Well, well, well.. Google’s certainly thrown the twitter/bloggersphere into a spin today, with the announcement of their own Desktop Operating System.
Whilst I understand that when a company the size of Google makes a move in a new direction, it’s going to attract attention and something we should pay attention. Because if done right, it could significantly impact the industry and millions of lives. However the reactions today were ridiculously disproportionate. I sat back and watched the tweets roll in, some referring to it as “Google drops a Bomb!” others referring to it as a “Windows killer”. If you want to see the hysteria, check out #Google OS.
Ultimately what we got today, is an exciting announcement for that has potential for the future. It’s important to remember that the success Google Chrome OS can only truly be determined once we get hands on with the OS. Early development builds are many months away and a consumer release (undoubtedly beta) is scheduled for mid-2010.
What’s different to current offerings? Well Google are taking different approach to constructing their Linux-based 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.” This could also be interpreted as meaning the feature set will also be very limited.
What’s not reflected by Google’s comments, is the complexities that go into making an operating system, something that both Apple and Microsoft have had to deal with for the past 30 years. How Google will make an OS so that “users don’t have to deal with viruses, malware and security updates” remains to be seen. This is the complete opposite to everything we know when it comes to software and the internet today. If they can pull it off, fantastic, we’ll have to wait and see how they achieve such a bold claim.
Once launched, there’s no doubt Google Chrome OS will be the most popular Linux build to date.
My question is: Do we actually need another OS, consider Windows 7 and Snow Leopard are the lightest, fastest Operating Systems to date ?
More @ Google Blog
