Google Finally Annouces Chrome OS

In September of last year I wrote about Google's new Web browser, Chrome, calling it "Google's New Operating System With Built-in Web Browser."  Google made it official in a blog post announcing Google Chrome OS for Netbooks.  According to Google's blog, Chrome OS will be open source and the code will be released later this year.  Chrome OS is not Android.  It's a separate project designed as a small, lightweight netbook OS created for people who spend most of their time on the Web.

Perhaps the only thing that should come as a surprise in this announcement is the timing.  The Chrome browser was clearly designed to move in this direction.  It was only a matter of time.  The timing may have been influenced in part by Google Applications coming out of Beta.  Given that Google Apps are now GA, maybe it's time that we had an OS to run them?

Assuming Chrome OS is the fast, lightweight, Web-oriented OS that all of us expect from Google, I have to admire the way Google is taking advantage of discontinuities in the computing market to attack Microsoft.  With market shifts comes opportunity.  Google took advantage of the shift to mobile devices to  introduce Android, an OS targeted to that market.  Now with the shift continuing away from PCs to netbooks Google is once again prepared with an OS for that market.  Meanwhile, Microsoft remains stuck with one OS, Windows.

When you have a hammer, everything looks like a nail.  Windows is Microsoft's hammer, and everything looks like a PC to Microsoft.  But of course smart phones and netbooks are not PCs.  A discontinuity is happening in the computing market, Microsoft is missing it, and Google is there to pick up the pieces.

Today desktop operating system market share is still an important metric in the computing landscape.  Will that still be true in 5 years?  I don't think so.  Mobile devices already dominate the desktop.  With increased computing power moving into mobile and Internet computing devices like netbooks, and applications moving to browser-based delivery, no one is going to care about the desktop operating system in 5 years.  Desktops will be a fraction of the total computing end-points in use.  Microsoft may still dominate desktop OS market share, but it won't matter because Internet-ready small, mobile devices like smart phones and netbooks will dominate the computing landscape and they won't be running Windows.

Comments

[VoteTheDay]

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[Sara Pall]

Hey i am really looking forward to this operating system and really my expectations with this operating system is very high actually i follow CISSP and i have used so many operating systems and they are not my cup of tea so i need a change and i think that change can be brought out by GOOGLE.......My best wishes are with them....!!!!!!!!!!

[Nick Banasihan]

While I may still believe that Desktops may be useful at some home environments (like mine), I do believe that industries would require more lightweight devices to ease communication. With lots of people in a particular environment (like offices) space-savers are very important. At the same time, we have now come to a point when a lot of what we do are actually done through the internet. I even trust the internet to store very large files for me. I really think that the current environment will encourage the use of this operating system. But I am not quite sure whether the second half of 2010 would be too late for a release that targets netbooks.

[renaissance costume]

I have used google chrome already. Its nice but some rumors said that it's hacker friendly. So I'm just staying with my mozillaFF :)

[Association Management Software]

Its great can't wait to try it because I have been expecting Google to come up with an operating system in the near future but not this soon and that is why I am that excited about this.