Print - Google to Take On Windows with New OS

It's official: Google will compete head-to-head with Microsoft's dominant Windows OS with a new system called Google Chrome OS. Based on the Google Chrome browser and not its previous OS effort, the smart phone-based Android system, Google Chrome OS will initially be aimed at netbooks and will ship on new devices in the second half of 2010.

"The Google Chrome Operating System is our attempt to rethink what operating systems should be," a blog post credited to Google Vice President Sundar Pichai and Engineering Director Linus Upson reads. "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."

Google notes that the Google Chrome OS will run on x86- and ARM-based systems and will be made available on multiple PCs by a number of PC makers. It's based on the Linux kernel, Google says, and will feature a new windowing system that runs the Chrome browser. The application platform will be purely web-based and will work on any standards-based browsers on Windows, Mac, and Linux.

Google has been making steady inroads into Microsoft's core markets for years, but this announcement obviously cuts right to the heart of the software giant's most important product line. And although it's curious that Google wouldn't better leverage its previous work with Android, the move to a purely web-based OS isn't all that off-center for the company, as its own core products are all web-based.

Looking at this more broadly, there's been precious little discussion so far about how this move will affect minority OS providers such as Apple and Linux. Google's push into netbooks and PCs is obviously a concern for Microsoft but will likely have a bigger impact, in the beginning, on those systems. Apple, in particular, has experienced strong growth in recent years, although that growth has largely stalled over the past quarter, and the company's Mac OS X still accounts for less than 4 percent usage share worldwide. And Apple's struggles have come against exactly the kind of machines that Google wants to make: netbooks. If Google is successful with its Chrome OS, that success will likely impact the Mac as well.

In related news, Google yesterday removed the Beta label from its Gmail, Google Calendar, and Google Docs products after learning that the label was a deployment blocker for corporations. Google is hoping to get its business-oriented Apps suite, which combines these and other products into a single offering, into more businesses this year.

"In related news, Google yesterday removed the Beta label from its Gmail, Google Calendar, and Google Docs products after learning that the label was a deployment blocker for corporations." Oh, come on. Do you A) seriously think they didn't know that already and/or B) only recently discovered it? Come on, Paul, you make the folks at Google sound like a bunch of clueless kids. The way they have Microsoft running around trying to catch its own tail, it's obvious that they're not.

"Come on, Paul, you make the folks at Google sound like a bunch of clueless kids" If it's taken them this long to get that PoS that is Google Apps to a "stable" release state (it still isn't), then yes, yes they are.

Paul, Apple is hardly a company thats struggling. The Mac, iPhone, iPod, iTunes, the App store and Apple stores are in the process of redefining industries. Apple is a HARDWARE company that also writes excellent software to run on it. Yes there is likely to be some impact, at the most, as much as the Palm Pre has impacted on iPhone sales (not that you'd notice). Neither is Apple interested in grubbing around at the Netbook end of the market. No. The clear and obvious loser here is Microsoft. And you know it.

Hearing that it's based on linux gives me a warm fuzzy feeling on its security & stability. I look forward to testing Google's upcoming O/S.

"Apple, in particular, has experienced strong growth in recent years, although that growth has largely stalled over the past quarter, and the company's Mac OS X still accounts for less than 4 percent usage share worldwide. And Apple's struggles have come against exactly the kind of machines that Google wants to make: netbooks. If Google is successful with its Chrome OS, that success will likely impact the Mac as well." Wrong. Wrong in multiple ways. Apple sales have now rebounded. Macbook Pros are now back ordered due to strong sales. Apple is literally selling every computer they can build, at least for laptops. Apple doesn't make a "netbook" so they are hardly having "struggles" against them. However, they do make a product called the "iPhone" which seems to be enjoying some small success. This move by Google is aimed squarely at Microsoft's bargain basement discounted price of XP for netbooks and that is where the competition will play out. This is squarely aimed at Microsoft's sacred cow revenue machines, Windows and Office. This move by Google will have negligible effect on Apple. Trust Paul to throw out this canard. Utterly ridiculous on multiple levels. What is really going on is the unseating of the Windows platform. Mac OS X continues to grow, but remains a minor player on the desktop. The iPhone shows that the mobile computing revolution is here and is bringing new opportunities and new platforms. Android and Pre make the same point, but aren't as good. Now Google is revisiting the OS question at a level that appears to be in between a full Desktop and a handheld device. The monolithic Windows platform is being eroded around the edges. It won't go away any time soon but the days of hegemony are over. That's a good thing for all, even Microsoft, since it might reduce their overbearing arrogance and stimulate them to compete, as opposed to buying or exterminating competitors.

"The monolithic Windows platform is being eroded around the edges. It won't go away any time soon but the days of hegemony are over. That's a good thing for all, even Microsoft, since it might reduce their overbearing arrogance and stimulate them to compete, as opposed to buying or exterminating competitors." Yeah yeah seem to remember people saying that about BeOS and linux and that didn't happen either. Frankly Mac fan boys go haunt another website, this is WindowsIT Pro not looser mac fan boyz website. OS X will only ever be a bit player and Google doesn't have a good rep re software frankly Chrome is aweful and Google apps worse.

ha ha ha - well said... I use software designed by advertising companies...they have my best interest in mind and will save me from Windoze teehee :D

ha ha ha - well said... I use software designed by a convicted monopolist with several charges still standing... they must have my best interest in mind and will save me from having a free will teehee :D

they didn't hold a gun to your head so I guess you must be a sheep and yesh, they do have your best interest in mind because you would be a customer...welcome to America!

@sx4sport. Wrong again. I do not use any Microsoft products. Nor do I live in America.