Chrome OS

Google, the small startup which began its life as a PhD project by two university students, has evolved over the years into one of the world’s largest companies boasting quarterly revenues of billions of dollars worldwide. Beginning as a magnificently efficient search engine, it quickly ventured into other fields such as mobile platforms, with their take on Android, and browsers in the form of Google Chrome. Recently, they’ve announced their plans for continuing their takeover of the world with the Chrome operating system(OS), a direct challenge to the company with a monopoly over this industry, Microsoft.

The new Chrome OS has announced its bid to move into the world of netbooks. For the uninformed, netbooks are micro laptops which are barely bigger or thicker than the size of a regular paperback, sacrificing their bulk and fancy resources for the advantages of speed and light internet surfing. Netbooks have been hailed by the computer industry as the doorway to cloud computing, a term used to describe the concept of using the Internet as one big computer to get everything done, rather than having to buy expensive hardware to get the same work done today. In sync with the reputation that netbooks have obtained, Google plans to create its operating system around the concept of speed and availability. That means that users no longer have to rely on Microsoft’s bulky Vista OS, which has attracted complaints ranging from being not user friendly to being too slow. And with a balance sheet the size of Google’s, consumers need not worry that services such as supports and updates will vanish overnight after spending the time to familiarize themselves with the OS.

However, sceptics are quick to note that Google’s high flying plans will not go as smoothly as some might think. They note that the Android mobile platform has not reached the heights that so many had expected, even after being available for so long. Plus, Microsoft will definitely not sit on the sidelines waiting for little brother to catch up. With so many netbooks already sporting the Windows OS, it will surely see the move by Google as a threat and rank up its forces to defend its turf in the upcoming war.

Second, Google has announced that the OS will be open sourced – meaning free, in contrast to Microsoft’s pocket burning operating system costs. While that’s good news to the regular consumer, how will Google keep up the pace without a steady income? Who’s going to satisfy the payrolls on the staff working on the project, and where will that money come from. To be sure, running an OS can’t be cheap, as can be clearly seen through Microsoft’s efforts in keeping Vista in good graces with their customers. Will future Chrome OS users have to put up with hanging advertisements on the sides of their screens? That’s not going to fare well with most folks.

Of course, nobody is denying that Google’s move to create an OS is a good one, and the competition between the search engine company and Microsoft will surely be healthy for consumer choice. However, doubts and shadows remain in our minds as to how it plans to provide the best of both worlds while keeping its market share. Let’s cross our fingers and hope that Google comes out with something that will smack us on the side of the head and make us go “Wow”, and seal its reputation as a company that’s genuinely working for us.