Bits from Bill
Google Copies Microsoft in New Chrome OS Announcement
I’ve already had a few folks question me on the announcement of the Google Chrome OS. “Is this going to kill Microsoft Windows?”, seems to be a common theme.
There is one major thing that Google has copied from Microsoft; announcing a product that doesn’t exist yet. According to the official Google Blog…
“…netbooks running Google Chrome OS will be available for consumers in the second half of 2010”
This is more typical of Microsoft marketing to announce the availability of a new OS to start trying to redirect the consumer market. I’ve seen whole companies and products dissolve just by a product announcement which was still under development for a year or two. Now that the Michael Jackson news cycle is slowing down Google took the opportunity to strike.
Google also says “Google Chrome OS is an open source project and will be available to use at no cost.” Most of the articles I’ve read seem to think this will put pressure on Microsoft to reduce the cost of the new Windows7 or even force them to provide free Windows XP on netbooks. It’s a nice thought but some of these folks must live on a different planet.
I have a lot of respect for Google. I wouldn’t be surprised if they haven’t shown all their cards yet but if I still had any MSFT stock I wouldn’t be selling it. The well publicized XO (One Laptop Per Child) machines had a nice open source OS called Sugar. This allowed the price of the laptops to be under $200. The cost of including Windows would have added too much to the cost but guess what? Even the poor kids in under developed countries wanted Windows and the OLPC project failed to meet expectations.
So far, there really isn’t much known about Chrome OS. The Chrome browser will apparently be integrated into the OS which should open up fun, useless questions for government regulators. Developers have been told to expect an open source programming interface later this year. Only a few hardware vendors have acknowledged they’ll be looking at Chrome OS. As of today, Acer, Adobe, ASUS, Freescale, Hewlett-Packard, Lenovo, Qualcomm, Texas Instruments, and Toshiba have admitted interest to the public.
posted by Unknown | 3:07 PM
4 Comments:
Does not exist? I have been using it for the last 6 months.
I boot the machine with Ubuntu.
Then I consume everything thru the browser.
It is called a browser OS and most people already use one they just don't know it yet. Think about it, you don't even build websites, you publish a blog thru the browser on a Google site!
I won't spam you site with a link but you can see what I use a Google OS for thru my profile.
Chris,
Thank you for not including a link as that would have prevent me from including your valuable comments.
If you're happy with what you now consider a browser OS, you'll be even more excited with what Google has planned.
For the record, I currently use Chrome as my browser. I do build websites and I use local tools. I even use a local tool called BlogJet to publish this blog.
I'm someone who prefers the performance of local applications and I'm pretty sure I'm not alone.
I'm also open minded and will register as a developer later this year.
Thanks again for reading and especially for taking the time to leave a comment.
Bill
I don't think Google will kick MS off the market but create it's own market.
PS - Why has everyone *completely* missed the release of FF3.5?!
Bill, you said only a few hardware companies expressed interest at this early juncture, but consider the list: HP, Lenovo, Toshiba, TI, Asus, etc. Not exactly mom-and-pop shops.
Anyway, I should think every company in the space would have at least some interest in the project at this point. Doesn't mean they are making any kind of commitment.
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