Last night, There was a huge announcement on the Google blog: they are releasing their own operating system to compete with Windows. Like their mobile OS, Android, and the new Palm Pre, the OS is web focused- meaning developers can build applications that run on mostly web technologies such as HTML5, CSS3, and Javascript.
It is Linux based at its core, with a completely new user interface, making web developers feel especially at home. But why should the average consumer care?
It is lean, mean, and free. Of course, that’s what Google is claiming, we have yet to see. The idea though is that modern operating systems like Windows Vista and Mac OSX are very large, complicated operating systems, and while that is great for power users, the vast majority of people who use their computer want to do three things: surf the web, e-mail, and occasionally use a word processor.
This is where Google’s Chrome OS steps in. Builds of Linux can be so small they can actually live on a chip inside a computer, allowing for an instant-on boot up process, and with such a light operating system, in theory, it should perform excellent with less hardware, specifically net-books, which is what the big G is targeting.
These always-online machines are already extremely cheap, somewhere in the $200-300 range, and without having to pay for Windows, or MS Office, that price is likely to be significantly less.
It’s likely going to take a long time before Chrome makes a significant dent in the overall PC market, but as consumers get more and more comfortable with their web-based operating systems they have on their phones, iPods, and other devices, it should feel natural to extend that experience to their laptop.
