What the Google Chrome OS means for Netbooks
Graduation baby!
It’s been almost a year since google launched their speedy browser – “Google Chrome” and now they have over 30 million users. The “Chrome” was initally designed for people who lived on the web and who needed a lightweight browser that would load their mail pages instanteously and that would translate effortless when more application-heavy pages were loaded. And boy did they score. As an avid fan of Google’s browser, I am salivating at the prospect of the new OS they have in the works.
Google’s stance is this- “The operating system that browsers run on were designed in an era when there was no web. So today, we’re announcing a new project that’s a natural extension of Google Chrome — the Google Chrome Operating System. It’s our attempt to re-think what operating systems should be.”
They are planning a launch midway through 2010, and promise an open source lightweight system with minimal interface that is targeted towards netbooks.
Problems?
Google is saying that since the OS is going to be tailored specifically towards people who use the web, it will be bare of native applications (barring Google Chrome of course) and not support local storage. What we think this means is it may not be a complete replacement for the OS out there. During the press conference, the Google guys were asked if they meant for their OS to be a companion for Windows – an instant no frills load-on for people who wanted to get online and surf the web instanteously, but they kind of skirted around the question.
But what does it all mean
But the counter-argument here is that Google does not see people using a netbook as their sole computing device, but as a companion to one, and so it makes sense to offer a companion product for another companion product. While we’ll only have an idea of the computing power of the new OS when its out, we’re sure that this the Google Chrome OS is going to make some sort of splash. We’ll keep you updated.
Filed under: Netbook