If Google’s new browser isn’t even available on Linux, why is this great news for Linux?
September 2, 2008
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First let me state the obvious. If Google’s new browser is successful then the desktop operating system just became a lot less important. This is great news for Linux.
That begs the question: If Google’s new browser isn’t even available on Linux, why is this great news for Linux? Because in a world where most people access their applications through a browser it makes little sense to have PC’s that are loaded with a heavy and bloated operating system. In particular in makes a LOT less sense for people to PAY for a heavy and bloated operating system. Count on seeing a Linux version of the Google browser very soon.
Michael Arrington over at Techcrunch said it best.
“When combined with Gears, which allows for offline access (see what MySpace did with Gears to understand how powerful it is), Chrome is nothing less than a full on desktop operating system that will compete head on with Windows.”
Most people are looking at the Google announcement as bringing much needed competition to the web browser front between Microsoft’s IE, Apple’s Safari, and Mozilla’s Firefox. This misses the bigger point. The real battle is about what the future development platform for mobile devices, personal computers, set top boxes, and more.
The last several decades of computing have been ruled by the owner of the development platform. Windows has been successful because the large majority of business applications and consumer applications ran exclusively on that platform. If you wanted to use an accounting application or automate your sales force you needed to run Windows software on your desktop to do it.
Internet applications are changing all of this by making the need for desktop specific code irrelevant. There is an entire generation growing up spending the majority of their time only using a web browser. They are on Facebook, their email is Yahoo mail or Gmail, they shop on Amazon, they use Google apps, they run web based instant messaging clients. That generation will just as easily spend their workdays logged into Salesforce.com or other hosted applications in the Internet cloud.
How does this relate to Linux? The future of the desktop client is moving towards accessing cloud-based applications in a browser through multiple devices and multiple mediums. Wireless phones, set top boxes, netbooks, desktop PC’s over a variety of networks is the future. The personal computer is not the future; it is hundreds of devices running on dozens of chip sets, with thousands of different components that is the future. This is a world where the personal computer starts to be priced and feel more like a cell phone and a cell phone looks more like a PC. In this world Linux is really the only answer. It supports every imaginable chip set. It is free. It can be custom branded. And no single entity can control it and thereby become a bottleneck to innovation.
Google’s vision is perfectly aligned with this world. They have made their browser open source and based on industry standards. They want to maximize the ways in which people can use the browser to create interesting and unexpected applications. They want to make sure that the doorway to the Internet, the web browser, remains free and competitive because for them the internet IS their killer application. Firefox has already gone far to this end and Google will inject even more energy into a competitive open browser. As long as more people use the web Google becomes for successful because search becomes more valuable for them.
Good for the internet. Good for Google. Good for Linux. Not bad.
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Probably right, Jim, so when do you send in your resignation notice?
This is desktop Linux’s only real chance to be relevant…by becoming blissfully irrelevant. It also means you should hurry and jump ship to go to Mozilla.
As long as Linux is at the heart of almost every form of computing in the world, I am confident there will be a role for the Linux Foundation.
By the way, did you mean I should jump ship to Google or Mozilla?
I didn’t get enough time to read your full post, but i read on the official google blog yesterday that they plan to release mac and linux in the near future.
I see it’s already being trolled by Mac fans.
Giving the influx of nettops, clould computing with garner a lot of support. The desktop as we now know it will go through changes. Social computing through the cloud will definitely be a big hit, if not already. Nobody in their right mind will want to regress to the computing environment of months ago (an over-bloated OS which requires too many resources to do less than it’s previous iteration). GNU/Linux/FOSS is evolving in ways Redmond will never be able to keep up.
People will still want control over their data, (publishing, video editing, programming, etc.) so GNU/Linux in its current form will not go away. If anything, it will become better.
You’re right. Google are actually building a Linux version as we speak. And as the code is licensed under the BSD-License, its on Google Code right now. Go download the source. Now.
OK, I will speak my mind.
While I really respect the tech that has gone into Chrome I really hope Linux distros will improve Privacy. I don’t want to tell Google everything I do in a browser.
That has to be disabled.
I will also need a good Adblocking solution, that will probably only work once plugins work or the project is forked.
Until those two things are adressed Chrome won’t replace Firefox in the Linux world IMNSHO.
Tolchi? ??…
If Google’s new browser isn’t even available on Linux, why is this great news for Linux? : Jim Zemlin…
That cloud everyone seems so enamored with hides two important flaws: data security and ownership. While hooking people with the idea of being able to access data and settings from anywhere with low-power, almost-thin clients, the issue of who owns the data you store on a remote server is conveniently clouded and the problem of data theft is ignored altogether. When those issues are dealt with honestly, I may begin to consider the possibility of taking advantage of such a system.
But what will happen, do you think, if everyone moves their data to some amorphous cloud? If that happens, everyone will be charged a fee for the privilege of accessing data they only think they own while maintaining the illusion that “their” data is secure.
The death of the Personal Computer has been bandied back and forth by the media for decades. And whether it’s the return of the mainframe, the introduction of the internet appliance, or this cloud computing concept, the bottom line is that computer users don’t want to give up having their own computer. They don’t want to share their resources with anyone else. In fact, the only ones who want to share resources in the first place are those selling the services to do so.
In addition, in a world where it seems that nearly everyone “out there” is against you (either directly or as a result of their being part of a Botnet), becoming even more dependent upon the Internet is about as foolish as riding the subway with your life savings scotch taped to the back of your coat.
In my humble opinion, the future of computing is Extreme Paranoia. Trust No One. Delete *Before* Reading. You get the idea. In such a future, the Google Browser will certainly have a place, but only to guarantee an absence of the kind of Monolithic Software presence that leads to widespread malware infections. Internet Explorer, I’m looking at you!
Mr. Zemlin this is good for open-source in general. The fact that they chose to support Windows first and foremost is a slap in the face to all the people’s hard work they chose to use. Once again, the ideals and infrastructure that got them here have taken a second-seat to Redmond. From an open source standpoint, cool. From a Linux standpoint, byte me.
All the hand-waiving in the world will not change that.
Jeff
Matt, if Linux on the desktop is as pointless as you claim, then why do you have to spend SO much time attacking it all over the internet? Not a day goes by that you don’t attack Linux on your blog or on sites like this, it seems to me as a casual observer “that thou dost protest too much”.
Has anyone using Chrome noticed that Google is targeting ads on any and every site you visit. You see Google ads only if you use Chrome. Sites that don’t support ads even have Google ads in them. Its takes up my real estate and ads in general are really annoying.
Shame on you Google.
[…] Matéria disponível em Linux Foundation […]
Both Microsoft and Apple regards Linux as THE serious threat. The attacks on Linux is just their fear materialising. If it wasn’t a threat - why bother? Apple and Microsof lives happily together.
I share the privacy concerns lined out above. But the thing is: The average user of computers and internet is blatantly ignorant. The average user is clueless and as long as there is a firewall and antivirus he feel 100% safe. (Why would anyone bother with little me?)
As Linux concerned there is a new thing called KDE 4.1 which to a certain extent prepares for this “cloudy future”. Some pretty interesting effort is made to get KDE 4.1 up and running on Nokia Surfboard. Linux is simply the most suitable platform. Mr. Zemlin mentions “any chip out there”. Equally important is scalability.
It is indeed smart to launch on Windows first. It creates the impression that this is mainstream and clouds the opensource/linux bit. Launching on Linux first will keep Chrome nerdy and inedible for many Windowsusers.
KDE 4.1’s soon to be availability for OSX and Windows will over time make the underlying kernel irrelevant. So the enterprises will implement KDE 4.1 - the rollout will be very controllable and when everyone have made the swap…. Well - that’s when the enterprises will make the move to Linux kernel/subsystem as well. Without users noticing it. (Suppose that’s the end of the USBstick threat in enterprises as well?)
Hello stupid!
What say you talk about those shady lines in the EULA of Google Chrome!
Talk about OWNING your ASS!
Are you bribed by Google?
While the de-monopolization (if that’s even a word) of the OS market is helped by the migration from OS to browser as the base for ‘computer operations’, I think you should tread carefully in your praise for Google. Dominance by Google is likely to be as bad as dominance by Microsoft in the long run. I prefer to be very carefully optimistic about these developments, at least until we can see the real effects on the way people use computers.
So yes I use the web, the web is great, but I would never use it to do any real work except email on this “cloud.” Having a great operating system is just as important, if not far more. For example if you are at work and you use OpenOffice would you switch to Google Docs? Of course NOT, programs on your computer are far more powerful than their web based counterparts and you probably would be missing many more features than acceptable by switching. This is why Linux is important, it runs programs on your computer (which are important.) This being all said Chrome is just a web browser and a pretty good web browser, but it IS JUST A WEB BROWSER, NOT AN OPERATING SYSTEM.
Biggest Problem with Chrome:
No Stumbleupon
Annnnnd Firefox wins.
[…] Opinião de linuxeiro sobre o Chrome. (Dica do Alex Piaz na Webees) Em tempo: instalei e gostei do bichão. Não, não estou usando. A grande “diversão” da semana foi o Abril Blogs. Entrevista bacana do Sergio Amadeu a um jornal sindical. Ele fala como sempre da questão internet e democracia. Tema essencial enquanto o TSE continua a negar nosso direito à livre expressão na Rede e continuamos ameaçados pelo PL do Azeredo… […]
They’re working on the Mac and Linux versions, you can sign up for updates on it at google.com/chrome
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Please donate your old boxes to a church-group or some needy student in these hard times! To comply with the law, and with Microsoft’s leasing policy, you can now replace Microsoft OS with the free (download from the net) Ubuntu OS, which can be set to erase the hard drive of all traces of the “illegal to give away ” Microsoft system and your private information, before donation! Now, explain to your lucky recipient that all the manuals they will ever need are available for free on the internet! Just ask for them in Google! OpenOffice, which is installed already is plenty adequate for homework assignments and with a little exploring, everything else can work well too! Happy computing!