Google Chrome

[drplokta]

There's something that no one is mentioning with reference to Google's new web browser. Which is that if you read what the comic says about the browser, that's not a web browser, it's an operating system.

It has a programming language (Javascript). It has a filesystem/database (Google Gears). It has process management. It has window management and display logic. It has permissions-based security. This is not Google trying to compete with Internet Explorer, it's Google trying to compete with Windows -- or rather, make Windows irrelevant.

Comments

[andrewducker]

Not so much The Operating System as Yet Another Layer You Can Build Applications On.

It's more like, say, Java in that respect - build your app once, and it runs on any PC. Not that that worked for Java.

[brooksmoses]

Except that, now that the hype about Java's write-once-run-anywhere has all died down and people have moved on, it turns out that in fact it actually did work for Java enough to be useful in practice for a number of things, even if not enough to hit the ideal.

[andrewducker]

Oh absolutely - we use Java Webservices at work, and they're great.

I'm just remembering that when Java first appeared we were told that there'd be Java Word Processors out soon that would run everywhere. And I don't see them.

I don't expect any one tech to take over :->