Google Rolls Out New Wave Of Chromebook Tutorial Videos

Well, belief in ‘Andromeda’, whatever it might be, is compatible with confidence that Chrome OS and Chromebooks aren’t going anywhere. Anyone having that doubt should be unburdened of it by the appearance of the new tutorial series – not the kind of behaviour you would expect from the supplier of an OS platform that is about to be made obsolete. And, additionally, the last of the tutorials on this page makes completely clear that Chrome OS (as recently reconfigured with transparent Android app support) is the platform that Google is pitching for PCs, i.e. laptops or other classical PC hardware, as the references to Windows and Mac (n.b. there was no mention of iOS) make abundantly clear. Whether Chrome OS will in time evolve to become installable on a broad set of hardware, beyond its exclusive connection to Chromebooks, is an interesting question but not one that can be answered at this point. One may tend to believe or think it makes sense that the brief of Chrome OS will broaden to encompass non-Chromebook hardware with time, but that belief will remain religious until working code is demonstrated. The same is true of the Andomeda speculations.

Unlike you, I am highly critical of the handling of the talk around Andromeda by Android Police. First, if Bison is a Chrombook, and Android Police and everyone else seem to be saying it is, then it is highly implausible that it would not be running Chrome OS. Moreover, if Andomeda is the future of Andoid, i.e. an evolution of the Android platform that additionally keeps the Android moniker, then there is nothing of substance that Andromeda can offer Chromebook users that can’t similarly be offered by Chrome OS. To suggest some discrepancy or functional gap between Andromeda (think Android Next Generation) and Chrome OS is to forget the basic techical issue – whatever Android or the Android Framework is today or evolves to become in the future it will be smoothly redeployed on Chrome OS using the latter’s container functionality. What Android Police have said about all this is really very wooly. Beyond the techically dubious direction of AP’s Andromeda statements there is also their terrible lack of specificity and rationale. What is Andromeda for? All things good apparently! But reading the relevant AP article it is obvious that they simply don’t know. They know that it exists, but they don’t know exactly what form it takes, where the Andromeda code is to be found or who is developing it. Not inspiring stuff – the speculations may prove as reliable as those about WMDs!

I hasten to add I am not denying that there are major changes afoot that will lead to basic reconfigurations of the Android and ChromeOS systems but I want to point out that we all knew changes were coming before the mention of Andromeda. Who amongst us is unaware that Google would soon have to show its hand concerning the direction that it is marking out for key platform functionalities that are akin to Apple’s Continuity and Microsoft’s Continuum? It is my hope that Andromeda exists and that it will actually offer something amazing and make the just mentioned facilities seem raw and pedestrian in comparison but I would not want to pretend my hopes will be satisfied by technical work that currently remains under wraps and of which, so far, none of us, including Android Police, have any definite information.