Chrome OS browser saddles up and mounts your drives
Recent changes to the code base reveal a 'mount library' that monitors newly-inserted devices such as USB memory sticks -- something an operating system usually does -- not the kind of thing a browser would usually worry about. We suspect that when you open a new tab in Chrome you'll have the option of a 'My Computer' view that will update in real time as you plug in new devices or insert CDs. Or perhaps when you insert a USB device an Explorer-like new tab page will simply pop into existence.
Currently the changes only appear in the Chrome OS branch of the source code, but it doesn't take a wild stretch of the imagination to believe that Google has larger, all-encompassing plans for the Mac and Windows platforms. This might just be the next step for the Google Desktop.
Watch out...Google is coming.
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The mechanics of the game are very simple. You are a small red square, ...
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Sjay said 3:08AM on 11-12-2009
Thats a good one. With all the chrome features you cannot say that Chrome OS is too far.
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catchwa said 4:23AM on 11-12-2009
So we're just going to keep quiet about the fact that it's exactly the same kind of integration that MS was so greatly criticised for with IE and Windows?
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MySchizoBuddy said 4:53AM on 11-12-2009
If MS wasn't a monopoly the integration between IE and Windows wasn't a problem. MS was using its monopoly in Windows to create another monopoly in IE. Thats abusing your monopoly and thats why MS was sued.
Any other company that isn't a monopoly and does this sort of integration will not be sued. Laws against a monopoly are different
catchwa said 4:55AM on 11-12-2009
I was more referring to the security implications...
Sebastian Anthony said 6:48AM on 11-12-2009
Oh totally... the security implications... :P
But no, you're right, we probably are just looking at the new Microsoft.
Utilising the goodwill power of OS to take over the world...!
Jonathan Lozinski said 4:48AM on 11-12-2009
This would be an epic fail. As catchwa has pointed out, this is a dumb ass move. My browser having these capabilities would cause serious issues if a webpage mis-behaves.. NO NO NO.
If this is actually part of chrome browser then there's no way on earth I'm going to keep using it.
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Sebastian Anthony said 6:49AM on 11-12-2009
It's not yet, and I doubt it will be some time.
It might not even make it out of the Chrome OS... but who knows what plans they have :)
correnos said 4:44PM on 11-19-2009
just throwing this out there... Firefox can already browse all of your files, as can Opera and (I think, too lazy to boot to windows) IE. It's a feature of modern web browsers that they treat your disks essentially like ftp servers. Just type in / (or c: for windows people) into firefox, and you'll see what I'm talking about. This isn't really a big deal.
RogueJedi86 said 7:54AM on 11-12-2009
I never realized I could use Chrome for file navigation until I saw this article's blurb. I typed C:\ into Chrome and got an unwieldy interface, but it did work. You learn something new every day!
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Sebastian Anthony said 8:15AM on 11-12-2009
It's not as good as the Internet Explorer solution though, which just brings up Windows Explorer...
But I guess it's good in a fix!
jsmorley said 9:51AM on 11-12-2009
You can type "c:\" into Firefox as well.
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Leonick said 11:16AM on 11-12-2009
Yup, and doing so actually gives a much nicer list than Chrome does too :P
sitruc said 11:11AM on 11-12-2009
You can navigate to and play media files inside of Opera tabs.
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Nick said 11:34AM on 11-12-2009
Browsers have been implementing http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:// for a while now
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nicholascronwright said 12:10PM on 11-12-2009
If you are interested in alternative operating systems don't forget Haiku has finally released Alpha 1. Read more here:
http://ninjarabbits.blogspot.com/2009/11/download-haiku-os-alpha-1-release.html
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Joe said 6:27PM on 11-18-2009
It's an operating environment, not an operating system.
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