Google has announced earlier today that it’s set to challenge Microsoft and the new Windows 7 with it’s Google Chrome OS. This piece of news announced on the Google Blogs site will be the first time that Google has attempted to create an operating system for a desktop pc and looks to go straight for Microsoft’s new baby, Windows 7.
Over 30 million people use the Google Chrome Browser which was launched just over 9 months ago in 2008 and has been widely hailed as a success namely for it’s speed and simplicity. This philosophy is what Google aims to bring to it’s new operating system.
An extract from the blog post on the Google Blogs site:
Speed, simplicity and security are the key aspects of Google Chrome OS. We're designing the OS to be fast and lightweight, to start up and get you onto the web in a few seconds. The user interface is minimal to stay out of your way, and most of the user experience takes place on the web. And as we did for the Google Chrome browser, we are going back to the basics and completely redesigning the underlying security architecture of the OS so that users don't have to deal with viruses, malware and security updates. It should just work.
Initially, they’ll be aiming this new operating system at netbooks due to it’s smaller storage capacities and slower CPU’s but the Chrome OS will look to eventually be used on PC’s too. Who needs to watch out next year? Clearly the Linux crowd will be most affected by this announcement. The Linux OS has slowly but steadily been building steam over the last decade or so entering into the mainstream market and consumers alike with it’s community driven open sourced system, however with the entering of one of the big boys, who is to say that Google won’t eventually kick Linux out of the netbook market for which it’s beginning to gain a foothold on.
Apple can be rest assured that for now, Chrome OS appears to be designed for the PC infrastructure and Microsoft, although having around a 90% dominance in market share for the OS market will certainly have to look over it’s shoulder. The key is whether or not they’ll respond to this announcement by throwing the kitchen sink at netbooks and developing a smaller and more lightweight version of either XP or 7 to challenge what’ll inevitably be a very lightweight Chrome OS.
What we can expect from the Chrome OS will likely be a marring of both the Chrome Browser and the Google Wave concept which was announced a few months back. That is, the synchronisation of all the Google services with your desktop. For example, your Gmail will appear as a desktop widget, your Google calendar will replace the one on the system tray and be instantly synchronised. Forget the saving office documents to your hard drive, we may see your My Documents turn to Google Documents and be accessible online. If you’re on blogger, a native software application that allows you to post directly to your Google Blogspot account. All in all, that future of cloud computing could yet become a sooner reality than we thought.
The new OS is expecting to ship by summer 2010.
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