What's in it for programmers from Google Chrome Operating System? I'm curious from Java, Scala, C++, C# perspective.
views:
422answers:
7I think it's going to be open source, so I am looking forward to checking out a Google OS codebase. :) (I guess what's "in it" in this case is learning).
Basically, it's the wild frontier with the new OS. But, I believe they are speaking of running web apps on the desktop as opposed to traditional Win32/PECOFF executables from the OS. They are trying to move away from that model and create an OS for the SaaS model.
That being said, who's to say they won't have an API or development platform to run desktop applications. But, for now, from what I heard was that the OS will be open source and to run your app on it, the preferred method will be to put it on a web server somewhere on an intranet or ineternet...
That said, IMHO the java runtime will be ported and the Mono guys will definitely get something ported over I'm sure. The Google OS is slated to be open source, so we'll just have to wait and see what sort of groovy things are in it. Just like everything else (windows, facebook, PS3) there will be a way for programmers to make money from their apps tailored to the Chrome OS, assuming they get a market following. Bottom line? Money, that's what's in it.
It was just introduced yesterday, I read it is based on the Linux kernel so as a Java programmer I hope there will be a JVM soon.
Meanwhile nothing is in for me
Actually, whats "in it" for programmers will be web applications. Assuming that Chrome can take off (which I kind of doubt for now unless Google can bundle it at the manufacters), it will completely focus on web applications--PHP, Ruby, Python, ASP.NET, and of course JavaScript and HTML5 for the client side-- will be the real languages that will leverage the potential of Chrome.
Its going to be very stripped down on the client end. The value is that the user can be online almost instantly. The power will be what you can deliver of the web using HTML5 and JavaScript.
As far as I understood Google's blog post, local software will be linux based, so it should support current sofwtare aswell.
But the real thing about Chrome OS is web app, it's an idea to use web applications instead of software as we use now :)
I've heard it's a browser-based thing, so I recommend you look at Google Wave. The Wave video made me rethink what a web application (actually, what any application) is:
- Not just request/response (instead the software can push things onto your browser)
- Not just client/server (instead it can be interactive in real-time with other, remote users)
Google hasn't disclosed much (technical) information about Chrome OS, so I think it's a bit to early to answer this question. Nevertheless the announcement said it's based on Linux which is already capable of running software in the languages (C++, Java) you described.
As far as I know it's not even certain conventional desktop applications will be supported. It could well be happening inside the browser (oh wait the OS is the browser). Anyway if (local) Java applications are supported I'm curious whether Google will adopt the Sun/Oracle/OpenJDK VM or the Dalvik VM included in Android.