Google’s Chrome OS, Netbooks, and Rich Internet Applications

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The big news of the night is that Google is building an operating system (no, not Android) that’s based on Chrome. I’m not entirely sure of all of the details but I think it’s cool at first glance. It sounds like it’s going to be designed initially for netbooks and I like how they describe the OS:

Speed, simplicity and security are the key aspects of Google Chrome OS. We’re designing the OS to be fast and lightweight, to start up and get you onto the web in a few seconds. The user interface is minimal to stay out of your way, and most of the user experience takes place on the web. And as we did for the Google Chrome browser, we are going back to the basics and completely redesigning the underlying security architecture of the OS so that users don’t have to deal with viruses, malware and security updates. It should just work.

I think Google gets it: Netbooks are going to be huge and they’re going to be a place where the web can “beat” the desktop. In a lot of ways they’re the perfect combination for the next generation of the web. The devices are small, portable, probably going to be connected most of the time, and have memory and resource requirements that require an optimized experience. I love Windows 7 and think it’s beautiful, but I do wonder how well it will run on netbooks. Microsoft seems tepid in how much it’s going to support or encourage netbook use.

Netbooks: A Boon for Rich Internet Applications
But people moving to the web-centric netbook experience are going to want a close approximation to the desktop environment. User experience is still going to be important on these small devices. We’ve seen how important a great user experience is (and how much of a selling point it is) with the iPhone. Google is a lot of good things but they aren’t user experience gurus and they don’t get design.

So what fills the gap? If only we had a good, lightweight layer for this new operating system that could play video, support games, enable real time communication, and let developers create beautiful user interfaces that felt like desktop applications with a much smaller footprint. Oh wait, we do, it’s the next generation of rich Internet application technologies like Flash and Silverlight.

Isn’t the netbook: a hybrid mobile and PC device, the perfect fit for RIAs: hybrid web and desktop technologies? You get the audio/video aspect, a framework for building very rich user interfaces, real-time web connectivity, and an existing ecosystem of developers and designers. All in a small package that’s meant to run with less resources than a full operating system requires.

I think netbooks are going to be a big deal for RIA developers. I think it’s a large addressable market and things like Adobe’s work with ARM to optimize Flash for their chipset are going to pay performance dividends in a big way. Throw in the cross-platform aspect and you’ve got the perfect way to build applications for a hybrid web-desktop-mobile device like the netbook.

Pooneekay Vatsoom Ahdtuih

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  • JulesLt

    It’s a really interesting announcement. It has to be said that the mobile version of WebKit already does an awful lot that we need Flash to do in IE, but you’re definitely right that Flash is really required to bring the existing design oriented RIA developers to the platform, and I do hope Adobe can address the issues of Flash performance on non-Windows systems.

    I will admit how much my use of the Internet has been completely changed by having a MacBook where I can just open the lid and be online in a couple of seconds – we quite frequently just check stuff up while we’re watching TV on the sofa, because it doesn’t mean booting up to do it . . . but I can see even more how that will be replaced by a smaller netbook at some point in the future, and particularly once 3G access comes down (I don’t fancy paying $50 per device per month, but I’d happily go with a single provider for all my devices, and a restriction of only one in use at one time).

    Having seen various 9” netbooks in use, it strikes me that we need a similar rethinking to the iPhone UI for this mid-ground – even when they have a resolution better than a Y2K-era desktop, the widgets and text are all too small – and I have also long thought that for a lot of casual users something like the Splashtop approach (having a main app springboard, rather than a desktop, as the main screen) would be far more suitable – as in the real world, not everyone needs a desk.

    It’s interesting to note that unlike some Netbook providers, they are not intending to just use Android – I’ll be interested to see, in the coming weeks, the reasons why.

  • http://www.prettysmartstudios.com Mykola Bilokonsky

    So my immediate thought is, are we going to see an app store style mini-transaction-based central software retailer for these things? Will my AS3 skills finally be enough to make cool shit and sell it easily? Or should I just suck it up and learn C#…?

    This is a really interesting announcement, to me. I love MacOS and Windows 7 is certainly hot, but they are behemoths – but the next step down, to date, has been some form of phone OS.

    I think a netbook OS is really clever and I am eager to see how it plays out – especially if Google Wave becomes the ocean in which we’re all swimming, which I see as quite possible.

  • Davey

    How can you suggest this is good for flash? Google will spend their time optimizing the new os / browser for running javascript as fast as possible. Flash will be stuck relying on the chipset and look like a snail compared to ajax.

  • poker rakeback

    While the functionality of the netbooks may be improving, is reliability going to be an issue? To be honest, i’ve always steared clear of laptops because i like to keep my pc turned on 24 hours a day and laptops can’t handle that. How would a netbook cope with that sort of usage?

  • JulesLt

    Just done an ‘uptime’ and my laptop has been ‘up’ for 32 days – or since the last OS update. That’s longer than my work PC (one lightning induced power cut, one mysterious restart).

    Netbooks generally lack DVD/CD players and with a HDD that’s near enough zero moving parts.