How can I burn a slideshow that I made in iPhoto on my MacBook Pro onto a CD?

A:

You can export the slideshow as a video (a QuickTime movie in Apple parlance) and then burn that video to your CD.

Here’s how: In iPhoto, after you’ve created the photo slideshow, with titles, music and so forth, click on the “Export” button at the bottom of the slideshow-creation window. Choose an option for the resolution of your movie and click “Export.”

Then, choose a destination on your hard disk where you’ll temporarily store the movie. Next, insert the recordable CD, and copy the movie into the window representing the CD. Finally, click on the “Burn” button at the upper right of that CD window.

Q:

I have recently gone almost all Google: I moved my business email to Google, am using Google Docs, etc. I am in need of a new laptop and am considering a Google Chromebook. My question / concern is: What about programs I may need, such as iTunes, or some printer / scanner software, or an accounting suite? Will there be room for some of these programs and if so, will they operate on Chrome OS?

A:

Google’s Chromebook doesn’t run traditional programs. It is designed to only run so-called Web apps—app-like Web sites, from Google and others, that operate inside the Chrome browser. Also, it has very little local storage and depends on the Cloud—remote Internet servers—for most storage of apps and data. So, the bad news is you can’t install iTunes or your favorite Windows or Mac accounting suite on a Chromebook.

The good news is Google and others are churning out more and more Web apps for Chromebooks. For instance, there are a variety of music and accounting apps that might meet your needs. You can check these out at chrome.google.com/webstore.

Q:

I recently switched from BlackBerry to an Android-based phone. Do I need to install any anti-virus or firewall apps on an Android smartphone like what we do on a PC?

A:

It all depends on your tolerance for risk, your tolerance for running security software, how adventurous you are at downloading apps—and who you believe. Various reports have claimed that Android malware is surging, but last week Google disclosed a fairly new technology called “bouncer” that it has been using internally to weed out harmful apps. And the company claims there has been a big drop in malware in its app market in recent months.

My recommendation would be that if you are a safety-first person, or someone who experiments with lots of apps from companies you don’t know, you should consider using security software on Android.

Email Walt at mossberg@wsj.com.

Indeed, the version of Flash running on the latest stable build of Chrome OS is not the latest version of Flash.

“This doesn’t bode well for Google’s security boast,” Kaspersky’s Roel Schouwenberg said in the Securelist posting. “ChromeOS is supposed to be all about being able to trust Google to take care of security for you. Google has gone through great lengths to secure ChromeOS itself, but security doesn’t stop there. A platform needs to be properly managed if it intends on being and staying secure.”

However, a Google representative said there are indeed additional security patches applied to that version of Flash, closing the vulnerabilities corrected with more recent releases of the Adobe software.

Either way, the issue highlights the different approach Google is taking with security in its new operating system.

With most computer operating systems, the software providers are responsible for providing patches, but it is the user who decides whether to update his or her system, either manually or automatically applying the updates.

With Chrome OS, Google has changed the approach.

Chrome OS-based computers, known as Chromebooks, run software only within Google’s browser, and Google is in charge of managing the browser and its core add-ons, such as Flash.

Users are leaving the decisions of how and when to update the system to Google. That has both positive and negative implications, though Google maintains that Chrome OS is inherently more secure and eliminates the need for third-party security software.

On the downside, those who like control will feel a lack of power. In addition, the individual has little ability to take action in advance of any security measures taken by Google on behalf of all Chrome OS users.

However, Google has staked its reputation that Chrome OS will be secure, giving the company a strong incentive to quickly close holes. The operating system also has a “verified boot” system in place to check at start-up for any modifications, potentially mitigating the impact rogue code might have.

The company is sending each attendee a coupon code that can be used for a white, 3G-enabled version of Samsung’s Chromebook, as well as a second code for free two-day shipping.

“Samsung is pleased to be able to provide each of you with an Arctic White Samsung Chromebook Series 5,” Google said in the email. “Please log into the Google I/O website by Friday, July 8, 2011 with the confirmation number below and your Google I/O password to receive details on how to receive your Chromebook.”

Once logged in, users can get their coupon codes and order directly through Amazon.

Google’s partners started selling the first Chrome OS-based computers to the public earlier this month. Though the devices are notable for their fast boot time and lack of need for security software, critics note that the initial models cost as much as more full-featured laptops and require a constant Internet connection to be of much use.

Laptop makers Acer and Samsung are the first to offer the Chromebooks. Google earlier teamed up with Gilt Groupe to distribute some of the first models to the public.

The Chromebook line is Google’s first big hardware bet on its cloud-centric Chrome operating system, which is essentially a Web browser capable of running applications that are hosted in the cloud. The point of doing that is that it takes the hassle and the cost of maintaining the software out of the hands of the person or business using it. Google thinks that over the long term it has a chance to erode Microsoft’s dominance of enterprise notebooks.

So what goes into building one? The teardown experts at IHS iSuppli took a look at the 3G version, and have shared their findings with AllThingsD. I talked with analyst Wayne Lam, who worked on the teardown. While you might expect it to essentially be a stripped-down build with as little emphasis as possible on the hardware, it’s actually an interesting study in what can happen when there’s no payment to Microsoft built into the cost assumptions, Lam told me. Added up, the components used cost a total of $322.12.

Since the hardware requirements for storage and memory are lighter, Samsung was able to spend more on hardware that improves the user experience like the display, the battery and the outer enclosure. “The lower overhead in hardware allowed Samsung more leeway on things that people will notice, like a bigger screen and a bigger battery,” Lam said.

The most significant batch of component costs is found on the motherboard (pictured top and bottom, click the images to make them bigger), amounting to $86.37 or about 26 percent of the overall hardware cost. The Chromebook’s microprocessor is a dual-core Intel Atom N570. Samsung, which is the world’s largest manufacturer of memory, supplied its own DRAM chips. Also on the motherboard are power-management chips from Texas Instruments and Intersil.

German chipmaker Infineon supplied a Trusted Computing Platform chip, which is interesting because this is something usually seen in enterprise-level servers and not personal notebooks. The chip helps protect the system by running a thorough security check every time the system is booted up, ensuring that the hardware hasn’t been tampered with and that unwanted software hasn’t been added. Given the bet that Google has made on the cloud, and the attacks it has been fending off of late, this is an understandable move.

Samsung also used its own shop to supply the display. It measures 12.1-inches diagonally and features an improved light-emitting diode technology that boosts its overall brightness. Lam says the display cost $58 and is the second most expensive component in the Chromebook.

The third most expensive component is the battery, which Samsung supplied as well. A key part of the Chromebook experience is long battery life. Samsung opted for a six-cell battery pack that is intended to last all day. It added $48.20 to the hardware cost.

Wireless chips combined for the fourth most expensive set of costs. Hon Hai Precision Technology, the Taiwanese contract manufacturer that’s better known to the world as Foxconn, built the 3G wireless module using four chips from the wireless chipmaker Qualcomm. In order to keep costs down, Samsung opted to use an older Gobi 2000 baseband chip. Wireless chips added $42.85 to the hardware cost. Qualcomm’s newly acquired Atheros unit supplied a Wi-Fi chip.

A few other interesting points that Lam found during the teardown. The memory chips are soldered on to the motherboard, meaning that the computer’s memory isn’t upgradeable by the user as it is on most PCs. It ships with 2GB of memory on board; if you’re a business or educational user paying a monthly subscription fee, by the time you start thinking you may need more memory, it will probably be ready for a hardware refresh. Google is taking even that level of routine management — plus the associated cost — out of your hands. Is the world ready for that?

The Apple CEO drew significant applause as he announced several features that will allow the iPhone and iPad to end their dependence on a Mac or PC. When iOS 5 arrives this fall, iPhone and iPad owners will be able to get started directly from the device, as well as sync content wirelessly.

Indeed, by the time Jobs stood up later in the keynote and noted that Apple was demoting the Mac from the “digital hub” to just one of many devices talking to a hub in the cloud, the point had already been made. Of course, iCloud is a key piece of the vision, enabling all manner of documents to be created in one place–be it PC, Mac or iPhone–and then backed up and synced to a host of other devices.

Wedge Partners analyst Brian Blair said that, for all the talk around the post-PC era, it wasn’t really possible until Apple’s moves on Tuesday to allow the iPhone and iPad to operate without having to connect to a computer.

“It reminds me of the first Mac I saw without a floppy drive,” Blair said. “Or the reaction people had to the MacBook Air given the absence of a CD drive. The cord-cutting details of today’s event are a glimpse into the future.”

Apple was early with both trends, of course. But the floppy is most certainly dead and even the DVD drive is no longer ubiquitous on computers.

As for seeing a cloud-based future, Jobs is certainly not alone. Google is offering two of its own takes on the post-PC era. Android is clearly a bet on a lighter-weight operating system to take on iOS head-on. Meanwhile, the company’s Chrome OS is a different kind of bet on a world where the cloud is at the center. With Chromebooks, Google is pitching a world in which everything lives in the cloud, with very little if anything stored locally.

Amazon has also offered a cloud-centric approach to media with both its Kindle (and Kindle apps) as well as its Amazon MP3 music store.

One company that, not surprisingly, isn’t looking to enter the post-PC era just yet is Microsoft. Though clearly challenged by iOS and Android, Microsoft is attacking back with Windows 8–a version of the operating system that it hopes will be able to allow the PC to reach new directions. For its part, Microsoft is hoping that people will want a powerful machine with local storage, especially if that comes in a package nearly as portable as the cloud-dependent competition.

What remains to be seen is if Redmond can deliver on its “no compromises” promise, particularly when it comes to battery life and the user experience.

The other question is just how much people are really looking to move beyond the PC. There is no question that users are adopting alternative devices like smartphones and tablets. So far, at least, those devices are largely in addition to, rather than instead of, a computer.

But Apple’s move, Blair said, does more than just position the company for a distant future.

“It will also allow Apple to further penetrate international markets where populations don’t have high PC penetration rates,” Blair said. “Over the next decade, many users will purely access the network via an iPhone, that’s it…and that will be enough.”

Complete coverage:

• Apple’s WWDC 2011 Keynote: Spotlight on Software
• Apple CEO Steve Jobs Takes the Stage
• Mac OS X Lion Coming in July via Mac App Store
• IOS 5 to Offer Improved Browsing, Notifications, Twitter Integration, 197 Other Features
• The Unlikely Breakout Stars of WWDC: Two Podcasters From the U.K.
• Google, Amazon Dodge a Bullet: Apple’s iCloud Music Is a Meh. (Luckily, There’s Much, Much More)
• Today in Hyperbole (or Possibly Reality): What Did Apple Just Kill?
• Apple’s Lion and Microsoft’s Windows 8 Both Show Mobile’s Influence
• Three Things to Take Away From Apple’s WWDC Announcements (Video)
• Apple’s Invisible iCloud: The Promise of Simple, Seamless Sync
• 25 Million iPads, 1 Billion Tweets: WWDC 2011 by the Numbers
• Apple Delivers Another Slap to RIM’s Face With iMessage
• Apple Enables Post-PC Era With iOS 5, but Are Users Ready?

“We were able to get our hands on some early Samsung Chromebooks before they go on sale June 15, so we wanted to find a way to make them available to our biggest Chrome enthusiasts,” a Google representative said in a statement. “We teamed with Gilt Groupe to provide early access to our eager applicants of the Chromebook pilot program last year.”

Google also promised Chromebooks to all attendees of its I/O developer conference, but no word on when those will be arriving. Samsung showed off its Chromebook at an event following last month’s conference.

But this isn’t the first time Samsung has bet big on a radically different computing idea. Flash back five years ago when Samsung partnered with Microsoft on Project Origami, a bold bet that the industry could deliver a slimmed-down touch computer that cost less than a PC, was easier to use and had all-day battery life.

The effort eventually led to the introduction of Samsung’s Q1–however, the ultramobile PC ended up costing more than a laptop, had poor battery life and, because it had full-blown Windows at its core, was actually quite difficult to use without a keyboard and mouse.

Indeed, it was the same Jason Redmond that was at Wednesday night’s Series 5 launch event that helped lead Samsung’s marketing efforts for the Q1.

But while Samsung stuck with the idea for several revisions, even adding a slide-out keyboard and making other changes, Microsoft largely abandoned Origami and returned to making more traditional tablets.

And, after years of nibbling at the edges of the global PC market, Samsung is now one of the fastest growing global brands, selling lots and lots of traditional notebooks built around Microsoft’s traditional Windows operating system.

Of course, another company made a run at that idea of a $500 tablet with all-day battery life and instant-on capabilities. And Apple has managed to sell more than a few iPads.

Samsung’s Redmond acknowledges that the timing was probably off with the Q1 but insists that the world is ready for a product like the Chromebook.

This time around, Redmond says he’s aware that this might not be an overnight hit and he insisted both Google and Samsung are in this “for the long haul” regardless of what the initial demand is for the first crop of Chromebooks.

“It will grow over time,” he said. “We’re not looking for an immediate explosion in demand for these devices.”

John Paczkowski and I will have live, exhaustive team coverage from Google I/O once the keynote starts around 9:30 am PT.

9:25 am: Like every other tech conference these days, they are no longer as concerned about our cellphones ringing as they are about our mobile hotspots sucking up precious bandwidth.

“Please turn off your mobile hotspots,” intones the British-sounding announcer. Don’t worry, we’ve got a wired connection so we are good to go.

9:29 am: One minute to go. Hope you are saying good bye to your PC or Mac right now.

Well, maybe you better hang on to it. At least until the keynote is over.

9:30 am: And Vic Gundotra takes the stage.

9:30 am: 60,000 simultaneous viewers for Google I/O on the Web yesterday with 600,000 total viewers, Gundotra said.

Attendees not only getting the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1, but also a Verizon LTE hotspot. Gundotra rattles off its typically zippy speeds.

“Typical areas do not include this room,” he added.

9:32 am: And, with that he gives way to SVP of Chrome Sundar Pichai.

9:33 am: “We are here to talk about the open Web, the amazing platform it is,” Pichai said, saying his talk will cover Chrome, Chome Web Store and Chrome OS–in that order.

As of last year 70 million people used Chrome as their main browser. Now that number is 160 million people, according to a giant chart behind Pichai.

“We have more than doubled in the last year and we couldn’t be more pleased,” he said.

9:34 am: Pichai notes that, as of last year, Chrome didn’t have Mac and Linux support–”the two other great platforms.”

There have been eight versions of Chrome since, with new versions now coming out every six weeks.

9:36 am: “The good news is we are not the only ones pushing the browser forward.”

Pichai says that all the modern browsers are working to support HTML 5. “You as developers can rely on these APIs (Application Programming Interfaces).”

Methinks the talk is about to get nerdy.

9:37 am: Ian Ellison-Taylor comes out to talk about the developer capabilities of HTML 5.

“We’re not resting on our laurels at Google,” he said. “New features are being added all the time.”

With that, Ellison-Taylor starts a demo, starting with the addition of voice control to the browser.

Ellison-Taylor shows how voice recognition in the browser can work by adding a single control to a search bar that wasn’t designed for speech.

He notes he is violating a rule which says don’t do live speech recognition demos in keynotes.

His search for “Emma Caufield” actually worked. “I’m genuinely surprised that works,” Ellison-Taylor said.

A second demo, using Google Translate, correctly translated “Welcome to San Francisco”–at least judging by the applause from the crowd.

9:44 am: It’s getting nerdy. Talk of sprite animation, Canvas and so forth.

Thankfully, he’s doing something even I can understand–the little demo of the fish swimming. He shows the poor fish swimming slowly when Chrome is pure software.

Hardware acceleration allows 500 fish to swim at 60 frames a second. By 1,000 fish, though, it drops to 30 frames per second.

“That’s basically a 10X improvement over where we were,” he said. He then shows a demo of some Mozilla code that offers another 10 times increase in performance, with the screen filled with tens of thousands of fish all swimming around swimmingly.

I think this means that it will also run my Web sites faster.

9:48 am: Pichai translates to English, noting that a browser-based game can now run 100 times faster than it could six months ago.

“That’s the pace at which the Web is evolving,” Pichai said. Of course, that only matters if you can reach users, he said, segueing into talk of the Chrome Web Store.

Pichai said that Google is making the Chrome Web Store available in 41 languages and to all 160 million of its users. “We want to make sure you can reach all users of Chrome.”

It’s also important to monetize. Charging for Web apps is already supported, but hard to do in-context within apps.

9:50 am: And surprise, the answer is in-app payments.

9:51 am: Google’s Vikas Gupta is talking about how this is being done with Web apps.

He shows a free Web app called Graphicly Comics. They want to allow users to start reading a comic book and let them get hooked before charging them.

The key is being able to do so within the flow of the app. It can be done with a couple clicks. It’s also easy for developers, Gupta said, saying that a single line of code can enable Google’s in-app payments.

9:53 am: That leaves the question of how to charge. There tend to be fixed fees, monthly fees, signup fees and licensing fees, with content publishers also being charged 30 percent.

Google is charging a flat 5 percent fee, Gupta said, eliciting lots of whoops and applause. “95 percent stays with you,” he says, helping out the severely math-challenged in the crowd.

9:54 am: Pichai is back, showcasing a game that could not have been on the Web a year ago. One of the leading games is coming to the Web.

And, of course, it’s Angry Birds. Mighty Eagle Peter Vesterbacka taking the stage.

Vesterbacka is decked out in his familiar red sweatshirt with an Angry Bird face.

“We’ve wanted to bring Angry Birds to the Web for a long, long time,” he said. “We didn’t want to compromise on performance.”

The Web version, he insists, is as fun and engaging as any other version, and starts with a demo.

9:57 am: Google’s demo master clears the first level with two birds, earning two stars, in case you were wondering.

We built this using WebGL, Vesterbacka said.

“It really rocks, as you can see,” he said. It also works with Canvas if your browser doesn’t support WebGL. If your browser supports hardware acceleration there is an HD version.

So what if you are offline? We use local storage.

“You can play the complete game offline,” Vesterbacka said. Now we’ll make those flights more bearable, he said, noting that when your Android phone runs out of battery, you can play on your Chrome Netbook.

As a special treat for users of Chrome, there are some exclusive levels.

Vesterbacka says he is happy to hear Google is only taking 5 percent on in-app purchases.

“We’re all for lower taxes and five percent (is) fair,” he said. As a result, Rovio is bringing the paid “mighty eagle” helper to Chrome soon, basically as soon as the in-app purchase is live.

10:02 am: The Web version is available now in the Chrome Web store, he said. “Let’s pop some pigs and play Angry Birds,” he said, ending the mini-commercial.

Pichai comes back, pointing to the launch of Angry Birds as the culmination of the last year of work his team has been doing.

“More importantly, my kids will think finally I am doing something useful,” Pichai said.

10:04 am: Aaron Koblin comes out to talk about a new interactive music project that Google is doing called “Three Dreams of Black.”

10:10 am: Talk shifts to Chrome OS.

Just to use a browser requires lots of complexity, from antivirus software to managing backups, etc. It takes a long time to boot, Pichai said.

“Some computers even check to see whether there is a floppy drive.”

10:10 am: The devices Google is powering are called “Chromebooks.”

The devices take three minutes to get up and running out of the box and eight seconds from there on. There are built-in connectivity options, pay as you go with a certain amount of free usage and the option to buy day passes.

“I think this is game changing in terms of how you use your notebooks,” Pichai said. “These are some of the attributes that make phones and tablets great as well.”

It’s a reverse of the PC model. Chromebooks get better over time, Pichai said, as new updates come.

PCs, on the other hand, are great the day you get them and performance degrades over time as new apps are installed.

He reviews the Cr-48 pilot program which gave demo hardware to thousands of people. “The feedback has been great,” he insists. “We have fixed some issues we had with Cr-48.”

They worked with Adobe for seamless Flash. Now Intel has dual-core apps. It fixed holes, such as when you plugged a camera in to the demo devices, nothing happened.

That’s changed, he said, bringing back Kan Liu, who previously demoed Angry Birds.

10:15 am: As expected, there is a new file manager for dealing with local files. The file manager can be opened within another tab in Chrome OS.

Liu demos how music and movies can be stored and played back within a new media player.

10:17 am: Google Music beta and YouTube movie rentals will work as well as third-party services like Hulu, Netflix and Pandora.

As for photos, Liu demos what it is like to import photos in Chrome OS.

One can take an SD card and plug it into a Chrome OS laptop. There are options to view and play a slideshow, but it can also use Web apps and send them to Picasa or third-party services such as Box.net.

10:20 am: The same approach is used with documents like spreadsheets; it can also share with Google Docs.

Any Web service or Web app can leverage the same APIs to do file storage. Box.net has been an early partner for this.

Google is working with a lot of other companies, such as Dropbox, Liu said, noting that Box.net built its integration in a weekend.

10:23 am: Offline access is also important, Pichai said. All Chromebook users will have access to Google Docs, Gmail and Google Calendar by the summer.

Other apps already work offline, such as Angry Birds and USA Today.

10:24 am: On to the hardware details. Intel is the lead chip partner, along with Verizon for connectivity in the U.S. and Acer and Samsung.

Working with other carriers.

Samsung’s Chromebook is a 12.1-inch screen display with instant-on and all day battery life.

Acer’s Chromebook has a 6.5 hour battery, 11.6-inch screen, full HD display.

Samsung $429 for Wi-Fi only, 3G version is $499. Acer is priced starting at $349 and up.

On June 15 in Amazon.com and Best Buy.com available to order and at the same time in UK, France, Germany, Netherlands, Spain and Italy.

10:27 am: For developers, there is a full jailbreaking mode built in so they can play with the kernel.

10:28 am: Pichai is talking now about business and education markets, talking about the complexity, noting that over half of companies are still running Windows XP–a 10-year-old operating system.

“Meanwhile, usage patterns have changed dramatically,” he said.

Most companies spend $3,000 or more per computer per year to manage. “It’s really complicated,” Pichai said.

Some 50,000 companies applied to pilot Cr-48 devices, Pichai said.

Chromebooks have been deployed in hundreds of companies, with thousands of devices.

On the government side, Pichai said that the city of Orlando is piloting Chrome OS. (Interesting, as Miami is a huge Windows user and early adopter of Windows 7.)

10:31 am: Same two Chromebooks will be available to businesses, but some also want a desktop. “We are working on a Chrome Box as well.”

The device is only part of the cost. Design a Web console for IT administrators to manage all their Chromebooks. “It’s dead simple to manage,” Pichai said.

Chromebooks for business is a hardware and service package with Chromebox, support, warranty and replacements. When the hardware lifecycle is over, we automatically upgrade you to new hardware, Pichai said, all for $28 per user per month. “We think this can fundamentally change” corporate computing.

10:33 am: Now, education.

“We want to make it possible for every student to have a computer.” Chromebooks for education are priced at $20 per user.

Chromebooks will be available for schools, businesses and governments on June 15 in the U.S. and six other countries.

10:35 am: Cue video.

Here’s a summary:

It’s not a computer. Nope. No programs. No messy desktop. Not even a desktop background.

Can I use it anywhere? Yes. On a unicycle. “Our lawyers aren’t going to like that.”

It updates automatically. No antivirus.

Web site is Google.com/chromebook for more info.

“We think users are really ready for this,” Pichai said.

10:37 am: And now, his Oprah moment. “We want to make sure every I/O attendee gets a free Chromebook.” Big cheers.

These are available on June 15. (slight sighs) “We will send you an email with details.”

When he first joined Google nearly seven years ago to start its enterprise division, Gmail was barely out of the gate and Blogger was the search giant’s most notable acquisition. What could Google offer enterprises that they weren’t already getting from Microsoft and Oracle and IBM and scores of other established software and hardware vendors?

The answer? An alternative. Sheth pitched Google’s trio of senior executives–Eric Schmidt, Larry Page and Sergey Brin–on the idea of experimenting with standard office applications–a word processor, a spreadsheet–that operated entirely within a browser. The product evolved into Google Apps, and while Microsoft Office still dominates the enterprise desktop, it’s widely accepted that Google Apps has made some important inroads against it: 3 million businesses use it in some way, and some 30 million people use it in their businesses.

Aside from the scores of companies, governments and non-profits that have adopted it, there are millions of college students using it, attracted by the zero-dollar price tag. Microsoft has responded with its own cloud-based office offering, Office 365, but its clear that Redmond’s traditional grip on the enterprise desktop isn’t quite as tight as it once was.

Now Sheth has an even bigger target in mind. If Office isn’t so sacred, why does Windows have to be? As the Group Product Manager Chrome OS for Business, he makes an interesting argument that the Redmond-centric world of corporate desktops is quietly nursing a desire for change. Where will it come from? A combination of cloud computing, and a desktop that’s stripped down to nothing but a browser. I talked with Sheth by phone earlier this month and my first question was about his education.

NewEnterprise: You did your undergraduate degree in electrical engineering, but now you work in software. Circuit design wasn’t for you?

I realized I liked software a lot more than hardware. But I was most of the way through with electrical engineering at Stanford. So I did my masters in software.

Does having been educated first on hardware give you a different perspective on any of the work you’re doing at Google?

It is actually relevant. A lot of what I’ve done involves software and user-facing interfaces, but it also involves a lot of infrastructure. When you look at VMWare, which is where I worked before Google, it’s about what you can do with a combination of hardware and software and change the game. It’s similar with Google Apps. It’s a big set of user-facing applications, but the big thing is the cloud computing infrastructure that’s underneath. The fundamental question is about how you wire computers together in the most efficient way possible. That is really the bread and butter underneath Google Apps. And finally with Chrome OS it’s the same question: What can you do to the form factor of the hardware if you’re really only running a browser on it. The background in hardware has served me well.

So you joined Google about seven years ago with the mission of creating something–you basically had a blank sheet of paper–that Google could offer the enterprise. And your first idea got shot down. What was it?

At the time I joined Google the enterprise division was literally 25 people. We had a few engineers and salespeople, and we brought in a manager, Dave Girouard. I came in with the explicit mission of starting something else within Google that was to be aimed at businesses. And that something else was completely undefined. When I was still at VMware, a friend sent me a Gmail invite, and I started using it, and it was better than my corporate mail. I thought it could be a very interesting enterprise product. After I joined, I pitched Eric, Larry and Sergey on the idea of putting Gmail into an appliance and shipping it out to corporations. They didn’t go for it. I went back six months later, with some new insight, specifically that we could use our server architecture to make it easier for businesses and educational institutions to deploy and manage email, and that from there we could move up-market to deploy applications. We got exactly one engineer to work on that.

It was very much like running a start-up. I was the product manager and was tasked with starting this new business and we went through all the classic things that a start-up does. Building the product, building the team, selling the vision to an early set of adopters–San Jose City College was our first college customer and Northwestern and Arizona State followed after that. We started small and incubated it within Google. We did a lot of experimenting with that small team to see what was viable and eventually we were able to get more resources to make it bigger.

So how does the Google Apps experience compare to your new role in building a business around Chrome OS for businesses?

It’s very similar. In Chrome OS I’m back in start-up mode. Essentially I’m trying to build a vision. We have a small team of people that all sit together in one area, building out the business model, and we’re trying to start small and grow from there. One way to look at Google is as a closed confederation of start-ups. All these teams are empowered to build something that is visionary. But we all have a lot of leverage behind us, and so we’re able to do a lot more than we ever would have been able to do if we were a small company.

I see a potential problem there: Don’t all these start-ups within Google run the risk of creating independent silos or fiefdoms that aren’t all on the same page? We hear a lot of criticism of the silos at companies like Sony or even Microsoft. Even at Google, there’s Google Voice, which is a great product but doesn’t really fit with anything else, though I understand it eventually will. But how do you avoid this silo problem?

It’s a great question, and its something we’ve thought about a lot. There are basically two extremes. The first extreme is on one hand you have different teams doing things completely different from each other. The other extreme requires that everything be integrated extremely well together. We tried to find a happy medium. The benefit for one is that you can move quickly. But if you do the other extreme, you slow down innovation. Your project may take several times longer. One big advantage is the Google infrastructure is all there. You don’t have to think about user authentication or how to store files. That’s all done for you, so everyone is using the same infrastructure. A lot of the parts you need are there and you just build on top of them. You can never strike a perfect balance, but we think ours is pretty good.

So what’s your mission with the Chrome OS?

My mission is to bring Chrome to business and to ask how we make it something that can reshape the enterprise desktop. The thing that was really intriguing for me, is that cloud computing has done so much for businesses. You don’t need to think about deploying the hardware, you can just turn things on. You don’t need to worry about massive up-front payments for hardware, you can just pay monthly for what you use. And your applications just keep getting better. In my mind the cloud really stops at the desktop.

The desktop is tremendously hard to manage. It costs a lot to maintain, most of the cost for a business is all in the maintenance. It doesn’t get better over time, it gets slower as you use it. I think there’s a huge opportunity to bring the principles of cloud computing to the desktop. It gets better, and it’s fast and secure. That’s the vision. We think we can do that because we have a unique operating system. It’s just a browser that’s completely stateless. As a result of that, you can boot up in 5 to 10 seconds. And no matter where you go, you log in, you have your entire desktop. If the system breaks, that’s not a problem, you just jump on to another system. If you lose it, it’s not a problem because its stateless.

There are people who would say its crazy to try and dislodge Windows as the operating system of choice for businesses, and yet you think you can do it. What kind of results have you seen so far?

If you just have a browser and take out everything else, life gets a lot simpler. And this is why I think that the desktop OS is ready for a radical change much like the enterprise applications were a few years ago. One thing we’ve found is that very significant portions of the population are using only a browser right now. Those trends show that this area is ripe for a change. If you look down the line in three years, the majority of those business users will use only a browser. We created this pilot device called the Cr48, which is a notebook with Chrome OS installed on it. We received 50,000 applications from businesses interested in trying it, and we now have thousands deployed in the field. We have companies like Intercontinental Hotel Group, Virgin American and Groupon using them for different things. We’ve even heard from the US Army Intelligence Office. We heard from a lot of companies we didn’t expect interest from.

I think you’ll see some early adopters, groups of users within companies, this year. Some companies’ pilot programs want to do large roll-outs to call centers and to customer service reps and some want to roll them out to mobile sales people. Many will find that it makes sense to them because it brings the cost down. No one wants to pay to have to fix a system that’s broken because two applications are in conflict with each other. No one wants to pay to go patch an operating system. That kind of thing is going to become a lot easier with Chrome OS.

Pichai, who is Google’s VP of product management in charge of Chrome and Chrome OS, had been Twitter’s top pick after longtime VP of product Jason Goldman stepped down last month, as NetworkEffect reported last week.

Suffering from employee departures for companies like Facebook or their own start-up efforts, the search giant seems to have been able in this instance to persuade its talent to stay put.

While I haven’t been able to nail down what exactly Google paid to keep Pichai, it was apparently a significant increase to his previous compensation package. Google declined to comment on the matter.

Stories of Google paying millions of dollars to keep key employees are not uncommon these days. And Pichai is said to be particularly valued by Google CEO Eric Schmidt and SVP of Product Management Jonathan Rosenberg.

Meanwhile, Twitter–which has many product leaders within the company, including co-founder and former CEO Evan Williams–will continue its search for one product VP to rule them all.

However, added sources, Google is fighting hard to counter the Twitter offer, so Pichai could easily stay with his current employer. At Google, which he joined in April 2004, Pichai is a VP of Product Management.

If successful, the hiring of Pichai would be a major raid for Twitter, and mark its place next to Facebook as an up-and-comer in the race to entice away top Google executives.

More importantly, Twitter could use the product help.

The San Francisco microblogging company, which just raised a massive funding, has done relatively little product development recently, in large part because its focus has been absorbed by overwhelming growth and infrastructure problems.

Pichai certainly fits the bill as a head of product for Twitter, given his job at Google. The well-regarded tech exec heads the Silicon Valley search giant’s high-profile Chrome browser and Chrome OS efforts.

Pichai was front and center at an unveiling of Chrome OS plans in November, and touted the Chrome browser’s 40 million users only a year after its debut in 2009.

But not everyone is so sanguine. Paul Buchheit, founder of Gmail (and FriendFeed) predicted a very short life for Google’s still-in-beta Chrome OS, noting–on Twitter in December–that he thought the product would be axed or fused with Android in 2011.

As Mobilized’s Ina Fried wrote at the time:

Google originally hoped to have Chrome OS-based computers for sale this year, but has run into some delays. Last week, the company released a beta version of the software and distributed to testers an unbranded laptop running the operating system. However, it’s worth noting that in doing so, Google has hardly made the strongest hardware case for the operating system, using a relatively bulky netbook with a reliable, but hardly power-sipping Intel Atom processor.

The idea of merging the two operating systems has some merit. Doing so would pair a top-notch browser with an ecosystem that already has a lot of applications and developers.

For now, the operating systems are distinct, with Android running hundreds of thousands of applications and used largely on phones, along with a few tablets, such as Samsung’s Galaxy Tab. However, Google VP Andy Rubin confirmed after his appearance at last week’s D: Dive Into Mobile that the company is working on a new version of Android, known as Honeycomb, that is geared exclusively to tablets. (The full video of Rubin’s onstage appearance was posted on our site earlier today.)

Acer and a couple of other hardware makers have said they plan to do Chrome OS netbooks next year once the software is ready.

If hired, Pichai would fill an open spot left by the departure of longtime Twitter VP of Product Jason Goldman, who stepped down at the beginning of December.

The attempt to bring on Pichai to lead product brings into question former CEO Evan Williams’s role at the company. When he stepped down as CEO, Williams said it was in order to focus on product strategy, and when Goldman gave up his position, many assumed Williams was the natural substitute.

While Pichai would be a strong choice for the job, he has not been an active user of the product.

Until recently, that is.

Pichai’s own Twitter account has a grand total of 118 tweets, with about a third of them posted in the last month.

Yesterday, in an interview with BoomTown’s Kara Swisher at D@CES, Twitter CEO Dick Costolo said some product goals for Twitter included a better experience for passive users and a more “agnostic” experience across platforms.

Costolo also mentioned a new zero tolerance policy for infrastructure problems, and said that Twitter does not consider itself a “platform company,” but rather one that has APIs.

The Google-Twitter connection is strong, and not just on the we-want-to-buy-you front–Google has often cast its acquisitive eyes at Twitter and still does.

And many Twitter employees were formerly Googlers, although not all in the same era or area.

Costolo himself came to Twitter after being at Google, which had acquired his last start-up, FeedBurner.

Other former Googlers include many on Twitter’s product team, such as Othman Laraki and Elad Gil, who were product managers at Google Mobile Maps and Google Toolbar before joining Twitter through its acquisition of their geo start-up Mixer Labs.

In addition, last year, Twitter nabbed Google lawyer Alexander Macgillivray as its general counsel.

And, of course, Twitter co-founders Williams and Biz Stone had worked at Google after it bought Blogger. They created Twitter after they left the company.

It’s possible that Pichai leaving Google might have something to do with the company favoring the Android mobile operating system over Chrome OS, but seems more likely that the Twitter role would just be a compelling opportunity for him.

Twitter declined comment, and Google has not responded to an inquiry about Pichai.

Until this nail-biting talent raid has a resolution, here’s a video of Pichai talking at the Web 2.0 Summit in 2009: