It’s been rumored that Google was to unveil its long awaited computer operating system, and now Google confirms this is true in a blog post: Introducing the Google Chrome OS.
The company says that the OS will be released later this year to developers, designed for netbooks. Then in 2010, it expects it will be available to consumers...
6 Comments
The company says that the OS will be released later this year to developers, designed for netbooks. Then in 2010, it expects it will be available to consumers...
6 Comments
Comments
I’m interested to see exactly how this is rolled out. Is it an OS that will include a browser? If so, they better make sure that they don’t bundle it with Chrome. On the other hand if this is a browser with additional capabilities (which they are saying it is not) then it’s not really an OS.I wonder if anyone will bring the same Anti-Trust issues that plagued Microsoft?
Me too. The official blog post http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2009/07/introducing-google-chrome-os.html talks about it running via a windowing system that sits on the Linux kernel. My guess is it will stay a developer’s toy for quite a few versions
Of course it will have Chrome as the bundled browser!I can’t wait to see how this plays out as well... Google have really come out of nowhere and really challenging the convention.But My inner sceptic thinks that an OS is just too big a project for Google to do a great job. They’ve been the leaders of narrow experiences (search, maps, email) but an OS requires a much broader experience. My hunch is that this isn’t going to fly for a long time (if ever).
Before that hapens there already will be an Android based Netbooks and other Linux based netbook OS specifically designed for that task. The Google OS will be just one player among others.
One more sphinn should do it!
I can’t see this working myself. From what I have heard, this will just be another Linux based system, tweaked by Google. Based on what we saw with Chrome, I doubt it will be a completely new project from the ground up. With other Linux systems, like Ubuntu becoming so stable and user-friendly, what is the USP of this project? I’d also be suprised if they can build up the same level of community and support around the system that Ubuntu already has. OS folk are wary of contributing towards a commercially owned project, especially with Google’s poor track record with the community so far. Calling this ’Google’s OS’ when it is based on years of work with Linux is not going to help.I guess I’ll wait a see what happens with the plugins for Chrome (built using WebKit, the OS behind Safari). That will be another indicator if Google can actually encourage community support for their mashups. Without that - these projects will never take off fully. I can’t fault them on the marketing though, this announcement pushed the share price up 6 points.