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Jul. 9, 2009
Google made a huge news splash yesterday when it publicly announced its new computer operating system dubbed
Chrome OS.
The search giant now wishes to diversify its operations and it said the new OS will run on both Intel x86 and
AMD CPUs, noting that the company is working with multiple PC makers to bring a number of netbooks to market
by the early spring of 2010.
The Mountain View, Calif. company said its new operating system is being developed separate from Android
and was designed for people who spend most of their time on the Internet.
The OS' architecture involves Google Chrome running within a new windowing system on top of a Linux kernel.
In November, Google plans to open-source its new OS and netbooks running Google Chrome will be available
for consumers around mid-May 2010.
While Google's new OS is being designed to power laptops ranging from small netbooks to even full-size
desktop systems, Google does concede that “there are areas where Google Chrome OS and Android will overlap.”
Google's press release suggested that "choice will drive innovation." In their present implementations,
Windows and Linux-based operating systems have been
the norm on the bulk of available netbooks, especially for Windows, although in the last 12 months Linux
has gained substantially, mostly with notebooks and laptops.
Generally speaking, Acer and Asus are two companies that are mostly credited with creating the netbook
market. The two have enjoyed amazing success, topping bestseller lists with their versions of the low-cost,
ultra-portable Internet-centric devices.
Overall, netbooks have been mostly recession-proof since the start of the global recession that began
last September.
Six months ago, Gartner projected the market for netbooks to be around 21 million units sold in 2009, up
a staggering 80 percent from 2008's numbers.
And make no mistake, netbooks are definitely getting a lot faster. And they can easily handle the Internet
just about as well as your average desktop that packs even more memory and processing power.
As Web-based applications slowly overtake software, many observers still believe that netbooks will
dominate consumer and small business PC sales in years to come. And as you might expect, that of course does
not please Microsoft one bit.
Google is certainly taking a huge bet on this, but some say it can probably pull it off. Its plan is to
simply offer a scaled-back, very inexpensive (or free) PC operating system that is designed around the
Internet rather than just some software.
Some industry analysts are also doubting Microsoft's true ability to run its soon-to-be-released
Windows 7 OS on netbooks. Netbooks mostly run
Microsoft's Windows XP, because its current operating system, Vista, is much too resource-intensive.
Although Windows 7 is a bit smaller, it still isn't dramatically that much smaller than Vista is. "Microsoft's
decision to run Windows 7 on netbooks is really curious," said Zeus Kerravala, an analyst at Yankee Group.
"It's hard to take the stuff out of a big OS, but much easier to add to one that's lighter."
"Overall, Google has really been unable to monetize anything other than its own search engine. The company
certainly gets a lot of respect, but as far as monetization is concerned, there's still a lot of room
for improvement," added Kerravala.
But other analysts are still skeptical that Google will ever be able to drive significant revenue from its
new Chrome computer operating system. Others are also asking what business applications (if any) the new
OS will be able to run, whether it is installed on a netbook, a laptop or even a full-fledged desptop.
Source: Linux News Today.
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