Comments on: Don’t expect Android and Chrome OS to merge any time soon

By: JohnWhitling

JohnWhitling — Fri, 01 Mar 2013 17:44:00 +0000

I wouldn’t necessarily like to see them merge into a “Windows 8 everywhere” OS, but I would vastly appreciate that apps could run on either platform. Whether that happens thru app versioning or an Android wrapper in Chrome I don’t much care ..

By: Zebelious

Zebelious — Thu, 28 Feb 2013 20:21:00 +0000

The notion of a desktop OS in small portable devices is not feasible and has no practical applications but the very reverse idea will be the best innovation since the birth of smartphones.

What needed is an interface (software framework) to pass the state of current active OS (Mobile), such as data, to the hibernated OS (Desktop) upon physical connection to an external hardware such as a monitor. In this approach both OSes can be maintained and developed independently and it allows the Software Framework (the interface) to be open-standard-architecture and cross-platform.

In my vision (you heard it first in here) the design allows running different OEM OSes on portable devices. For instance Mobile OS would be Android based but the Desktop OS can be Windows, Linux, or Mac OS X.

This is very much achievable once ARM supports 64bit processors, where RAM above 3GB is crucial. Advancements in Flash disk speed is also another key component in achieving a practical solution.

By: KEvo101

KEvo101 — Thu, 28 Feb 2013 18:08:00 +0000

Ah. What a beauty that chromebook pixel is but hell would I pay 1,000+ for a laptop that can’t run without internet! The 1tb free for 3 years is a great deal, it’s like buying the subscription and getting the chromebook for free. Haha I think they should do a half merge. I mean chrome OS would start up first and in the background android would be loading while you’re already using chrome os. Then you would have access to a larger variety of web apps and those designed for tablets on android! So you can have powerful apps if you choose to.

By: dima

dima — Thu, 28 Feb 2013 10:50:00 +0000

+1 to that. On the other hand, the guys from Ubuntu have done a great job delivering the same experience across different form-factor devices. I’m not a fan of Ubuntu, but the tablet & phone look gorgeous, and seems highly usable too, regardless of being more or less the same Unity UI. It’s like the CSS fluid layout in a way :)

By: SSTO

SSTO — Thu, 28 Feb 2013 09:34:00 +0000

True, but though the underlying framework of Android and ChromeOS can be shared, they each require completely different UIs and Drivers that support the respective form factors. As RobC pointed out, even trying to share the appearance of the same UI on different form factors – ie Windows8 – is a massive failure.

By: zeth006

zeth006 — Thu, 28 Feb 2013 06:48:00 +0000

The principle is good, but the actual concept in practice really sucked, but only because Win8 for desktop wasn’t really designed too well with the consumer in mind.

By: zeth006

zeth006 — Thu, 28 Feb 2013 06:47:00 +0000

My thoughts exactly. Keep them separate, and offer a few integration perks on the side like bookmarks or something. A complete merger wouldn’t bring too many more benefits.

By: Monolith NYC

Monolith NYC — Wed, 27 Feb 2013 22:11:00 +0000

I think any sort of merge would slow Chrome OS down… especially the boot up time. The whole idea (well at least originally) was that it was fast and light weight. You don’t need big specs. Android and Chrome are two very different systems, Android uses native apps and Chrome uses the web… they should remain separate. Although I think it would be interesting if you could plug your Android phone into your Chromebook and use the touchscreen.

By: Theo Winter

Theo Winter — Wed, 27 Feb 2013 21:05:00 +0000

mm not really, Android and ChromeOS both have a Linux core, and android is used on all kinds of devices not only cellphones.. with all the hardware and applications that are available for android it could be easily used as desktop or laptop operating system. So the distinction is not so clear as you would like to paint it.

By: Rob C

Rob C — Wed, 27 Feb 2013 20:54:00 +0000

What, Google going merge them into forming AndChroTron?
Seriously, we’ve seen attempt merging OS(s) in Phone & Laps… look at Win8. Is that fun..no.

By: anonymous

anonymous — Wed, 27 Feb 2013 20:40:00 +0000

Why would Android and Chrome OS merge…..one of them is for the cellphone market the other is for google’s laptops! There is no particular need for a merge anyway!