3 ms·

Why bother, what does ChromeOS do that Android doesn't for a tablet?

2mur 16y ago
Agreed. I have a high amount of interest in buying an Android tablet (2nd gen of course, let someone else beta test your bugs out), and next to zero interest in a ChromeOS tablet. Android is a known quantity.
- cryptoz 16y ago
  One major difference is the update pattern. Chrome OS silently and constantly updates itself so that you will always be running 100% modern software. I hear more complaints about being stuck on old versions of Android than anything else about that OS. Chrome OS does serve a different purpose. Being so tightly integrated with the browser will definitely give you a better Web experience than you could ever have on Android. Then again, Android has a platform for running applications natively. What I'm trying to say is...they're different. Maybe you don't want one, and that's fine. But I suspect there are a lot of people who will.
  - apgwoz 16y ago
    > One major difference is the update pattern. Chrome OS silently and constantly updates itself so that you will always be running 100% modern software. I hear more complaints about being stuck on old versions of Android than anything else about that OS. Over the air updates are possible on Android post 1.6?. The problem is that the carriers have their own special requirements, so no one runs a stock image, and there are way too many different phones for HTC / Motorola to just whip up and ship changes out for so quickly.
nanairo 16y ago
Cheaper?
- Tichy 16y ago
  How would/could it be cheaper?
  - nanairo 16y ago
    Dunno... of the top of my head: no need for much local storage, no need for much GPU power (I don't think that's the market they are aiming it at), and stuff like that. But it's just a guess.
illumin8 16y ago
ChromeOS is probably worse for a tablet than Android. Imagine if the iPad only shipped with Safari and no other native apps. The uproar would be incredible.
- erikpukinskis 16y ago
  ChromeOS is trying to solve some of the last limitations of the web as an app development platform so that it doesn't need native apps. I would be surprised if this thing didn't support webcam/microphone access through the new HTML Devices API as well as WebGL. With Local Storage, Workers, and the other HTML5 APIs, ChromeOS will be the first time someone presents the browser as a application development platform on par with iOS and the other native platforms. This is incredibly exciting to me... it's a push back towards the "write once, run anywhere" spirit of the web. Not all developers want to write a web app and two or three mobile apps just to get good market coverage. My hope is that Google uses ChromeOS to start building a stable of apps built with web technologies that can compete with the native app stores, that they slowly replace the Android Market with it, and that Apple and Microsoft will support these new web platform technologies in their mobile browsers, and 5 years from now, the web is again the only app platform that matters.
  - illumin8 16y ago
    I agree that HTML5 is an awesome spec. With iOS, HTML5 developers can access native hardware like Location APIs (GPS), cameras, etc, however, the spec is still in it's infancy. Remember when Netscape was supposed to replace the desktop and Microsoft started to get scared? HTML5 has the potential to do that, and I personally would love to see it start to replace thick apps, but we're still a few years away from being able to do everything on the web.
antics 16y ago
Yeah, well, what does the iPad do that the Android doesn't? The game is not, and has never been, about feature exhaustion. Slashdot famously wrote about the iPod [http://apple.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=01/10/23/1816257 http://apple.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=01/10/23/1816257], "No wireless. Less memory than the Nomad. Lame." And we all know where that went. Apple built their house by making a lack of (what people thought were very) important features cool. ChromeOS is basically a browser with legs, which is certainly a step in that direction. So maybe the fight is not off.
rortian 16y ago
I'm much more excited about Chrome OS than Android. You get a full featured browser as your default environment, not some weird descendant of Palm. I do appreciate widgets and such are cool on android, but give me an SVG/Canvas version of those any day.

2mur 16y ago

Agreed. I have a high amount of interest in buying an Android tablet (2nd gen of course, let someone else beta test your bugs out), and next to zero interest in a ChromeOS tablet. Android is a known quantity.

cryptoz 16y ago
One major difference is the update pattern. Chrome OS silently and constantly updates itself so that you will always be running 100% modern software. I hear more complaints about being stuck on old versions of Android than anything else about that OS. Chrome OS does serve a different purpose. Being so tightly integrated with the browser will definitely give you a better Web experience than you could ever have on Android. Then again, Android has a platform for running applications natively. What I'm trying to say is...they're different. Maybe you don't want one, and that's fine. But I suspect there are a lot of people who will.
- apgwoz 16y ago
  > One major difference is the update pattern. Chrome OS silently and constantly updates itself so that you will always be running 100% modern software. I hear more complaints about being stuck on old versions of Android than anything else about that OS. Over the air updates are possible on Android post 1.6?. The problem is that the carriers have their own special requirements, so no one runs a stock image, and there are way too many different phones for HTC / Motorola to just whip up and ship changes out for so quickly.

nanairo 16y ago

Cheaper?

Tichy 16y ago
How would/could it be cheaper?
- nanairo 16y ago
  Dunno... of the top of my head: no need for much local storage, no need for much GPU power (I don't think that's the market they are aiming it at), and stuff like that. But it's just a guess.

illumin8 16y ago

ChromeOS is probably worse for a tablet than Android. Imagine if the iPad only shipped with Safari and no other native apps. The uproar would be incredible.

erikpukinskis 16y ago
ChromeOS is trying to solve some of the last limitations of the web as an app development platform so that it doesn't need native apps. I would be surprised if this thing didn't support webcam/microphone access through the new HTML Devices API as well as WebGL. With Local Storage, Workers, and the other HTML5 APIs, ChromeOS will be the first time someone presents the browser as a application development platform on par with iOS and the other native platforms. This is incredibly exciting to me... it's a push back towards the "write once, run anywhere" spirit of the web. Not all developers want to write a web app and two or three mobile apps just to get good market coverage. My hope is that Google uses ChromeOS to start building a stable of apps built with web technologies that can compete with the native app stores, that they slowly replace the Android Market with it, and that Apple and Microsoft will support these new web platform technologies in their mobile browsers, and 5 years from now, the web is again the only app platform that matters.
- illumin8 16y ago
  I agree that HTML5 is an awesome spec. With iOS, HTML5 developers can access native hardware like Location APIs (GPS), cameras, etc, however, the spec is still in it's infancy. Remember when Netscape was supposed to replace the desktop and Microsoft started to get scared? HTML5 has the potential to do that, and I personally would love to see it start to replace thick apps, but we're still a few years away from being able to do everything on the web.

antics 16y ago

Yeah, well, what does the iPad do that the Android doesn't? The game is not, and has never been, about feature exhaustion. Slashdot famously wrote about the iPod [http://apple.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=01/10/23/1816257 http://apple.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=01/10/23/1816257], "No wireless. Less memory than the Nomad. Lame." And we all know where that went. Apple built their house by making a lack of (what people thought were very) important features cool. ChromeOS is basically a browser with legs, which is certainly a step in that direction. So maybe the fight is not off.

rortian 16y ago

I'm much more excited about Chrome OS than Android. You get a full featured browser as your default environment, not some weird descendant of Palm. I do appreciate widgets and such are cool on android, but give me an SVG/Canvas version of those any day.