Google Chrome Operating System

 Google Chrome Operating System

 Google Chrome OS is an open source lightweight operating system (OS). It uses one-sixtieth as much hard drive space as Windows 7 and is intended for netbooks or tablet PCs that access Web-based applications and stored data from remote servers. 

The Chrome OS is so lean that boot time is about seven seconds. Google released the source code for Chrome OS in July 2009 under the BSD license as part of a larger project called Chromium. The operating system is built on top of a Linux kernel and runs on Intel x86 and ARM chips.

The only software application Google Chrome OS runs locally is Google’s browser, which is also called Chrome. Both the Chrome OS and browser share an auto-update feature that allows Google to push updates by using secure sockets layer (SSL). The end user is not able to refuse a security update or change back to a previous version.

Chrome OS is not available for download. Instead, Google is partnering with original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) including Samsung, Hewlett-Packard, Lenovo and Intel to manufacture hardware devices capable of using the OS. Although Chrome OS will support hard disk drives, Google is encouraging its partners to use solid-state drives, which have no moving parts.

Hardware

The laptops which use the Chrome OS are called Chromebooks. In 2012, Samsung released a desktop design called Chromebox. It was commercially launched in 2015 after the official partnership of AOPEN and Samsung. Chromebase was another Chrome OS enabled device. It was developed by LG Electronics in 2014. It had Chromebox hardware, monitor, camera, microphone, and speakers. In 2015, Chromebit was released. It is an HDMI Dongle that runs Chrome OS. It converts a computer monitor or TV display into a personal computer. 

Software

The updates to the software have a limited lifespan. The end-of-life span of the software is mentioned on the “About Chrome OS”-” Additional Details”. All the software developed from 2020 would have a lifespan of at least 8 years. 

Applications of the Chrome OS  

1. Chrome Apps- The developers of the OS, are asked to develop Chrome Apps which would be similar to the popular applications which are offline, which can be launched outside the Chrome browser and which are interactive in nature with multiple windows functionality. e.g. Media player and Google Docs
2. Android applications- In 2016, Google showcased its ability to run Android apps on Chrome OS supported devices. It had also introduced Apps Runtime for Chrome, which was later scrapped due to failure in the testing phase.
3. Linux Apps- Linux apps can be run on Google OS by making use of Crouton. Google announced that desktop Linux apps would officially be available in Chrome OS.

Architecture of the Chrome OS

The Chrome OS is built on the Linux kernel. It has a three-tier architecture comprising firmware, browser and window manager, and system-level software and userland services. Firmware is responsible for the quick booting. It also manages the recovery and verifies each step in the booting process thereby, providing security. System-level software is used for enhancing performance while booting. The Userland services have only essentials, that can manage programs in parallel, and delay services in the interest of fast booting. The task of the window manager is to handle user interaction with multiple client windows like other X window managers. 

Advantages of Google Chrome 

The Chrome operating system is lightweight and cloud-based. The complicated programs not present on the cloud cannot be accessed. It needs a constant internet connection to function.

The Google Chrome Operating System is an open-source technology. The source code is available to the people. The source code can be easily downloaded without any cost.

The Google Chrome operating system revolves around and resolves the need of people to use the internet and internet-related browsing and services.

Chrome is a very high speed browser that can run on ARM and ATOM processors as well.

The Chrome OS has inbuilt media player along with printing services. The people can play MP3 and also view JPEG files. It is integrated with GOOGLE CLOUD PRINT that allows people using Chrome to print.

Security of the Chrome is unparalleled with that upgrades itself automatically.

It supports the features such as Gmail, Google Docs and similar such services.

Limitations of Google Chrome 

It has limitations in information Security which make it vulnerable to several security attacks by hackers. Sensitive information is often accessed by hackers.

The Google Chrome is not compatible with all sorts of hardware. This can be improved in future versions.