Google To Launch Chrome OS Operating System
By Anna Johnson on July 9th, 2009If you thought Microsoft surprised Google with the launch of its impressive search engine, Bing… Google has likely shocked Microsoft with its plans to launch the Google Chrome Operating System (OS).
Google Chrome OS will be an open source, lightweight operating system, initially targeted at netbook computers and later at full-size desktop systems. Google plans to open-source its code later this year, and expects netbooks running Google Chrome OS to be available to consumers in the second half of 2010.
According to Sundar Pichai, Vice President of Product Management, and Linus Upson, Engineering Director at Google, Google Chrome OS will be designed to be fast and lightweight and to allow people to get on the web within seconds. The user interface will be minimal and the underlying security architecture will be designed to avoid users having to deal with viruses, malware and security updates.
Make no mistake, Google going into the OS business is not just a swipe, but a major stab (or grab), at Microsoft’s business. After all, Windows is worth about $10 billion in annual operating income to Microsoft, more than half of the company’s total.
July 10th, 2009 at 10:13 am
It’s a little early to plan Windows’ funeral. There are a number of reasons why Chrome OS is not likely to do much harm to Windows’ market share, 10 of which are detailed in this article by Mike Elgan:
http://itmanagement.earthweb.com/columns/executive_tech/article.php/3828841/10+Reasons+Why+Chrome+OS+Is+No+Windows+Killer.htm
His points are well taken and my experience parallels his line of reasoning. Google is oriented toward “the cloud” and while there is movement toward cloud computing, it is unlikely that the average user will embrace it to the degree that Microsoft will be losing any sleep over it.