Rixstep
	`About \| ACP \| Buy \| Industry Watch \| Learning Curve \| News \| Products \| Search \| Substack`

Home » Industry Watch

Google Announce Windows Killer

News this good doesn't happen every day.

Get It

Try It

MOUNTAIN VIEW (Rixstep) -- It reads like a manifesto - the Google blog post yesterday evening at 21:37 by Sundar Pichai and Linus Upson. It sounds like the answer to all the world's - at least all the Internet's - problems. And on paper it sounds like everything's done right for once.

Google have namely announced the Windows killer - Google Chrome Operating System (GCOS).

Introducing the Google Chrome OS

'Google Chrome OS is an open source, lightweight operating system that will initially be targeted at netbooks', the bloggers write. '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.'

So they've already done the first right thing - making it a commodity.

'The operating systems that browsers run on were designed in an era where there was no web.'

No kidding. That's been the whole point all along. Aside from NeXTSTEP which literally invented the web that is.

'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.'

Oh wow. Remember Steve Jobs' deal about speeding up startups by three seconds? Apple have it down to about 45 seconds today - but a few seconds?

'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.'

Oh wow. Nails are being put in the coffin of Microsoft Corporation as you read. And that 'just work' seems to be a hint to another corporation.

x86, ARM, Linux-Based

'Google Chrome OS will run on both x86 as well as ARM chips and we are working with multiple OEMs to bring a number of netbooks to market next year.'

Yes it starts on netbooks and first after a while will be ready for ordinary boxen.

'The software architecture is simple - Google Chrome running within a new windowing system on top of a Linux kernel.'

Not that it matters to Joe Luser but it will matter to others: can Apple's OpenStep finally run on another platform? Please?

All web-based applications will automatically work and new applications can be written using your favorite web technologies. And of course, these apps will run not only on Google Chrome OS, but on any standards-based browser on Windows, Mac and Linux thereby giving developers the largest user base of any platform.

The irony for those who followed the DOJ trial of Microsoft can't go lost: this is exactly why Microsoft screwed Netscape, Sun, and Apple: they needed to keep up what judge TP Jackson called the 'barriers to entry'. That trial is long over and here comes Google. And Microsoft have never been weaker and Netscape never had the clout Google have. Few corporations have. Google are coming at Bill Gates with the one thing he fears most.

Gbuzz

The buzz - the implications - haven't been lost on the pundits.

'Google and Microsoft have tap danced around the boxing ring for years', write Dean Takahashi and Anthony Ha of tech news site VentureBeat. 'Google are finally throwing a gigantic punch.'

'The crack in Microsoft's armor will also make Intel vulnerable, threatening to unravel the Wintel duopoly that has dominated computing since the 1980s', adds Takahashi. 'The ideas behind the Chrome OS go back many years, even as far back as 1995, when Schmidt was the chief technology officer of Sun Microsystems.'

Takahashi notes Schmidt has a PhD in computer science - something neither Gates nor Jobs come close to - and has long predicted the Internet would 'hollow out' the Wintel hegemony. And both Larry Ellison and Schmidt's boss at the time Scott McNealy touted the advantages of the 'net computer' nearly 15 years ago.

'Schmidt has been methodical about getting ready for this war with Microsoft', writes Takahashi.

Taking Microsoft Out

'The announcement could dramatically change the market for operating systems, especially for Microsoft, the biggest player with around 90% share', writes Maggie Shiels of BBC News. 'This announcement is huge', admits Microsoft attack dog Rob Enderle who is probably already looking for a Caribbean island to go to ground on. 'This is the first time we have had a truly competitive OS on the market in years. This is potentially disruptive and the first real attempt by anyone to go after Microsoft.'

'One of Google's major goals is to take Microsoft out, to systematically destroy their hold on the market', adds Enderle.

Hear hear.