In the announcement of the new Chromebook and Chromebox, I found this interesting tidbit: “And support for hardware-accelerated graphics, a built-from-scratch multi-touch trackpad and an open-source firmware stack provide a much faster and more responsive computing experience.” It’s the open source firmware stack that interests me. Does anybody know how extensive this is?
Maybe I missed it before, but this blog posting has a link to install Netflix in the Chrome browser.
Been waiting for Netflix on Linux for a long time!
Never mind, it’s just the classic browser front-end, but it does of course list Chrome OS as a supported platform.
Curious about this “open source firmware stack” as well.
I’m guessing Coreboot, but is that really a “stack”?
Edited 2012-05-29 23:01 UTC
coreboot + u-boot
coreboot only provides hardware init, so it requires something else (u-boot in this case; seabios, grub2, FILO, … in others) to proceed.
It’s not many layers, but I guess it could be called a stack.
Open^H^H^H^HFree BIOS = more choices for Richard Stallman, if/when his Lemote ( http://richard.stallman.usesthis.com/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lemote ) netbook dies.
Of course, I fully expect him to wipe out Chrome OS (however “nice” it seems to be becoming) in disgust
Sandybridge (which the new systems are based on) doesn’t execute even a single x86 instruction without an intel-signed binary only component in flash.
As I understand the FSF’s definition, that would be a “blob”. RMS will have to stick to Lemotes for a while longer.
Oh well. At least further developments ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lemote#Loongson_3A_laptop ) start to look quite interesting – and they should continue, considering China’s efforts to achieve technology independence.
I don’t think RMS cares much about lack of x86 compatibility
(though, from the Wiki article about Loongson, it seems like the architecture has some provisions for speedy x86 emulation)
I guess it only fits that People’s Republic of China might be the place that will bring Stallman ‘s dreams to reality…
(with the inevitable “spilling over” of their domestic technologies – first to Asia, then at least Africa and Latin America; most of the world, really)
… is the dustbin of computing history. It’s a solution looking for a problem. Here’s a suggestion, Google: Focus on user scenarios. Don’t try to get people to make your search engine the center of their computing activities.
Agreed.
really??
If I was to give an old family member a computer to use for email and facebook, this would probably be the safest bet.
of course, the pricing is ridicules at the moment
I think ChromeOS is a product before it’s time.
WebApps are becoming more and more powerful and feature rich. However there are still many things developers are missing to target consumers.
With that said I think the whole concept still could potentially flop.
But with so much cash in the bank do you really think Google is too far ahead of the curve to eventually realize success in this venue?