did things back before threads.
@Francis Vaughan
probably one of the most flawed descriptions of an operating system I have ever seen posted
Any and all operating systems set the standards for all application programs that run in the computer. Applications "talk to" the operating system for all user interface and file management operations. Also called an "executive" or "supervisor," an operating system performs the following functions
1.User Interface
Gui or command based
2.Job Management
Like IBM’S JCL
3.task management
multi tasking
4.Data Management
storage
5.Device Management
like windows HAL
6.Security.
like kerberos
Some OS’S like windows use API’s to call functions in the os , however it does need any networking to be an OS, No need for tcpip or any other protocol’s netbios.
Quote
“That is it. All the other stuff is utilities. Not operating system. Now there is no doubt that Chrome (being as it really adds nothing to what most other browsers already do) does not implement much of this - but it does abstract over it - and it provides therefore a new abstract machine layer - which is mostly independent of the underlying host OS”
This is almost as funny as Microsoft consultants telling me keberos is policy independent, then it the next sentence telling me it has a policy manager. The above statement is horse shit Chrome runs on a application layer which requires the os to be running or no chrome, so the “mostly independent”…EH .. how to quantify no OS, no chrome and no gears.
Quote
” It is in the word "mostly" where the threat lies. Currently the host OS provides a local name space and persistent storage. (Unix unifies the two totally. Windows never quite understood that trick.) Most people call this pair the file system. Local apps run against the local file system. The cuckoo's egg in the browser/cloud is that these now start to leak away. Not that they have not been leaking for a long time already. But when the core name space of the host environment ceases to be the local name space/file system, and persistent storage migrates off the machine as well, the remaining OS functionality is seriously emasculated. Here persistent storage will migrate to inside the walled cities of Google.”
Did you by any chance buy a sinclair C5. you really don’t understand the corporate world or the home pc market.
Good article finally someone who isn't blowing smoke up googles blowhole. They already have god knows what information on your search history and emails, now they want all of your documents as well and your apps, favourites, passwords etc not such a good plan.
Yeah great Idea use all of your apps online, when the net connection goes down or you reach your cap you have a dumb terminal that can't do anything :(
Chrome could be the next great "never-ending battle for truth and justice".
First there was Microsoft vs the software crackers. I think we know how well that all worked out.
Then there has been the constant back and forth arms race between Apple and the iPhone unlockers.
So how soon will it before we get people writing ad-blockers for Chrome?
"probably one of the most flawed descriptions of an operating system I have ever seen posted"
Probably because you never studied operating systems. Curiously what I wrote is largely the accepted technical definition. What I get in reply is the usual marketing version.
The definition I gave is mostly derived from Andrew Tanenbaum. If you don't know who he is I would advise silence until you do.
The remainder of the rebuttal seems to suggest my point was totally missed.
....not!
Google does enough to annoy me at work, they're like the invisible axis of the world.
I did look at Chrome in a VM and though "hey, Java apps don't work and where's all my options?". Firefox with Adblocker and Noscript and other nice things for me.
STOP - for Stop The Bus, I want a WEE-WEE...!
Chrome is the term for useless decorative bullshit...why would they expect anyone to take it seriously?
Although this is the World2.0, where companies named "Fluff" and "Tar.tz" and "bollo.cx" and "BugrIT" get millions of dollars in VC funding, and here I am building spaceships for the Navy and we don't even get free soda.
Certainly Chrome is not an OS. And it can not replace one either. However, Linux and Chrome(when available) can replace many Microsoft products including their operating systems. And that solution does not require a cloud but a cloud is an option.
Chrome is significant because Google will make certain it optimizes what can be done in that infamous cloud. And while there are good reasons why some people do not use to depend upon that cloud, there is no way to deny that such services offer very real alternatives for many.
Years ago Microsoft engaged in illegal activities to eliminate Netscape from the marketplace. And the old Netscape (as a company) is long gone. But, the technology went open source. And now Google has arrived with the applications that Microsoft feared most. Replacements for Microsoft's overpriced applications.
Today Microsoft continues its illegal practice of commingling code between the OS and the browser. So if there is some confusion about what is an OS and what is an application (such as a browser), Microsoft created that. Of course Internet Explorer is not an operating system any more than Chrome is. But, Chrome on the scene can point out to all (even the slow learners) that being forced to buy, install, maintain and support Internet Explorer is equivalent to being forced to have sex.
Strange as it may be, many today think forced sex with a Microsoft branded product is just fine with them. But, they are incapable of deciding between applications anyway. So they do not count.
The importance of Chrome is that Chrome will illustrate to the market that superior technology is readily available and can be implemented as long as consumers are not continuously forced to buy and use the inferior Microsoft solution.
Despite its success, Mozilla is just not in the position to bring this point home. Google is. And the same could be said for Apple and Opera. All fine browsers. But, those companies will never be able to show ordinary users the benefits of using a high performance browser for running cloud based services.
You really do not think Microsoft would push the industry in that direction do you? At least Google does not think so. They have already gone on record as saying that one fine result of Chrome will be the significant improvement of the browser forced upon millions at a price. While Chrome is likely to remain free.
And for the slow learners, IE is not nor can it be free as long as it is bundled with the products you pay cash for such as operating systems. Unless you are stupid enough to believe that the fries are the free food in your happy meal. The cash bucks you pay are in fact allocated among the items in your happy meal. And if any one tells you the fries are the free ones, you have identified the fraud in your company.
Consumers should refuse to pay for or even accept Internet Explorer. Chrome, Firefox, Opera and others should convince even the slow learners of that. Not the Microsoft salesman mind you. But, any real customer what to decide what is purchased, what is installed, what is maintained and what is supported. Any one that suggests otherwise is not a consumer but rather the salesman. A fraudulent one at that.
Nice one, Ted. Thanks for pointing out that the emperor has no clothes. I liked the balance of invective, irony and hard fact. Gawd knows, hard facts are few and far between when it comes to press coverage of Google.
As to Michael Arrington, if he really thinks "Chrome is nothing less than a full on desktop operating system that will compete head on with Windows..." he deserves to be dragged into the street, doused in sewage, beaten on the kidneys til he pisses blood then shot like a dog. Not, you understand, that I give a toss about wannabe 'journalists' like him ... I just like violent humiliation for its own sake.
@ Sarah. Ooooh, I really LOVE it when you talk dirty ;)
"but I don't think it's added much to the sum of human knowledge."
Oh, I disagree. After reading this article I had learned one completely new euphemism for blowing your load and a variation on one I already knew. I'm now going to try to work the phrase "firing off your gravy" into general conversation as much as possible. Top stuff!
Paris, because she knows all about making gravy.
I have been using Opera for quite some time and it really took lot of media buzz to make me try the Chrome. To be honest, I was really disappointed.
I was hoping Google would come up with its own rendering engine which would face up to the ACID 3 test. Looks like Google is still not mature enough to create their on rendering engine yet. Sad.
Also, each-tab-is-a-process idea backfired, at least in my case. If I do not use a tab for some time, say 2-3 hours, and then click on it, it takes all the time in the world to paint itself. It appears that the OS senses that this process is not being used for quite some time and removes it from RAM to virtual memory (hard-disk). That would have been still OK, but it takes up a majority of my CPU cycles and I cannot do anything but watch the tab being re-painted, pixel by pixel. Which machine do I use? Pentium 4, 2,2 Ghz, 1 GB RAM. Powerful enough for my Opera to run 20+ tabs AND other desktop applications simultaneously.
Another thing I do not understand about all open source fans is that they are OK if Firefox is bit slower than Opera (hey, we got powerful processors now), but when Chrome JS engine is tad faster than other browsers, they go all ga-ga about it.
Grow up. While open source is good, its not always the best. Why don't we rate the applications solely on their performance and not on the brand (Google, MS) or the openness of the code?
How the f**k do muppets like that end up being journalists on IT when they evidentally don't know the first thing about computers.
Looks to me as if they haven't even studied for the most basic of qualifications of in Computing. How can you end up getting a job as a jorunalist if you don't know jack sh~t?
I'd love to aim the new proton beam particle acclerator, the LHC at their innards and watch them vaporize into a trillion billion fundamental particles ( whilst possibly creating a minature blackhold and sucking in planet earth).
@Duncan Hothersall
I did not quite catch your point..oh right you did not make one remember this is About "Personal Computing Devices Operating Systems" grandad so keep up will you.
Graphical user interfaces (GUIs) are in most recent OS's, but at one time all operations of the computer where performed by typing in commands DOS eng for example, even now messing about in linux will send you to a ?, so yes an OS can be COMMAND LINE only rather than have a graphical interface do the work for you or it can be both, but for a SYSTEM to OPERATE it needs the OPERATOR to be able to INTERFACE with the SYSTEM otherwise it is not by definition a OPERATING SYSTEM as user would be unable to OPERATE COMMANDS.
Your point was ?.
The definition of a "Personal Computing Device Operating System" requires a user interface....ethier Command line based or GUi or both. or any other way in which a user can input information.
and @Tanenbaum the man whose said "linux is obsolete" back in 92 yeah. he has the odd good duiscussion with mr penguin Linus Torvalds but they dont agree.
And why this is up for discussion over a internet Browser by google is probably why Ted wrote the article ....and yes it's still "just a f..kin broswer" even Tanenbaum would agree.
Found some details on the guy on the net:
http://www.techcrunch.com/about-michael-arrington/
"I grew up in California and Surrey, England. I started college at U.C. Berkeley, and transferred to Claremont McKenna, a tiny college located near Los Angeles, after my freshman year. I majored in economics. I went straight from college to law school at Stanford in 1992, and graduated in 1995."
Ah, studied for an economics degree ( doesn't say if he graduated or not, says he majored..., read in to that what you want).
Studied for an economics degree, well Sir, you are eminantly qualified to comment on Information Technology, evidentally !
The simple fact is that, although it is not implemented in the current release, "a small kernel on your local system could boot you into directly into Chrome, or a server-based operating system, and you could start working *sans* Windows."
Reading some of the opinions above, I feel like I'd better explain that "sans" means *without* Windows (or linux or mac OS, etc, etc . . .). :-P
No host OS is necessary.
I do not mean to argue for or against this app, or the writer's opinion (I really enjoyed reading this post) but this bit of information was missing from the article and the comments associated wth it. (apologies if I missed someone else bringing up the same point) However, my own tech training would tell me that when loaded as described above, this would qualify as an OS. Thank you to previous commentors for referencing Tanenbaum.
All that aside:
I am increasingly alarmed at the vitriolic ranting associated with tech news/opinions/information these days. When did techy's become fundamentalists? Appleites justify anything and everything Jobs and Co does, even if they've blasted MS for the same behavior, and MS fanboys are no different. Linux users, god love 'em, are the same as well, only with an open-source message to preach. And every time a company tries something new, all you read is how and why it couldn't/wouldn't or shoudn't work alongside gleeful predictions of it's failure or hateful rants about why it's evil. The more successful the company, the more antagonistic the response. Anyone with a positive opinion is immediately labled a company shill or simply called unflattering names.
How can we progress and move technology forward if we start our arguments before all the facts have been presented? If, instead of presenting information, we defend our positions and rely on name calling and derision to speak for us?
I enjoy The Reg for it's insistance on questioning everything. I live my life the same way; however, it seems like we've confused questioning with mindless mob attacks these days.
Isn't *anyone* else appalled by all of this?
I was begining to think that any sort of constructive thinking had escaped the world (of journalism) until I read this.
With all this cloud-computing hippieness and sprinkles of how microsoft is terrified of google, even though google are not trying to compete with any of microsoft's core businesses and it is microsoft who are trying to expand into the markets google dominates, surely the so called tech journalists should see that Chrome infact relies more upon operating system features than most other browsers.
It has a task manager for its processes. These processes however are structures that are created within the operating system kernel.
It uses permissions to sandbox things. It requires the operating system to have sufficient features for this.
Google gears is supposed to allow offline working of "web apps". Well surely that is relying on storage on your computer and operating system filesystem functions to allow such tasks.
This post has been deleted by its author
Google Chrome is the Web 2.0 version of AOL's own web browser. They hope to hive people off into an ever more Googlefied web user experience where you only use YouTube for video sharing, only ever use Google Chat, Google Mail etc etc. This creates a captive audience for Google's main money generating business; selling ads.
I have myself fallen prey of the 'Windows killer' potential software hype in the past - but having tried Linux a few times now, I just don't think Windows will dissapear. Like QWERTY or base ten for maths you'll find better ways of designing keyboards or doing sums, but its too late to change to them. Its all down to how you define success. If success for a keyboard means 'allows best possible typing speed and ease' then QWERTY is crap, but if you mean 'can be easily used by as many existing computer users as possible' then QWERTY is clearly miles ahead of anyone else. With Chrome there is very little (I'd say at the moment that there is nothing) Chrome does significantly better than current systems. I'd go as far to suggest that Chrome is like Vista for web browsers - the new stuff it offers isn't really worth the effort of changing for a majority of users.
For the world to change from M$, we need an 'extinction level event' to take place in the OS sector, eg, the banning of M$ from China, or the nationalisation of M$ by the US government. Alternatively, we need a major evolution in Macs (eg, they learn how to price their products competitively, or find a way for MacOS to be able to port any Windows software automatically) or we need a freshly engineered version of Linux (GM Linux) that is acutually easier to use, better looking and more versatile than Windows (but that would take billions in investment).
Until then, Windows is the T Rex of the OS world, and furry or feathered Macs, Linux boxes and web-based computing systems can't compete.
I think it's fucking moronic that a college would install a profanity filter. What, do people these days spend thirty years being ten years old, and then magically and all-at-once turn forty? That's the only reason I can think of how anyone at a university, faculty, staff, or student, could possibly not be enough of a grown-up to handle seeing the word 'fuck' once in a while. Christ almighty, where do you people go to school that you don't hear worse than 'fuck' every damn day?
Fucking hell. You know, I really used to regret not finishing my degree, but at this point I'm pretty much thinking that I did myself more of a favor by dropping out and going to work instead. I'm never going to have a $120k/year job, maybe, but at least I've spent the last decade living like a full-grown adult human being, which apparently among the better-educated set is quite rare.
"Typing words is easier than critical thought, after all."
Apparently. What a steaming-pile-of-crap-excuse-for-a-story. Slow news day, El Reg?
"And furthermore ... Chrome is not a toaster, no matter how irritating it is to me personally that some bloggers have referred to it as 'the best thing since sliced bread'."
Yeesh. Go find yourself a quaalude, dude. Try and include something useful in your next article. This one was just you ripping off whoever pays you to write garbage like this.
Not really, most fully grown adults know not to use profanities so liberally, part of a good education is being able to substitute vulgarities for their less vulgar counterparts.
The reason a college filter would look for certain words, and ensure that students are not using certain words, is because the type of site where one would most likely use said words are not the kind of sites a college student should be looking at whilst they are studying. It would also help to prevent the college from any legal ramifications that may arise due to a student writing a large post, containing lots of swear words, aimed at a person whilst using the college network.
And also no, swearing, spitting, any activity which people may find offensive are against the general college rules aswell, college is supposed to educate a persons mind, keeping their mind in the gutter will not lead to any form of enlightenment, it will make the idiots drop out of their degree, claim to be grown up and never get a £60k per year job.
jeesh, do you even know what "user space" means?
Your OS presents one interface : system calls - hooks into the devices to provide user land services. It's a KERNEL, not a command line or GUI.
You'll be telling me next Notepad is part of the Windows OS.
Your GUI is provided by USER space programs making (abstracted) calls to your graphics device (VGA card maybe).
"Not only is UNIX dead, it's starting to smell really bad." Rob Pike - circa 1991
Linux is a crock.
I think this article has drawn as much hatred from the baying crowds as IE has had piled on it in a lifetime.
And that's saying something.
Got to say, I love the way the IE crowd get their toes stuck in. On the basis of lack of innovation no less.
In a slightly different tone of voice people, it's just a fucking web browser, calm the fuck down.
tip my hat to our pedantic, asshole overlord (de jour).
@ Mike Powers: My guess is because MS has "shit" trademarked eight ways to Sunday?
@ the gentle person who suggested combining of Chrome and the "Jesus" (pronounced GE-Zus or Hay-sus?) phone and the ensuing digital orgasm when the phone rings is "turned on".... I don't think there are any words that can adequately explain or define the pain I am feeling right now, because of the big gulp of warm ginger-ale that exited my sinus cavity at hypersonic speeds, when I read your post. It's been almost 10 minutes and my nose still hurts like hell!
OS? Funny... It's a browser with a bizarre name. BFD. You can polish a turd so much that you can see your reflection in it, but at the end of the day, it's still a turd.
I chose Paris because it was a moral imperative
...once you realise that (thanks to MS) the average user doesn't know the difference between and OS and a GUI. To them, the GUI *is* the OS.
So if we now have a browser (Chrome) which aims at allowing users to do whatever they want without ever leaving it (ie, become the one-and-only GUI) then the know-nothings will call it "the new OS".
It's wrong, it's pathetic, but then again half the population has an IQ under 100.
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