Weblog entry #340 for simonw
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what was being rumoured.
Became apparent a lot of commentators have failed to understand the distinction between GNU, and the Linux kernel.
Since it appears the new OS will have a Linux kernel, but it seems it may not have the traditional GNU tools (or other Unix like replacements) that usually come with this kernel.
Who knows maybe folks will need a term to distinguish Linux based devices from GNU/Linux based systems. Although most folks have managed to ignore this distinction on Linux based routers, phones and embedded devices, but then the average user doesn't have to know how most of these work. Although I get the impression you shouldn't need to know that with Google Chrome OS.
Seems RMS may have been right for his insistence on an appropriate name for reasons other than those he stated, +1 for precision in using language.
Ironically it is the FSF who are funding a load of Linux kernel related work to try and resolve some of the issues that Chrome OS also tries to address.
Comments on this Entry
Personally I felt that Google would not be daft enough to enter the desktop arena, even with their deep pockets and strong brand. It looks like they are building a light-weight webtop system built on a a Linux kernel, which isn't a general purpose OS if the reports in the media are correct.
You have a point, it may not have much of a GNU userland, it may be nothing more than a fast boot system, a Linux Kernel, a BusyBox userland, running their own graphical front end which is not much more than a Chrome Browser.
The good news from this is that money may be thrown at getting good hardware support into the kernel for laptop hardware - which is always awkward to get from the hardware companies. The emphasis on ARM hardware rather than x86 is always good for a cross platform system like Debian as it will probably improve non x86 package coverage as people install Debian onto their Google hardware...!
I wonder if they will use Debs to package their files up? Google are known to use a lot of Debian and Ubuntu internally.
--
"It's Not Magic, It's Work"
Adam
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