The secret origins of Google's Chrome OS

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Google's Chrome OS, thanks to the growing popularity of Chromebooks , is being used by more and more people. Many people know that Chrome OS has a Linux foundation. But how Chrome OS developed from Linux, and exactly what is in Chrome OS today, has been something of a mystery -- until

now.

 

 

Chrome OS is quite pretty, but where did Google's Linux desktop did come from? Here is its story.

 

The actual origin of Chrome OS, even now, is unclear. Jeff Nelson, a former Google engineer, claimed that he created a "a new operating system" that "was originally code-named 'Google OS' and since 2009 has been released to the public under the product names, Google Chrome OS, Chromebook, and Chromebox." For proof, Nelson points to his patent, granted later, for network-based operating system across devices.

 

Nelson added that this "bare-bones Linux distribution," created in 2006, "was initially rejected by Google management" because you couldn't "use it on an airplane." Its interface was also the Firefox Web browser instead of the yet-to-be-invented Chrome Web browser.

 

In Nelson's take, the Chromebook was not intended to be another device for Web browsing, but a fully functional device for code development for a Google engineer. It was also not designed to be a Web-app-oriented operating system but "a super-fast operating system" that resided entirely in RAM.

 

In a Google+ posting, Antoine Labour, a Google software engineer, and as "one of the 3 original engineers on the project "and now "the most senior engineer currently working on the project," disagreed with Nelson's Chrome OS history. He doesn't see a connection between Nelson's project and today's Chrome OS.

 

http://www.zdnet.com...gles-chrome-os/

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