Google is building Chrome OS straight into Windows 8 | Hacker News Reader

Google is building Chrome OS straight into Windows 8

theverge.com

34 pointsrbcoffee15 comments

I don't get it. I noticed in a recent thread about Firefox that people like Chrome far more than I can understand. I still have an open tab with the recent 'Setting up a Chromebook Development Laptop' article - that really sounds interesting.

But why would any single person in this world run chromeos on a machine that runs Windows 8? The very same machine already either runs Windows (if that's your eco system) or is powerful enough to run Linux. Why would you _ever_ run Chrome OS here?

Put differently: What's the whole point of Chrome OS, unless bundled with cheap/slow hardware, as a kind of Damn Small Linux, the Web 2.0 version?

An environment, which many already have installed, sync'd across devices with bookmarks, history, applications, and full integration into Google's services all within the same application. Even though I would probably not use it, I could see it being a simple solution for a lot of people. Just open chrome and that is all you need. It is a little hilarious actually since it is exactly what Microsoft was trying to achieve with Metro (or whatever they call it nowadays).

Because these days, most users spend 95% of their time in the browser. And most of the time spent outside could still be spent inside (using Word, playing games, etc). ChromeOS is not just something designed for cheap hardware, it's a new user paradigm that recognizes the current and future trends of the way people use computers.

"What's the whole point of Chrome OS...?"

I don't get ChromeOS either. I find it completely unappealing. I'm guessing that Google realised that many computer users (perhaps the majority) spend most of their time in the web browser. Yet, to run a browser you need a complete desktop operating system. Perhaps Google considered this overkill and thought a browser-based operating system would make sense. Plus, as an internet company, they could integrate all their online apps and services into one seamless experience and gain even more users.

To me, the whole experience of using a browser-based OS like Chrome feels like a giant step backward, especially since you have to be signed in to a Google account to do anything. Want to set up your printer in Chrome OS? Yes, sign in first. Seriously, does that actually appeal to anyone? Plus, for your locally connected printer, you have to go through Google's cloud print service (and route all your print jobs through them).

As for their apps, they are too clunky and basic for many tasks (in my opinion). Take their word processor. You cannot even span a table cell (hardly an advanced function). Worperfect 5.0 could do this over 20 years ago. This is not progress.

It's not that users are spending most of their time in a browser, it's that browser technologies are quickly becoming an ubiquitous platform. The OS is not changing in a browser, the browser is changing in an OS.

The fact is many peope don't care about the word processor. The computer isn't an accounting and mail-printing device anymore. People buy phones and tablets, use iOS and android. ChromeOS is perfect for them.

The best thing that could happen to open source today would be to have an html5 desktop to replace gnome and friends for consumer devices.

Most users would do so without really understating what they were doing. As Google discovered through interviews on the street, most people don't understand what a browser is.

I see it as a way to get people into the ChromeOS ecosystem without having them jump in the deep end with a machine that can only run it. Consider you're a business ... you are already Google Apps users, your users spend most of their time in Google Apps. But not all of their time. There are still bespoke apps that only work in windows, a smattering of people that can't do without real PowerPoint or Photoshop or something.

Now you're going to purchase new laptops. For support you want to get the same thing for everybody. Are you going to get ChromeBooks? No, you can't. But could you get Win8 laptops and then rig them all to boot up straight to ChromeOS with a small escape hatch back to Windows land for those who really need it? Absolutely.

Of course, none of this flies just yet, but Google is all about skating to where the puck will be. So they are skating hard to this world where we are all more than satisfied to do everything in the cloud, and running anything locally seems a bit like changing your own engine oil or running a generator to make electricity would seem to us.

From Google's point of view, so people can "switch" without figuring out how to reinstall an OS. The upgrade path from "Windows 8 machine with Chrome OS" to "Chrome OS machine" is very attractive, especially when so many users were left with a bad taste in their mouth after upgrading from 7.

Interesting. Great for people completely submerged into Google's ecosystem but still clinging onto the Windows OS. For others especially who uses one or few of Google's products, this sucks. When I got my Surface Pro tablet, I just wanted to install Chrome Desktop, but nope, it automatically installs into the metro apps and goes ahead and sets itself as the default browser. The worst part is that it sucked compared to the IE metro. On desktop it doesn't get better, with the lack of support for High-DPI scaling, the touch events are about an inch away resulting in false clicks all the time.

I hope they don't ruin the Chrome browser with techniques used to promote Google+. I don't want to see a tomorrow where you download Google Chrome and it comes pre-installed with Google Drive, Google Docs, Google+ etc. Shoving things down people throat isn't going to end well.

As mentioned in the article, a browser has to be the default browser to be able to be a metro app due to the restrictions Microsoft puts on them. I haven't updated to Windows 8 yet, but at least according to the help article[1], the Chrome installer asks if you want it to be your default browser. That might be something they added more recently, though. HighDPI is coming[2]

[1] https://support.google.com/chrome/answer/95346?hl=en&ref_top...

[2] https://code.google.com/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=160457

>a browser has to be the default browser to be able to be a metro app due to the restrictions Microsoft puts on them.

Ahh I think I got into this whole limbo by trying to set Chrome as my default browser in Desktop and IE as the default in metro.

>HighDPI is coming

Glad to hear that.

I routinely now encounter non-tech literate friends who are experiencing trouble doing things like printing, or working with attachments, that they understood how to do using their native OS, and don't understand why things are different.

It always turns out to be that they are using Chrome.

I really don't get this. It doesn't make sense at all.

Its like going into McDonalds and finding a Burger King stall inside it.

This is going to be an experience as smooth as a 1974 land rover with no tyres on it.

When the user discovers that after a while owning a Windows computer and rarely going outside of Chrome, their next computer may not be Microsoft at all. It might be a Chromebook.

Like they know what the hell is going on?

Most people don't know the difference between Windows and Word. This is just going to confuse them further which is not a great way to win market share.

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