Chrome OS: Blinding Android?
Or, How Many Operating Systems Does Google Really Need?
By Mark Murphy on Wed, 07/08/09 - 8:55am.
Yesterday saw the announcement of Google Chrome OS, “an open source, lightweight operating system that will initially be targeted at netbooks.” “Speed, simplicity and security are the key aspects of Google Chrome OS...Google Chrome OS will run on both x86 as well as ARM chips and we are working with multiple OEMs to bring a number of netbooks to market next year.”
Replace “Google Chrome OS” with Android and “netbook” with smartphones, and this could have been a reprint of the 2007 announcement for Android.
This is not to knock the notion of Google having an operating system where Web-based applications are front-and-center, designed to fit the niche of devices like the CrunchPad. I've long been a fan of having a Web-flavored development option for mobile devices. However, I have to question why this is a separate initiative from Android.
Google, of course, anticipated this question, at least somewhat:
“Google Chrome OS is a new project, separate from Android. Android was designed from the beginning to work across a variety of devices from phones to set-top boxes to netbooks. Google Chrome OS is being created for people who spend most of their time on the web, and is being designed to power computers ranging from small netbooks to full-size desktop systems. While there are areas where Google Chrome OS and Android overlap, we believe choice will drive innovation for the benefit of everyone, including Google.”
I can understand that Google Chrome OS may require more CPU speed than does Android, since rendering HTML with Javascript and CSS is much more processor-intensive than simpler widget-based frameworks like the one offered in Android. But that still does not remotely justify having a separate OS. Make a Google Chrome Environment (GCE) that sits atop Android and is available to appropriate devices, just like Ubuntu has their regular and Netbook Release environments. Invest the engineering time that would have gone into crafting a custom Linux kernel and windowing system into beefing up Android's capabilities. While the GCE would not be available on all devices due to CPU limitations, Android applications could run both on pure Android environments and in a tab (or whatever) of the GCE. In turn, the GCE can take advantage of Android's telephony capabilities, OpenGL, OpenCORE, and other technologies that would have to be rebuilt or at least ported to Google Chrome OS. In one shot, you expand Android's relevance and ramp up the number of people capable and interested in building apps, even if some will only run on the GCE.
There are certainly areas of Google technology where having parallel competing efforts may be fruitful. For example, in the area of search, throwing more brains at their existing algorithms may not be as useful as having some people experiment in other areas. But Google's search algorithms are fairly mature; Android, powerful as it is, is not nearly as mature. Outside of office politics, it makes no sense to me to have two separate engineering teams developing two separate mobile operating systems, even if one is designed to scale downwards (Android) and the other is designed to scale upwards (Google Chrome OS). To me, the announced approach weakens both Android and Google Chrome OS through wasted engineering effort. It's not like Google has an army working on Android — why field a second disparate army for Google Chrome OS? In particular, why have two distinct open source projects competing for the same limited pool of potential mobile operating system contributors?
After all, it's not like this is new territory. Symbian has long been blasted for having what amounts to multiple operating system flavors, fragmenting the device market and developer ecosystems. It is only recently, with the Symbian Foundation, that they seem to have realized that they are better served putting out one compelling option than multiple distinct ones. While Symbian has been a success, their developer ecosystem has paled in comparison to most others. This does not bode well for Google's forking of their developer ecosystem through Google Chrome OS.
Maybe I am wrong. Perhaps I am misreading the announcement, or perhaps the Google Chrome OS and Android teams will be able to leverage each other's efforts, or maybe they will create some joint open source contribution framework to maximize what the community can bring to the table.
I just have the sinking feeling that, in 18 months' time, I'll be looking at Google Chrome OS, thinking about Android, and wondering what might have been.
- About Android Angle
- Mark Murphy is the founder of CommonsWare and the author of The Busy Coder's Guide to Android Development. A three-time entrepreneur, his experience ranges from consulting on open source and collaborative development for the Fortune 500 to application development on just about anything smaller than a mainframe. A polished speaker, Murphy has delivered conference presentations and training sessions on a wide array of topics internationally. Outside of CommonsWare, Murphy has an avid interest in how the Internet will play a role in citizen involvement with politics and government.
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bleh
yeah seems like a bad idea to me, who wants a watered down OS that can only do webstuff? I would much rather have an android netbook or win7.
Buzz Kill
This is terrible news to me. I have been so excited for the future of Android and this announcement does not support my vision.
Android was probably too slow
I'm disappointed too, but since we know Android was optimized for its memory footprint and not its speed -- in fact its Java speed is excruciatingly slow due to the Dalvik JVM -- it makes some sense for Google to create a different OS that's optimized for a different task.
They have a great opportunity to steal a decent share of the netbook market if they deliver a compelling and FREE alternative to the bloatware from Redmond.
Code forks could be a problem
With the exception of Windows Mobile 6, Windows 7 will not suffer from code forks. That's what makes an operating reach some level of ubiquity. Google Chrome OS will start off as a niche Linux variant with a brand name but I would be concerned about drivers and performance.
Paul Lopez
According to a WSJ post,
According to a WSJ post, Eric Schmidt said this yesterday in reference to Chrome and Android:
“Although it appears they are two separate projects, there’s a great deal of commonality,” Mr. Schmidt said. “Eventually they may merge even closer.”
I hope they do merge! I agree two separate teams working on two separate OSes seems like a waste!
To beat the IPhone too
I think that this new chrome thing should definitely be capable of running android apps.
One of the draw backs of Android is that my mom, my teenage brother, and millions of others all have the IPhone. When I tell them I have a G1 they say, what? and then I have to say, it's like an IPhone and they get it.
My point is, Android has to be more readily available and have more users than the IPhone before it is truly attractive to developers.
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