Chrome OS to launch this fall

I'll probably boot it up on my old netbook but probably won't use it in my day-to-day life. Heck, besides C# development and Office I'm on my web browser most of the time.

severedsolo said:

...1. The Best Option: You have an OS with "Basic" functions (text editing etc.) enabled, and all applications are stored but the "big piracy" targets (Games, etc.) are "authorised" by the cloud for you to use when you open them, until then although they reside on your PC they cant be used without a "key" from the cloud, which is good for say a week before needing reauthorisation (this would also solve the "what if im away from the internet" problem) Possibly the OS itself could need a weekly (or monthly?) check in too to combat Piracy. All personal Documents and Data are stored on the Local Machine, as it is basically a PC as we know it, just requiring the cloud to "clear" it for use...

They cannot restrict the use of software that way... they are basing this OS on Linux, so basically, restricting the use of the software is violating the GNU licence in which linux is based... I hope they are not planning an sell software on ths plattaform, many linux deplovers will be really pissed off and finally, Google will get more problems than ever...

See ya!!

Chrome Frame beta boosts security, browser integration

By Ryan Paul | Last updated about 19 hours ago






Google has released a beta version of its Chrome Frame plugin for Internet Explorer. The new beta includes an updated version of the rendering engine and brings a number of significant improvements to browser integration. The project has moved out of the proof-of-concept stage and is maturing into a useful tool.
Chrome Frame makes it possible for Internet Explorer to display content using Chrome's WebKit-based HTML rendering engine. When it is installed, it will be used instead of Internet Explorer's own Trident engine when the browser attempts to load a page that has a special meta tag.

The eventual target audience will consist of users who want to access next-generation Web applications, but still rely on Internet Explorer for rendering legacy IE-specific content. There are a lot of IE6 users at large companies, for example, that don't have the IT resources to rebuild their intranet software or roll out modern browsers. Chrome Frame could be a useful transitional mechanism for organizations that have a large installed base of old IE versions.

When the plugin was released last year, it was made available as a developer preview so that Google could collect feedback from the Web development community. It is now in beta, which signifies a higher level of robustness, but Google is still not yet actively encouraging its adoption in production environments. The software still requires more refinement before it will be ready for widespread use.

Google has made a lot of progress on the project and has addressed many of the plugin's limitations and security weaknesses. One major improvement is support for private browsing. When the user enables Internet Explorer's InPrivate mode, the Chrome Frame plugin will use Chrome's Incognito feature so that the user's browsing remains private. The plugin is also designed to better respect the user's IE settings.

"Since our initial launch, we've been listening to developers: instead of adding new bells and whistles, we've fixed more than 200 bugs to make integration with Internet Explorer seamless while improving security, stability, and performance," wrote Google engineers Amit Joshi and Alex Russel in a blog entry about the new beta. "For example, we've improved our handling of Internet Explorer's InPrivate browsing, cache clearing, and cookie blocking. All of the enhancements and features of Google Chrome 5.0 are available in Google Chrome Frame too, including HTML5 audio and video, canvas, geolocation, workers, and databases."

We tested the new beta version of Chrome Frame in Internet Explorer 8 on Windows 7 in order to evaluate the seamlessness of the plugin. It's very good, but there are still some weaknesses that have not yet been addressed. For example, the zoom-level slider and many context menu items are not accessible on pages that are rendered with the plugin. It also fails to correctly show thumbnail previews in the browser's Quick Tabs view. But the lack of support for these IE8 features is obviously not problematic when the plugin is used in older versions of the browser, which is likely the target use case anyway.

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Chrome Frame beta boosts security, browser integration

Chroimium is pretty cool; for those who use a Netbook for net-only activities it will be a better value, more stable, and faster than running something like Ubuntu, Win 7 Starter, XP, etc.

Having said that, I've played with it and don't have any personal use for it. I would take a little 10" netbook running full blown Linux for emails, watching movies, and surfing, but that's just me.

baarod said:

7 starter works well. I miss very little on my netbook. What annoys you? Remember that these distros only serve to get you on the web -- all of them, linux, Microsoft and Google. That's all they are for and nothing more. The rest is cake.

Yeah, I understand that...and I think that Win7 Starter is great for someone who isn't looking to do much. However, netbooks are getting more powerful, and some people (myself included) are picking them up for reasons more than getting on the net. I bought mine to take on business trips, where I use Photoshop and Dreamweaver CS5 on a regular basis. Starter just seems to limited to me, but I understand that could be because I'm more of a "power user" than a lot of people who buy netbooks.

Tepid said:

This will be awesome.

This will be much better than that anti-climactic Y2K thing...