五年多點兒以前，時任Chrome業務副總裁的桑德爾?皮查伊在谷歌2011年開發者大會上登臺發言。他代表這家搜索引擎巨擘展示了一款令人意外的產品。它并非新的廣告業務，也不是搜索算法或者app。相反，這是一種全新的個人電腦操作系統——Chrome OS。

對谷歌來說，這款產品有多重要呢？嗯，皮查伊現在成了公司CEO。而Chrome，也就是該操作系統的支柱，成了全世界使用范圍最廣的瀏覽器。今年，安裝了Chrome OS的計算機銷量首次超過Mac電腦。換句話說就是，Chrome已經取得了巨大成功。

2011年開始打造這款操作系統時，谷歌打算根據當時以及未來（也就是現在）人們使用計算機的方式對其進行優化。他們首先觀察了市場上的其他操作系統。谷歌Chrome業務產品管理高級總監坎·劉說：“從設計算起，大多數操作系統的歷史都超過了25年。如果想一想現在你怎么用電腦，我敢說95%的時間都用在了瀏覽器上。”

因此，谷歌對Chrome的研發以瀏覽器為中心。劉說，這種做法消除了Windows和Mac等老牌系統“這些年來形成的許多層殼。這些系統設計之初所圍繞的一些用例如今已經不復存在（比如軟盤驅動器），而且為病毒攻擊留下了更多的漏洞。”

由此誕生了Chromebook，也就是安裝了Chrome OS的筆記本電腦。它們的形狀、尺寸和價格多種多樣，但有一些共同點。它們最顯著的特點包括啟動速度快，內置了病毒保護功能，可自動升級而且普遍都不貴。

出于這些原因，只想上上網的休閑網民越來越青睞Chromebook。在一度由蘋果公司主導的教育領域，這些筆記本電腦也越來越受歡迎。Chromebook超越Mac電腦是個有趣的現象，原因是谷歌發布Chrome OS時，專家都認為它的目標是微軟以及當時很流行而且價格不高的超極本和上網本。然而，推出Windows 10后，微軟的戰略轉向了混合型電腦，從而在低成本筆記本電腦領域為谷歌留下了機會。

電腦廠商紛紛跟進。正是出于這個原因，Chromebook來自許多不同的公司，就像大家能看到各式各樣的安卓手機和平板電腦那樣。

目前，宏碁、華碩、戴爾、LG、三星和東芝都推出了Chromebook。海爾和海信的Chromebook是市場上價格最低的產品，惠普的一款產品則躋身最佳Chromebook之列，售價幾乎達到400美元。每種Chromebook都略有不同，這有助于滿足各類用戶的需要。宏碁的R11等Chromebook有許多端口；其他一些產品，比如戴爾的Chromebook 13，則有表現卓越的電池（可續航13個小時）。

但這些產品有一點很統一，那就是人們的使用方式。首先，在云計算越發盛行的環境下，人們更有理由使用Chrome這樣以瀏覽器為核心的操作系統。當然，谷歌已經打造了一整套工作型app，比如Docs、Sheets和Gmail，但如果大家無法擺脫微軟的產品，Word、Excel和Outlook也都有基于瀏覽器的解決方案。同樣的，Chrome也有網絡商店，可以用來添加為Chromebook量身定制的app。

不過，Chrome OS改變市場格局的殺手锏在于它可以讓你的電腦變成任何你可能在用的Chromebook。只需用谷歌用戶名和密碼登陸，所有的app、文件、書簽和其他東西就都會出現在屏幕上，和你此前在使用的Chromebook一模一樣。

Chrome的能力甚至在教育領域以外實現了趕超。舉例來說，有些公司正在把低成本計算機整合到它們的工作流程中。劉說：“所有星巴克都配備了Chromebook，以供員工日常使用，無論是檢查郵件還是記錄[人力資源]數據，做什么都行。”

然而，如果說Chromebook有一點不足的話，那就是它們自帶的存儲空間往往太小。由于非常依賴網絡，人們可以不在這些筆記本電腦上安裝大硬盤，從而降低成本。谷歌為用戶提供了100G免費存儲空間，從而避開了這個問題（至少最初的兩年是這樣）。但就算基本上都靠互聯網，未連接網絡時Chromebook也不會變得一無是處，Gmail和谷歌Docs等app可以脫機工作，并在重新聯網后進行數據同步。但無論如何，考慮到如今我們的聯網程度已經如此之高，這可能不會花很長時間。(財富中文網)

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譯者：Charlie

審校：詹妮

A little over five years ago, Sundar Pichai, then Google’s vice president of Chrome, took the stage at the company’s 2011 developer conference and revealed a surprising new product from the search giant. It wasn’t a new advertising program, search algorithm, or app. Instead, it was an entirely new personal computing operating system, Chrome OS.

How important has this product been for Google? Well, Pichai is now the company’s CEO. Chrome, the web browser that’s the backbone of the operating system, is the most widely used in the world. And this year, Chrome OS machines outsold Macs for the first time. So in other words, Chrome has caught on big time.

When Google set out to build a system optimized for how people were using their computers in 2011 — and how they’d use them today — they began by looking at the operating systems on the market. “Most of these systems were designed 25-plus years ago,” says Kan Liu, Google’s senior director of product management with Chrome. “If you think of what you do on a PC today, I would argue that 95% of the time that you spend is in a browser.”

So, Google built Chrome around the browser. That eliminated a lot of what Liu calls “crust that had built up over time” on legacy computers like Windows and Mac machines. “They were designed for use cases (like floppy disk drives) that don’t exist anymore, and enable more holes for viruses to attack,” he says.

The result was Chromebooks, laptops that run Google’s Chrome OS. They come in many different shapes, sizes, and price points, but they all share a few common characteristics. Most noticeably, they start up fast, have built-in virus protection, automatically update their software, and are generally inexpensive.

For these reasons, Chromebooks have becoming increasingly popular with casual Internet users—people who just want to surf the Web—and in the education field, a market that Apple had once dominated. It’s interesting that Chromebooks are taking on Macs, because when the system was revealed, experts had Google gunning for Microsoft and the popular, inexpensive ultrabooks and netbooks of that day. But with Windows 10 shifting Microsoft’s strategy towards hybrid tablet-turned-computers, an opportunity opened up for Google in low-cost laptops.

And manufacturers followed. That’s why—just as you can find many variants of Android phones and tablets—you will also see Chromebooks from many different makers.

Currently, manufacturers such as Acer, ASUS, Dell, LG, Samsung, and Toshiba all make Chromebooks. Haier and Hisense currently make the least expensive models on the market, while HP puts out one of the best models at just under $400. Every Chromebook is a little different, helping to meet the needs of a variety of users. Some, like the Acer Chromebook R11, have plenty of ports, while others, like the Dell Chromebook 13, have excellent (13 hours) battery life.

But one thing that unites the platform is how people use it. First, in an increasingly cloud-based computing world, it makes ever-more sense to use an operating system built around a web browser like Chrome. Of course Google has built its own suite of productivity apps like Docs, Sheets, and Gmail, but if you can’t ween yourself off Microsoft’s programs, Word, Excel, and Outlook offer browser-based solutions too. There’s also a Chrome Web Store for adding apps that were custom-built for the platform.

But even more game-changing is Chrome OS’s ability to port your computer to any Chromebook you might use. Simply type in your Google username and password into a machine, and all your apps, documents, bookmarks, and other work appears on the screen, exactly where you left off on another Chromebook.

Chrome’s capabilities are catching on even outside education. For instance, some companies are integrating these low-cost machines into their workflow. “Every Starbucks you walk into has a Chromebook in it for their employees to use in their daily activities, whether it’s checking their mail or logging [human resources] data, or whatever” says Lui.

However, if there is one knock on Chrome machines, it’s how little onboard storage they tend to have. Because the machines are so reliant on the web, they’re able to cut costs by skipping on big hard drives. Google gets around this by offering 100 gigabytes of storage free (for the first two years, at least). But even these largely Internet-based he machines aren’t lifeless without a connection—apps including Gmail and Google Docs will run offline, syncing up once you’re online again. And that probably won’t take long, considering how connected we are these days, anyway.