- #GOOGLE CHROME OS INSTALL#
- #GOOGLE CHROME OS FULL#
- #GOOGLE CHROME OS ANDROID#
- #GOOGLE CHROME OS SOFTWARE#
- #GOOGLE CHROME OS CODE#
Instead of a Chromebook being a computer created and sold explicitly to run Chrome OS, a Chromebook could essentially become any computer on which Chrome OS is installed. That means the very definition of what a Chromebook is could expand exponentially. Well, it certainly seems reasonable to suspect most of that stuff will go away once CloudReady becomes an official Chrome OS offering, doesn't it? CloudReady presumably won't have any meaningful caveats at all at that point, in fact, as it'll ultimately just be an extension of Chrome OS.
#GOOGLE CHROME OS CODE#
"Over the long term, CloudReady will become an official Chrome OS offering."Īn official Chrome OS offering! Now, think back to what we were just talking about and the limitations caused by CloudReady being an unofficial product based on the open source Chromium OS code instead of the actual Chrome OS software. The most important takeaway of Google's Neverware purchase comes from a recently published FAQ on the purchase - with the emphasis being mine:
#GOOGLE CHROME OS SOFTWARE#
So why could it be such a big deal for Google to own and support the software itself? Let's get into that next. And that makes it a very compelling proposition for businesses, schools, and even individuals who have dated Windows or Mac systems sitting around and collecting dust. Still, CloudReady gives you an incredibly easy and impossibly affordable way to repurpose an old computer and turn it into a functional and familiar-feeling workstation - minor warts and all.
#GOOGLE CHROME OS ANDROID#
And the Play Store (and thus support for installing Android apps) is similarly missing in action. The exceptionally effective Powerwash system for resetting a device, which we talked about earlier this week, isn't available at all. Some Google services, such as Drive and Maps, don't always work as expected in the CloudReady environment. It can't play video from Netflix or certain other streaming services without some fairly involved workarounds. Neverware came up with a clever way of adding in its own proprietary elements to fill in the gaps and flesh out the experience, but there are certain elements it's never been able to reproduce.Ī CloudReady computer, for instance, is much more limited in the types of media files it's able to support.
#GOOGLE CHROME OS FULL#
It has the same structure and all the same basic components, but it lacks a proprietary layer of Googley goodness that completes the full Chromebook setup. What Neverware has been doing is using the open source version of the Chrome operating system, known as Chromium OS, to create a Chrome-OS-like experience and then support it with ongoing updates (which it provides at a similar cadence to Google, usually just a few versions behind).Ĭhromium OS is kind of like Chrome OS's skeletal foundation. The next time you start the system up, it looks and acts more or less like any regular Chromebook.Īs of now, the software isn't technically Chrome OS, nor is any computer running it technically a Chromebook.
#GOOGLE CHROME OS INSTALL#
You just follow some simple instructions to install CloudReady onto your existing Windows or Mac device, and - well, that's pretty much it. It sounds insane, but it actually works - and quite well, too. It then makes that software available to anyone - free on an individual basis and with licensing fees for fully managed enterprise and education arrangements - as a way to effectively convert any old computer into a Chromebook. Its primary purpose is creating a piece of software called CloudReady, which is basically a version of Chrome OS without all the Google-specific elements baked in. I first wrote about Neverware nearly five years ago, but the company's actually been around even longer than that. Ready to dive in? Neverware and the Chrome OS connection First, we need to talk a bit about what Neverware actually is, what it does, and what its product is all about - because all of that knowledge is a critical foundation for why its integration into Google is important. We'll get into why Google owning Neverware could be so momentous in a moment. But for anyone who pays close attention to Chrome OS, it's a company whose name carries some serious weight. Never who? Never mind - it isn't exactly a household name, I realize. Google, if you haven't heard, is buying a company called Neverware. Just as I was about to put my brain on auto-pilot for the remainder of the year, Google went and made a major purchase - one that may seem ho-hum on the surface but that could end up being one of the most significant expansions to Google's ambitions in ages.
0 kommentar(er)
