Google gives sneak preview of Chrome OS

MANILA, Philippines - Now it can be told: The Google Chrome browser is now an operating system.

In a sneak preview to IT journalists in Singapore recently, search engine Google allowed a peek at its newest project — a lightweight, Web-based operating system for netbooks that promises to boot up in seven seconds or less.

 “We want the computer to boot up very, very fast. It should be ready to go as soon as you open up. Right now, the boot-up time of Google Chrome is about seven seconds. We are definitely shaving off a few more seconds by the time we launch,” says Caesar Sengupta, project management director.

But it isn’t just speed that Google wants in its OS and the computing experience. Simplicity and security are also very important components, Sengupta says.

“Most current operating systems were invented when there was no Internet. The Internet is a very new phenomenon. Now the world is very different. Now every computer is connected to everyone else in the world. We make sure that with Google Chrome, the system you are going to give people is much more secure,” he adds.

How secure, fast, and simple it is going to be, however, requires a more complicated explanation.

Security: No worries, fear

When you open a computer with a traditional operating system, you get a screen with a personalized theme, colors, and customized folders for files, software and various applications. To connect to the Web, you need a browser.

But there is a lot of stuff in an operating system that one has to deal with — backups, antiviruses, updates. You have to worry about the computer becoming slower, you need to defrag, optimize the hard disk and over time you have to buy malware or install upgrades.

Google’s idea of computer use is one that doesn’t require much maintenance, as most users don’t really want to deal with this stuff.

“What we are trying to get to is a very simple device. You don’t have to worry about anything,” Sengupta reiterates.

And so when the Google Chrome OS is launched in the market later this year, it will be bundled in netbooks whose motherboards and reference hardware were also designed by Google in partnership with OEMs.

While Chrome OS was developed completely in the open source and will be given to OEMs completely free, Sengupta says the OS will only be available in netbooks with software and hardware designed to provide very good user experience. This is because its security and other features that would allow fast boot-up time, for one, are built in the computer itself.

Sophisticated users such as developers, however, may download the core and use it in all kinds of computers, with no guarantee though for the same speed and security.

The computer used, for example, in the demo, didn’t have the reference hardware and software built by Google, so it booted up in 14 seconds — still, fast enough though by ordinary standards.

Simplicity: All in the cloud

One thing that is very different with using a computer with Chrome OS is that when you open the computer and it boots up in lightning speed, you get a blank screen with just the Google logo and space for user name and password.

When you log in, the Chrome browser automatically launches with your customized settings — your favorite websites, your preferred settings, your preferred theme. But where is the desktop?

There is no desktop because Chrome OS is entirely Web-based, or in more technical language, everything is in the cloud. Cloud computing, or the use of IT services on the Internet, is the future, Google believes.

According to Sengupta, most computers nowadays, especially in markets with higher broadband penetration, have started living their lives on the Net or online.

“Most people now use Web mail accounts. Very few people now use mail accounts downloaded onto the computer. That is one part of life that most people have moved on into,” he explains. “The first thing that people do with photos is upload them on the Web. That is also part of people’s lives that has moved online. Sooner, you will find a lot of people banking online. So we are looking at hundreds of millions of users globally spending their life online.”

It is very interesting, from Google’s point of view, that this set of users is a very fast growing segment. What is even more interesting is that the younger users tend to be predominantly of this type; they live most of their lives sort of online, and most of the services they use are called cloud services. There is the growing popularity, too, according to Gupta, of Web services like Gmail, Yahoo, YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter.

“But they still have to deal with regular computers, regular browsers, OS not optimized for the Web,” says Sengupta.

With Chrome OS, Google wants users to think of the way they use Gmail, Friendster or Facebook right now. “You can use it from any computer. You just go to any computer, type in your login and password and you’re in. You don’t have to worry about backing up your contacts because it is already taken care of. You don’t have to worry about updating it because every time you open it it’s the latest version. You don’t have to worry about security because of the security model of the Web,” he says.

“This is the kind of experience we like to bring with Chrome OS. You should be able to go to any computer, log in and all your settings and everything you were using should be able to come back. If you lose your computer, you just have to log in on another computer and you get back to where you last logged off.

If all the computing that you ever need to do is Web-based or online, there is no need for a hard disk. Chrome OS-powered netbooks will have no hard drive, only solid state drive because it is faster and more stable, Sengupta discloses.

Continuity: Completely in the open

Roughly 10 months before the official market launch, Chrome OS is a product that is still in development and is still evolving.

For one, the user interface or UI is still in the design stage. And because the product is being developed in the open, developers can take a peep and collaborate. In fact, Google wants that.

“We want people to look at the internal core, to examine the products. We want security experts to go in and find every vulnerability before we launch it. So by the time we launch it, there will be a few hundred engineers who have looked at this stuff,” Sengupta says.

“We hope to gather thousands of technologically sophisticated people to look at it. There might be people sitting somewhere who have ideas on putting a very interesting feature. He would be able to go in. It is a very different way of doing things,” he adds.

Google is also banking on the continuous development of Web applications and the steady rise of broadband penetration in many parts of the world to make this idea of an always-connected computer fly.

In the Philippines, the search engine giant is banking on the popularity of netbooks among computer users and the surprisingly high adoption rate for the Chrome browser.

To date, Sengupta says the market share of the Chrome browser according to StatCounter is 5.9 percent as of this month. In the Philippines, however, it is 9.41 percent.

The Philippine market is unique, Google admits, and it has high hopes for a country with roughly 24 million Internet users, 83 percent of which are members of social networks and spend an average of 17.8 hours per month on the Internet.

Although OEMs and major computer brands that Google is now working with have yet to announce the pricing scheme for the upcoming Chrome OS devices, many are expecting that because the operating system will be given completely free, it will contribute to lower price points for the new generation of netbooks.