The Seminar Report on Google Chrome OS

Introduction

What is Google Chrome OS?

Google Chrome OS is an upcoming Linux-based, open source operating

system designed by Google to work exclusively with web applications. Announced

on July 7, 2009, Chrome OS is set to have a publicly available stable release during

the second half of 2010.

Chrome OS will not be available as a download to run and install. Instead, the

operating system will only ship on specific hardware from Google's manufacturing

partners. The user interface takes a minimalist approach, resembling that of

the Chrome web browser. Google Chrome OS is aimed at users who spend most of

their time on the Internet. Google Chrome browser has been redesigned in

underlying security architecture of the OS so that users don't have to deal with

viruses, malware and security updates. It should just work.

Google Chrome OS will run on both x86 as well as ARM chips the software

architecture is simple — Google Chrome running within a new windowing system

on top of a Linux kernel. For application developers, the web is the platform. All

web-based applications will automatically work and new applications can be

written using your favorite web technologies. And of course, these apps will run

not only on Google Chrome OS, but on any standards-based browser on Windows,

Mac and Linux thereby giving developers the largest user base of any platform.

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The Seminar Report on Google Chrome OS

What is Cloud Computing?

Cloud Computing is Internet-based computing, whereby shared resources,

software, and information are provided to computers and other devices on demand,

like the electricity grid.

Cloud computing is a paradigm shift following the shift from mainframe to client–

server in the early 1980s. Details are abstracted from the users, who no longer have

need for expertise in, or control over, the technology infrastructure "in the cloud"

that supports them. Cloud computing describes a new supplement, consumption,

and delivery model for IT services based on the Internet, and it typically involves

over-the-Internet provision of dynamically scalable and often  virtualized

resources. It is a byproduct and consequence of the ease-of-access to remote

computing sites provided by the Internet.

The term "cloud" is used as a metaphor for the Internet, based on the cloud

drawing used in the past to represent the telephone network, and later to depict the

Internet in computer network diagrams as an abstraction of the underlying

infrastructure it represents. Typical cloud computing providers deliver

common business applications online that are accessed from another Web service

or software like a Web browser, while the software and data are stored on servers.

Most cloud computing infrastructures consist of services delivered through

common centers and built on servers. Clouds often appear as single points of

access for all consumers' computing needs.

What is a Netbook?

Netbooks (sometimes also called mini notebooks or ultra portables) are a branch

of subnotebooks, a rapidly evolving category of small, lightweight, and

inexpensive laptop computers suited for general computing and accessing Web-

based applications; they are often marketed as "companion devices", i.e. At their

inception in late 2007 — as smaller notebooks optimized for low weight and low

cost — netbooks omitted certain features, featured smaller screens and keyboards,

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The Seminar Report on Google Chrome OS

and offered reduced specification and computing power. Over the course of their

evolution, netbooks have ranged in size from below 5" screen diagonal to over

11.6". A typical weight is 1 kg. Often significantly less expensive than

other laptops, by mid-2009, some wireless data carriers began to offer netbooks to

users "free of charge", with an extended service contract purchase.

Difference between Google Chrome OS and Chromium OS

Google Chrome OS is to Chromium OS what Google Chrome browser is to

Chromium. Chromium OS is the open source project, used primarily by

developers, with code that is available for anyone to checkout, modify and build

their own version with. Meanwhile, Google Chrome OS is the Google product that

OEMs will ship on Netbooks this year. Specifically, Google Chrome OS will run

on specially optimized hardware in order to get enhanced performance and

security. Chromium OS does not auto-update (so that we do not blow away any

changes you may have made to the code) while Google Chrome OS will

seamlessly auto-update so that users have the latest and greatest features and fixes.

Google Chrome OS will be supported by Google and our partners, whereas

Chromium OS is supported by the open source community, but they fundamentally

share the same code base. Google Chrome OS also has some cool firmware

features, verified boot and easy recovery, which require corresponding hardware

changes and thus also don't work in Chromium OS builds.

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History

Google developers began coding the operating system in 2009, inspired by

the growing popularity and lower power consumption of netbooks and the focus of

these small laptops on Internet access. To ascertain marketing requirements for an

operating system focused on netbook Web transactions, the company did not do

the usual demographic research generally associated with a large software

development project. Instead, engineers have relied on more informal metrics,

including monitoring the usage patterns of some 200 Chrome OS machines used

by Google employees. Developers also noted their own usage patterns. Matthew

Papakipos, engineering director for the Chrome OS project, put three machines in

his house and found himself logging in for brief sessions: to make a single search

query or send a short email.

On November 19, 2009, Google released Chrome OS's source code as

the Chromium OS project. As with other open source projects, developers are

modifying code from Chromium OS and building their own versions, whereas

Google Chrome OS code will only be supported by Google and its partners, and

will only run on hardware designed for the purpose. Unlike Chromium OS,

Chrome OS will be automatically updated to the latest version. 

InformationWeek reviewer Serdar Yegulalp wrote that Chrome OS will be a

product, developed to "a level of polish and a degree of integration with its host

hardware that Chromium OS does not have by default," whereas Chromium OS is

a project, "a common baseline from which the finished work is derived" as well as

a pool for derivative works. The product and project will be developed in parallel

and borrow from each other.

In March 2010 Google indicated that consideration is being given to developing

two versions of the operating system, a consumer version and an enterprise

version.

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Software Architecture

Chromium OS consists of three major components: 

The Chromium-based browser and the window manager

System-level software and user-land services: the kernel, drivers, connection

manager, and so on

Firmware 

Figure: High-level design

Firmware 

The firmware plays a key part to make booting the OS faster and more secure. To

achieve this goal we are removing unnecessary components and adding support for

verifying each step in the boot process. We are also adding support for system

recovery into the firmware itself. We can avoid the complexity that's in most PC

firmware because we don't have to be backwards compatible with a large amount

of legacy hardware. For example, we don't have to probe for floppy drives.

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Our firmware will implement the following functionality:

System recovery: The recovery firmware can re-install Chromium OS in the event

that the system has become corrupt or compromised.

Verified boot:  Each time the system boots, Chromium OS verifies that the

firmware, kernel, and system image have not been tampered with or become

corrupt. This process starts in the firmware.

Fast boot: We have improved boot performance by removing a lot of complexity

that is normally found in PC firmware.

System-level and user-land software

From here we bring in the Linux kernel, drivers, and user-land daemons. Our

kernel is mostly stock except for a handful of patches that we pull in to improve

boot performance. On the user-land side of things we have streamlined the init

process so that we're only running services that are critical. All of the user-land

services are managed by Upstart. By using Upstart we are able to start services in

parallel, re-spawn jobs that crash, and defer services to make boot faster. 

Here's a quick list of things that we depend on:

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D-Bus: The browser uses D-Bus to interact with the rest of the system. Examples

of this include the battery meter and network picker. 

Connection Manager: Provides a common API for interacting with the network

devices, provides a DNS proxy, and manages network services for 3G, wireless,

and ethernet.  

WPA Supplicant: Used to connect to wireless networks.

Autoupdate: Our autoupdate daemon silently installs new system images. 

Power Management: (ACPI on Intel) Handles power management events like

closing the lid or pushing the power button. 

xscreensaver: Handles screen locking when the machine is idle. 

Standard Linux services: NTP, syslog, and cron.

Chrome and the window manager

The window manager is responsible for handling the user's interaction with

multiple client windows. It does this in a manner similar to that of other X window

managers, by controlling window placement, assigning the input focus, and

exposing hotkeys that exist outside the scope of a single browser window. Parts of

the ICCCM (Inter-Client Communication Conventions Manual) and EWHM

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(Extended Window Manager Hints) specifications are used for communication

between clients and the window manager where possible.

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Design goals and direction

Minimum Booting Time

One of the Chrome’s best features is that its booting time is minimum. It claims to

boot in 7 seconds.

Goals for the drive partitioning scheme are as follows:

Speed - Support fast boot, where the boot loader is part of the firmware.

Simplicity - Support autoupdate.

Robustness - Recover from failed updates or corrupt partitions.

Openness - Allow developers to run operating systems other than Google

Chrome OS.

Goals for the boot process are as follows:

Support readily available development platforms so that Chromium OS

software can be built and tested without waiting for final

hardware/firmware.

Support a limited selection of off-the-shelf netbooks for internal trials of

Chromium OS.

Provide a secure and verifiable boot path for official Google Chrome OS

devices.

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User interface

Design goals for Google Chrome OS's user interface include using minimal screen

space by combining applications and standard Web pages into a single tab strip,

rather than separating the two. Designers are considering a reduced window

management scheme that would operate only in full-screen mode. Secondary tasks

would be handled with "panels": floating windows that dock to the bottom of the

screen for tasks like chat and music players. Split screens are also under

consideration for viewing two pieces of content side-by-side. Google Chrome OS

will follow the Chrome browser's practice of leveraging HTML5's offline modes,

background processing, and notifications. Designers propose using search and

pinned tabs as a way to quickly locate and access applications.

 Remote application access

In June 2010, Google software engineer Gary Kačmarčík wrote that Chrome OS

will access remote applications through a technology unofficially called

"Chromoting", which would resemble Microsoft's Remote Desktop Connection.

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 Hardware support

Google Chrome OS is initially intended for secondary devices like netbooks, not a

user's primary PC, and will run on hardware incorporating an x86 or ARM-based

processor. While Chrome OS will support hard disk drives, Google has requested

that its hardware partners use solid-state drives due to their higher performance and

reliability, as well as the lower capacity requirements inherent in an operating

system that accesses applications and most user data on remote servers. Google

Chrome OS consumes one-sixtieth as much drive space as Windows 7.

 Integrated media player

Google will integrate a media player into both Chrome OS and the Chrome

browser; enabling users to play back MP3s, view JPEGs, and handle other

multimedia files while offline.

 Printing

Google plans to create a service called Google Cloud Print, which will help any

application on any device to print on any printer. This method of printing does not

require any drivers and therefore will be suitable for printing from Google Chrome

OS. Mike Jazayeri, Google group product manager, wrote that the service was

prompted by a paradox inherent in an operating system designed expressly for

cloud computing. While the cloud provides virtually any connected device with

information access, the task of "developing and maintaining print subsystems for

every combination of hardware and operating system-- from desktops to netbooks

to mobile devices -- simply isn't feasible. The service would entail installing a

piece of software, called a proxy, as part of Chrome OS. The proxy would register

the printer with the service, manage the print jobs and give status alerts for each

job.

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 Link handling

One unresolved design problem related to both Chrome OS and the Chrome

browser is the desired behavior for how Web applications handle specific link

types. For example, if a JPEG is opened in Chrome or on a Chrome OS device,

should a specific Web application be automatically opened to view it, and if so,

which one? Similarly, if a user clicks on a .doc file, which website should open:

Open Office, Gview, or a previewing utility? Project director Matthew Papakipos

noted that Windows developers have faced the same fundamental problem:

"QuickTime is fighting with Windows Media Player, which is fighting with

Chrome". As the number of Web applications increases, the same problem arises.

 Security

In March 2010, Google software security engineer Will Drewry discussed Chrome

OS security. Drewry described Chrome OS as a "hardened" operating system

featuring auto-updating and sandbox features that will reduce malware exposure.

He said that Chrome OS netbooks will be shipped with Trusted Platform Module,

and include both a "trusted bootpath" and a physical switch under the battery

compartment that actuates a developer mode. That mode drops some specialized

security functions but increases developer flexibility. Drewry also emphasized that

the open source nature of the operating system will contribute greatly to its security

by allowing constant developer feedback.

Cros API

Cros is set of APIs that is implemented on the Chromium OS side and exposed to

Chromium via dynamically linked libcros.so file. It has been designed a versioning

system to make sure that Chromium OS will only boot up if we have the correct

version of libcros.so. If either the libcros.so version or the Chromium version is too

old, we catch that and disable login.

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Compatible Hardware

Companies developing hardware for the operating system include Acer, Adobe, 

Toshiba,  Intel, Samsung Australia, and Dell.

In July 2010, Google CEO Eric Schmidt said a Google-branded Google OS

netbook was unlikely, despite Google's having previously negotiated with a couple

of hardware manufacturers to produce it.

Schmidt has acknowledged that Chrome OS will be compatible with a smaller

library of applications than conventional operating systems, like Windows, which

support both Web- and client-based applications. That limitation, coupled with

Chrome OS having no licensing fee, has caused speculation as to the retail price of

Chrome OS devices.

In April 2010, Schmidt indicated that he expected prices for Chrome OS netbooks

to range from US$300 to $400, and thus be similar in cost to comparable devices

that ship with closed source operating systems. He also confirmed that Google will

supply the operating system for free, but it will be up to hardware manufacturers

and retailers to set their own prices for the devices.

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Market Implications

When Google announced the Chrome browser in September 2008, it was

viewed as a continuation of the battle between Google and Microsoft ("the two

giants of the digital revolution"). As of December 2009, Microsoft dominates

the usage share of desktop operating systems and the software market in word

processing and spreadsheet applications. The operating system dominance may be

challenged directly by Google Chrome OS, and the application dominance

indirectly through a shift to cloud computing. According to an analysis by PC

World, Google Chrome OS represents the next step in this battle. But Chrome OS

engineering director Matthew Papakipos has noted that the two operating systems

will not fully overlap in functionality. Users should be aware that Chrome OS

hosted on a netbook is not intended as a substitute for Microsoft Windows running

on a conventional laptop, which has the computational power to run a resource-

intensive program like Photoshop.

Although, Google stated that it was looking to launch on netbooks at the end of

2010, it is clear that the internet giant could challenge Microsoft on laptops and

PCs should it show its worth in the low-cost, small form-factor market.

Microsoft has been overjoyed with the reaction to Windows 7 since it launched in

late October and will feel confident that its latest OS can defend against all-comers,

but Google has both the financial might and popularity to potentially produce

something that is adopted by the public.

But Chrome OS is a seismic change from what people are expecting; and Google's

assertion that this is meant to be for secondary devices means that this is not meant

to replace Windows - at least not yet. Assuming that the Chrome OS lives up to

expectations and provides a polished, capable experience, there is still a long way

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to go before a Web-centric OS can even begin to replace the traditional desktop

operating system.

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Bibliography

1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chromium_OS 2. Pichai, Sundar (2009-07-07). "Introducing the Google Chrome OS". Official

Google Blog. Google, Inc. http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2009/07/introducing-google-chrome-os.html

3. "The Chromium Projects: User Experience" . Google. http://www.chromium.org/chromium-os/user-experience

4. Chrome OS – Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chrome OS

5. Netbook - Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Netbook

6. Cloud Computing - Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cloud Computing

7. Ten things to know about Google - http://www.techradar.com/news/software/operating-systems/10-things-to-know-about-google-chrome-os-614370?artc_pg=1

8. Chrome OS Strives to Replace Desktop Culture http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/blogs/network.html

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