
Five Things Google’s Chrome OS Will Do for Your Netbook - PeterRosdahl
http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2009/07/five-things-googles-chrome-os-will-do-for-your-netbook/
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sanj
* web based applications don’t require that much horsepower on the client end so it should be faster still*

I've heard this a lot and I simply don't buy it. Assuming that the apps are
Javascript-based (which all of Google Apps are today), the overhead of the
interpreted language is going to slow things down as compared to something
compiled down to the metal.

It is possible that Google will go the route of using its NativeClient, but
that'd be a pretty big departure.

~~~
patio11
_the overhead of the interpreted language is going to slow things down as
compared to something compiled down to the metal_

Welcome to the Java vs. C debate, previously the C vs. assembler debate,
previously the assembler versus hand-coding machine code debate. Computers
these days, even netbooks, are _fast_. Very, very breathtakingly fast.

There has also been a significant amount of work done in VMs, much related to
Java, which has delivered tremendous performance boosts to interpreted
languages. Google has a very talented VM team working on Chrome's JS execution
engine (SpiderMonkey or something, can't remember off the top of my head).

But really, after you get past Wolfenstein done in Javascript
(<http://www.nihilogic.dk/labs/wolf/> ) how more does the typical user
actually need? After that it isn't a matter of CPU cycles, its the programmers
coming up with non-painful ways to develop software to use them.

~~~
Sindisil
BS. There are _never_ enough cycles.

First, SpiderMonkey is the next-gen JS engine for FireFox. V8 is the Google JS
engine.

Second, Flash Player 10 is as good or better than any JS engine (with the
possible exception of V8), and many Flash games bog on my netbook.

Just one example, but, as more capable web apps come online, the bar will
rise, and more cycles will be called for.

You're right that this is similar to the Java vs. C (or C++) debate. And, as
with that debate, the answer is that, for many application domains, native
code has a significant performance advantage.

~~~
ramidarigaz
On windows and mac, your point about Flash 10 being faster than JS is probably
true. However, Flash 10 on Linux is BUGGERALL SLOW. Fullscreen Youtube videos
are jerky and slow on my 2.2ghz processor. JS is _much_ faster on Linux than
Flash.

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jacquesm
Interesting, but a netbook running linux also does not have the microsoft tax
associated with it and can do all that googles os promises and more.

Things that come to mind:

\- work when you don't have a network connection

\- store a sizeable amount of media to entertain you while on an airplane

\- use 'skype' and several hundred thousand open source packages

It does boot slower, but I find it hard to benchmark software that hasn't been
released against software that does exist.

I wouldn't be sad one bit of google threw their weight behind linux adoption,
for them to go and launch yet another OS to fragment the market is not what I
was hoping for.

~~~
sjs382
Until you've seen it, I don't think its safe to make those assumptions.

~~~
trezor
Neither would it be safe to to assume anything about the OS before it has been
released.

Yes article, I am looking at you: "it _should_ be faster", "Google is
_promising_ boot times measured in seconds", " _If_ Google can come up", "we
_might_ just have the ultimate", "Google _may_ use these"

That is: should, promising, if, might, may. Not a single bit of concrete data
at all, just pure speculation.

I know Google has released quite a few solid products, but aren't we giving
them too much credit on something yet to be delivered? Google may know how to
run servers and write web-apps, but why are we assuming they know anything
about how to build a decent client OS?

If Microsoft was to release anything like this, with just as little data, the
entire tech press would be up in arms about how this was going to fail.

I guess I'm getting about as tired about the Google-hype as the iPhone-hype. I
use both, but that doesn't mean I believe in magic before I see it.

~~~
edw519
"If Microsoft was to release anything like this, with just as little data, the
entire tech press would be up in arms about how this was going to fail."

For good reason. They have ample precedent of huge Microsoft failures. Google,
not so much (yet).

~~~
jacquesm
Google groups ? Google Video ? Click-to-call ? Google notebook ?

~~~
redorb
I think groups has their niche` users and those that stick are very high
quality, and google video would still be going but they bought YouTube, which
is probably turning out to be a great move.

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shadytrees
#6: It will start floating.

~~~
cdibona
#7 it will make it taste like cake. Sweet, sweet cake.

