Google’s New OS

Recently Google announced they are working on a new, custom version of the Ubuntu operating system to compete in the netbook arena–the low-cost, low-powered, small form factor laptops rapidly gaining market share. Google developing an operating system for this market is probably a great idea. The Android OS for phones has been very popular; netbooks are a step up from a smart phone and a step down from a full size laptop, so it seems like a natural and smart move.

The Ubuntu flavor of Linux has already soared in popularity, so Google basing their OS off it is an excellent choice. It is likely going to be fast and light-weight. Their aim is to move most functions such as email, documents, calendering, music….pretty much everything to the web. This OS will integrate “cloud computing” like no other up to this point.

Speed, simplicity and security are the key aspects of Google Chrome OS. We’re designing the OS to be fast and lightweight, to start up and get you onto the web in a few seconds. The user interface is minimal to stay out of your way, and most of the user experience takes place on the web. And as we did for the Google Chrome browser, we are going back to the basics and completely redesigning the underlying security architecture of the OS so that users don’t have to deal with viruses, malware and security updates. It should just work.

These are very noble goals and will be excellent if properly implemented, especially in the netbook form factor. One thing that gives us pause though is the inference it will be immune to viruses, malware and security breeches. While it should be very stable and I will be the first to admit Linux generally provides a very secure and resistant environment, I feel it is misleading to infer users won’t have any issues to deal with. If this OS is going to interact in anyway with any other program that users want to use, there is the possibility of infection and security issues. Flash, Java, for heavens sake even Adobe Acrobat have had their fair share of patches and security issues over time. As Roger Grimes over at InfoWorld points out:

Further, even if Google somehow manages to crank out a perfectly secure OS, it will still need to rely upon other organizations’ software to work. That, in turn, will almost certainly create chinks in the OS’s armor. For example, almost every Internet product relies on DNS, which has proved extremely hackable. Hack that, and you hack everything that relies on it, including otherwise secure browsers and OSes.

Beyond relying on DNS, how will the Google OS and browser render documents and content such as PDFs, Macromedia Flash files, iTunes music, and all other code and content that makes up the rich Internet experience? Google developers will have a hard time delivering all that functionality themselves. They would have to perfectly code every (or at least the most popular) content-type rendering engines. More than likely, Google will allow other vendors’ products to interact with their products, and that brings up dozens of security issues in a given month.

I’m even ignoring for the moment the reports that the Google OS will be a Linux variant. Linux itself has many kernel bugs a year. Google Chrome, the browser, relies upon other components (such as Web Toolkit) with have their own vulnerabilities.

It is important that folks talking about the new Google OS keep in mind that no OS operates in a vacuum. There will likely be some vulnerabilities found and exploited once it is actually released to the public.

With the initial release going to the netbook market and because so much of this OS’es functionally it will be web based, I have great confidence it will be very popular for use in this way. It seems like a great gap in the market to address. Personally, having more functionality than my BlackBerry while also being lighter, quicker and offering simple functionality for everyday tasks is highly appealing. I have been a big fan of the netbooks since they entered the market a couple of years ago-the way I see it, this has the potential to just be one more thing to love.