Google's Chrome OS: Let The Games Begin

Google made an announcement on July 7, 2009, – an announcement that almost 30 million users were eagerly waiting for. Google’s Chrome OS. Yes, they’re finally talking about it, and so is the close-knit technology user community.

An excerpt from the blog post iterates Google’s vision. “Google Chrome OS is an open source, lightweight operating system that will initially be targeted at Netbooks. Later this year, we will open-source its code, and Netbooks running Google Chrome OS will be available for consumers in the second half of 2010. Because we’re already talking to partners about the project, and we’ll soon be working with the open source community, we wanted to share our vision now, so everyone understands what we are trying to achieve.”

Popular belief dictates that Chrome OS is set to make a dent in mega-vendors’ (such as Microsoft) OS businesses; however, although we’d like very much to believe the same, practical scenarios dictate otherwise.

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Our sister concern, Biztech2.com spoke to technology research company Gartner’s principal research analyst Diptarup Chakraborti regarding the new OS. Chakraborti said, “Google’s Chrome OS, from what we’ve seen so far, is touted to be a Microsoft killer, However, a simple analogy is due here; Google Chrome is no more a Windows Killer; than Google Docs was an Office Killer. I don’t particularly see it as a threat to Microsoft’s business, primarily because all said and done, Microsoft has already built its entire business and strengthened it using its retailer and partner network.”

Although Google has mentioned that the Os will initially be released for Netbooks followed by an OEM x86 release; however, analysts believe this to be somewhat ambiguous.

“We saw the release of Android, which was built for real-time architectures such as mobile phones, netbooks, etc. (restricted to the ARM range of processors of course). Now they’re saying that Chrome will be the OS of choice in these instances, which is somewhat disconcerting/ ambiguous,” says Chakraborti.

Google has clearly mentioned that Chrome will be based on the Linux kernel and will utilize cloud-based storage services. Now this is definitely a great step and one in the right direction. We’ve also been hearing about Microsoft’s ‘Midori’ and its ‘cloud-ready’ architecture, so utilizing the cloud is definitely on the agenda for Operating Systems of the future (or at least it seems to be for now). However, that has its own set of acceptance and security issues, which still need to be resolved. Obviously, a lot of compliance will be involved here. Chakraborti explains, “The cloud is here to stay. Most of your data will probably be online in the near future. The network is evolving into a pervasive being, so to speak. Google’s usage of the cloud for its OS is definitely a progressive step in this direction.”

He further says, “Microsoft recently launched a beta of its new search engine, Bing, which is believed to have made a small dent in Google’s market share. I believe this move of Google’s might be a move to counter Microsoft’s move to break into their market, by trying to break into Microsoft’s baby – Operating Systems.”

Chakraborti believes that there are a few basic issues that are at play here, which Google will need to make sure it resolves before it goes-to-market with its product. Pushing retail networks will be an imperative so as to smoothen the go-to-market curves and building OEM partnerships will also be imperative in the long run.

All in all, we, as members of the technology community, are very excited about this new platform; however, whether it can scratch the surface of enterprises still remains to be seen. Google has always been at the forefront of building products that have purpose and rock-solid functionality. However, there are always obstacles, whether in the form of acceptance challenges or distribution challenges. Google now has the chance to prove itself in a much wider market, and not to mention in a much more crowded and cut-throat market. Whether it succeeds or fails, remains to be watched.