Will Google’s Chrome OS shine?

The search giant wants to take on the desktop juggernaut by announcing its own operating system

Will Google's Chrome OS shine?

The search giant wants to take on the desktop juggernaut by announcing its own operating system

There are some companies you appreciate, there are some you dislike, and there are some whom you adore in one area but don't exactly want to praise in other contexts.

Google is one such company. While its search is arguably a must-use, it is not exactly hot when it comes to browsers. And now, it is taking up the 'the browser is the operating system' concept too seriously and creating its own OS, called Chrome.

Old idea

It is perhaps not at all surprising that both the browser and the OS have the same name. And it is also not surprising to hear that "Google Chrome OS is an open source, lightweight operating system that will initially be targeted at net books," as Sundar Pichai, VP (product management) and Linus Upson, engineering director, wrote in a blog posting.

This is a throwback to the days of the dot-com, when companies like Netscape and Oracle came up with concepts like the NC or the network computer, which shares some parallels with the Google Chrome OS, at least conceptually.

Of course, we have to say one thing in the intervening ten years, bandwidth has improved considerably, so the idea may hold some water today, which means that one cannot just dismiss Google's initiative.

What of apps?

But, anytime one discusses something like the OS, we have to remember that lay users don't use an operating system or a computer they use applications like word processors and spread sheets. And to users like you and me, the browser is just one of the applications we use to get our work done.

Granted, some of the applications we use today are bloated, and we could get work done more efficiently if they were more streamlined and loaded faster. But this said, the fastest connection is always bound to be to the hard disk of your own PC, followed by the local server and the Web. Even with broadband, your hard disk is still the fastest way to get things done.

Think again

It is always hard in the IT field to dethrone the current champion because people have got used to doing things in a particular way.

Even in these of high-end connectivity and broadband, people are comfortable with having a powerful PC with both a fat pipe to the Internet and an even fatter hard disk containing data and programs that can be accessed without recourse to the Web.

And since this is what people are comfortable with, we can safely say that, while Google's Chrome OS is definitely a welcome idea, its chances of dethroning Microsoft are extremely small.

QUICK TAKE
>>Google has announced the Chrome OS
>>The product will run on net books
>>It is supposed to challenge Microsoft's dominance

Browser market share
IE: 59.56 per cent
Firefox: 30.47 per cent
Opera: 3.11 per cent
Safari: 2.99 per cent
Chrome: 2.88 per cent
Source: www.statcounter.com;
Period: June 9, 2009 to July 8, 2009