GoogleOS?
Probably the biggest tech rivalry going on today is between Microsoft and Google. The former is desperately trying to hold onto its dominance in the PC marketplace while the latter works actively to overcome that dominance. It’s an uphill struggle, since Windows and Office are firmly entrenched worldwide. On the other hand, Microsoft has been attempting to wrest a larger percentage of the search market away from Google. Its latest attempt, “Bing,” has met with lukewarm response at best.
Google Apps and other projects are also languishing, and haven’t gathered much serious support so far (the fact that Google labels nearly everything, including its wildly successful Gmail, as “beta” releases doesn’t help anything). Now, however, Google is bringing out a new weapon in its attempt to unseat Microsoft. I don’t think it has a name yet, but it’s a Chrome-based operating system that Google hopes will help it take over (at least to begin with) the growing Netbook marketplace.
The new OS will be minimalist in design, and should appeal to anti-Microsoft folks due to its heavy reliance on Open Source code. From current reports, it won’t be long before we start seeing it in the marketplace. “Google intends to rely on help from the community of open-source programmers to develop the Chrome operating system, which is expected to begin running computers in the second half of 2010.”
The idea is clear: consumers don’t really care which OS they run as long as it does what they want, at a reasonable price, and isn’t hard to use. And Google appears to be taking a page from the Microsoft playbook, since “if enough computer manufacturers embrace the Chrome operating system, it could weaken Microsoft while opening up new avenues for Google.” This means they could bundle things like Google Apps, Gmail, and other offerings with the OS — just like Microsoft does today with its own offerings.
Will we see Chrome-based laptops and other machines in the future? You bet. If Google can demonstrate the ability to provide what consumers want at a better price and with fewer defects, Chrome could do what Linux has so far failed to accomplish. Or, it could fall flat on its face. Time, and the capabilities offered by the new OS, will tell.