Google morphs Chrome OS into netbook thin client
Google’s Chrome OS — the operating system that moves all apps and data into a web browser — will provide remote access to “legacy PC applications” through a mystery process the company calls Chromoting, according to an email from a Google employee.
In a message posted by a third party to a public mailing list dedicated to the as-yet-unreleased Chrome OS, Google software engineer Gary Ka?mar?ík confirms the existence of Chromoting but gives few details. “We’re adding new capabilities all the time,” the email reads. “With this functionality (unofficially named ‘chromoting’), Chrome OS will not only be [a] great platform for running modern web apps, but will also enable you to access legacy PC applications right within the browser.”
Ka?mar?ík calls this an “official” statement.
Neither Google nor Gary Ka?mar?ík has responded to requests for comment. According to his LinkedIn profile, Ka?mar?ík is a former Microsoft software design engineer. He’s been at Google since 2006, and he works in the greater Seattle, Washington area, near Microsoft headquarters.
In the email, Ka?mar?ík says that Chromoting is “something like” Remote Desktop Connection, the Microsoft Windows service that gives you real-time access to distant PCs. Presumably, this means that Chrome OS will let you access applications running on your existing Windows, Linux, or Mac desktop. But in his email, Ka?mar?ík declined to elaborate.
Chrome OS is essentially Google’s Chrome web browser running atop a Goobuntu flavor of Linux. It will not run local applications other than the browser itself. All other apps will be accessed inside the browser, and this would now seem to include applications running on remote machines.
The OS is not due for official release until the end of the year, when it will debut on netbooks. Last fall, however, Google released a snapshot of code under the aegis of the Chromium OS project, and Ka?mar?ík’s email was posted to the Chromium discussion list by a non-Google developer.
Chromium OS source code includes references to a “chromoting plug-in,” and Ka?mar?ík mentions chromoting code during recent Chromimum IRC discussions.
