Software and search
giant Google is making another significant venture into developing another open
source operating system, this time for internet-centric notebook and netbook
devices. Several analysts are deeming this the company’s boldest move yet to
challenge Microsoft’s long-lived reign over the consumer computing experience.
The OS will come to be known as Google Chrome Operating System
and will be developed with lightweight coding, designed centrally for speed and
geared towards winning the hearts of the netbook owning population. According
to Sundar Pichai, VP of Product Management, “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.”
Over the past few years, Google has been putting itself
neck-and-neck with Redmond in ways that few other companies simply do not have
the advantage of executing in the battleground. For instance, its dominance in
the rising search engine marketplace has been steadily escalating while its
nemesis continues to revamp its original MSN Search through new names such as
Live Search, or most recently Bing.
Putting combative matters aside, Google Chrome OS will run
in a new windowing system on top of a Linux kernel. “For application
developers, the web is the platform. All web-based applications will
automatically work and new applications can be written using your favorite web
technologies.” As for hardware requirements, it will run on both Intel x86 and
ARM chips, and the company is working with multiple OEMs to bring it to the
netbook market next year.
All in all, Google's D-Day against nemesis Microsoft is slated for the
second half of 2010. The Google development team still has much work to do, and
they believe that much help from the open source communities of the internet
will be needed to accomplish their vision. Let the war begin.
Published in
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Google takes on Microsoft with its own OS
Google Chrome Operating System