Chrome OS Switches To "Freon" Graphics Stack To Replace X11

[rabcor]

I think this was a relatively smart play, unlike Canonical, Google didn't need all the overhead of supporting a full display server when all their OS is used for is web browsing to begin with, you only need to run one program and anything else can just be overlayed, it makes sense for them, they don't need typical display management, and for them it would just be unnecessary code. It's a bit of a drastic move though considering Wayland would have probably been enough for them, but google is as google does, they have the money, so why not?

I don't see why canonical would use MIR over just working on Wayland though; they initially planned to use wayland, I wonder what idiocy caused them to change their mind and for the third time reinvent the same wheel...

[smitty3268]

I think this was a relatively smart play, unlike Canonical, Google didn't need all the overhead of supporting a full display server when all their OS is used for is web browsing to begin with, you only need to run one program and anything else can just be overlayed, it makes sense for them, they don't need typical display management, and for them it would just be unnecessary code. It's a bit of a drastic move though considering Wayland would have probably been enough for them, but google is as google does, they have the money, so why not?

I don't see why canonical would use MIR over just working on Wayland though; they initially planned to use wayland, I wonder what idiocy caused them to change their mind and for the third time reinvent the same wheel...

They don't have to support every random laptop/hardware combo out there either, they can concentrate on just the DRM layer for the GPUs they are shipping ChromeOS on (I'm guessing recent Intel chips only) which is a much smaller target.

A lot of the work of getting Wayland/Mir/etc. running has been making sure that all the old apps can still run, and on all existing hardware.

[Lennie]

To me, Chrome OS has exactly one function: keeping Chromebooks on the market for those of us who trust neither Windows nor Google to install Linux on without any of that Secure Boot or Boot Guard crap. Google uses a hacked Coreboot under ChromeOS, and I hear that once put into "developer mode," theses machines can take upstream Coreboot and then any distro you want. If you don't want to screw with firmware, using the "developer mode" switch will let you boot any other distro at the penatly of an added 30 seconds boot time anyway. A lot easier than having to first pay for, then defeat Microsoft's boot-time "security."

All those people making Google accounts and selling their personal information to the highest bidder are at least subsidizing this alternative to dealing with Windows, at considerable price to themselves. Personally I refuse to have accounts with Google or with Facebook, and in fact have both servers blocked except through Tor, along with all their data-mining sharing widgets.

If most computer users thought this way, computer makers would produce for the resulting market, probably throwing up their hands about OS issues and selling machines with empty disks. Most machines would actually be cheaper, as presumably only part of the no longer paid "windows tax" would be pocketed by OEM's or stores.

That is exactly what I use it for.

I have an ARM Chromebook, it also has no Intel Management Engine, which is a security risk and DRM:

http://www.alexrad.me/discourse/why-rosyna-cant-take-a-movie-screenshot.html

[Lennie]

I think this was a relatively smart play, unlike Canonical, Google didn't need all the overhead of supporting a full display server when all their OS is used for is web browsing to begin with, you only need to run one program and anything else can just be overlayed, it makes sense for them, they don't need typical display management, and for them it would just be unnecessary code. It's a bit of a drastic move though considering Wayland would have probably been enough for them, but google is as google does, they have the money, so why not?

I don't see why canonical would use MIR over just working on Wayland though; they initially planned to use wayland, I wonder what idiocy caused them to change their mind and for the third time reinvent the same wheel...

Canonical didn't want Wayland, because the Wayland developers didn't want to accept patches which added multi-touch (or maybe not in the way Canonical wanted).

So Canonical eventually started over with Mir.

I had a look at what WIkipedia said. It says Mir actually uses Android's input systems.

The compatibility layer for X, XMir, is based on XWayland.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mir_%28software%29

[Lennie]

As much as I love standardization, I would hate to see HTML5 become the layout specification for everything. Also, there is no universally supported way to distribute/use compiled binaries via HTML5 in web browsers. I really do wish that pepper and pnacl were friendly enough to get implemented universally, but it doesn't seem that is the case. I think relying only on Javascript is holding the web back from its potential; though perhaps WebCL will enable some interesting performance capabilities once we actually see it around...

Well, I might be wrong, but I think WebCL might not happen, as you can see even on the Wikipedia page it says Mozilla has choosen to support OpenGL ES 3.1 Compute Shaders.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WebCL

If I'm not mistaken, Mozilla is already working on supporting WebGL 2, which is basically OpenGL ES 3 support.

[nanonyme]

Canonical didn't want Wayland, because the Wayland developers didn't want to accept patches which added multi-touch (or maybe not in the way Canonical wanted).

So Canonical eventually started over with Mir.

I had a look at what WIkipedia said. It says Mir actually uses Android's input systems.

The compatibility layer for X, XMir, is based on XWayland.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mir_%28software%29

Wouldn't the Android input support belong in libinput instead of Mir?

[giucam]

Canonical didn't want Wayland, because the Wayland developers didn't want to accept patches which added multi-touch (or maybe not in the way Canonical wanted).

Do you have a link for these patches and the discussion? I'm very skeptical this ever happened.

[Luke_Wolf]

Canonical didn't want Wayland, because the Wayland developers didn't want to accept patches which added multi-touch (or maybe not in the way Canonical wanted).

So Canonical eventually started over with Mir.

I had a look at what WIkipedia said. It says Mir actually uses Android's input systems.

The compatibility layer for X, XMir, is based on XWayland.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mir_%28software%29

Um... Are you for real? Canonical didn't even try, they didn't even talk to the wayland people at all, further the things that they claimed as reasons (such as libhybris) were things that Canonical took from wayland devs. Can you ubuntu fanboys still not get it through your skulls that the entire claims behind "Why Mir" are a poor lie? Frankly I could care less about Mir as it's completely DOA, but quit pushing these lies already.

[DanLamb]

Chromebooks are a dumb investment because you can buy a Windows laptops just as cheap; Look at the HP Stream 11 with 1 year of Office 365 for $199.

I just bought both: a cheap Windows laptop and a Chromebook. The Chromebook is way, way nicer for my needs. The Windows laptop is a $300 ASUS Windows 8.1 laptop with dual core celeron, 4GB RAM, 500GB HDD for my daughter for MS Office school work + web surfing. She also has an iPhone which she does most leisure/social computing with. The Chromebook is a $330 Toshiba Chromebook 2 with a 1080p display, 4GB RAM for my whole family to share.

The Windows 8 laptop can run Chrome just like the Chromebook as well as a ton of desktop software that the Chromebook simply can not run... But the Chromebook is smaller, lighter, faster, more responsive, suspends/resumes faster, quieter, has better battery life, and uses everyone's existing google login rather than requiring a device specific login. My kids, wife, and myself use the chromebook much more frequently and enthusiastically than the Windows laptop.

[brosis]

I just bought both: a cheap Windows laptop and a Chromebook. The Chromebook is way, way nicer for my needs. The Windows laptop is a $300 ASUS Windows 8.1 laptop with dual core celeron, 4GB RAM, 500GB HDD for my daughter for MS Office school work + web surfing. She also has an iPhone which she does most leisure/social computing with. The Chromebook is a $330 Toshiba Chromebook 2 with a 1080p display, 4GB RAM for my whole family to share.

The Windows 8 laptop can run Chrome just like the Chromebook as well as a ton of desktop software that the Chromebook simply can not run... But the Chromebook is smaller, lighter, faster, more responsive, suspends/resumes faster, quieter, has better battery life, and uses everyone's existing google login rather than requiring a device specific login. My kids, wife, and myself use the chromebook much more frequently and enthusiastically than the Windows laptop.

People like you are NWO's sweet dream.