Google's new operating system to take on Microsoft

[paroh]

SUN VALLEY, Idaho - Google Inc. is working on a new operating system for inexpensive computers in a daring attempt to wrest away Microsoft Corp.'s long-running control over people's computing experience.
The new operating system, announced late Tuesday night on Google's Web site, will be based on the company's nine-month-old Web browser, Chrome. Google intends to rely on help from the community of open-source programmers to develop the Chrome operating system, which is expected to begin running computers in the second half of 2010.
The Mountain View, Calif.-based company disclosed its plans for the operating system shortly after an online technology news service, Ars Technica, and The New York Times telegraphed the news on their Web sites.
Google is designing the operating system primarily for "netbooks," a lower-cost, less powerful breed of laptop computers that is becoming increasingly popular among budget-conscious consumers primarily interested in surfing the Web.
The operating system represents Google's boldest challenge yet to its biggest nemesis — Microsoft.
A high-stakes duel between the two technology powerhouses has been steadily escalating in recent years as Google's dominance of the Internet's lucrative search market has given it the means to threaten Microsoft in ways that few other companies can.
Google already has rankled Microsoft by luring away some of its top employees and developing an online suite of computer programs that provide an alternative to Microsoft's top-selling word processing, spreadsheet and calendar applications.
Meanwhile, Microsoft has been trying to thwart Google by investing billions of dollars to improve its own Internet search and advertising systems — to little avail so far. In the past month or so, though, Microsoft has been winning positive reviews and picking up more users with the latest upgrade to its search engine, now called "Bing." Microsoft is hailing the makeover with a $100 million marketing campaign.
Now Google is aiming for Microsoft's financial jugular with Chrome its operating system.
Microsoft has drawn much of its power — and profits — from the Windows operating system that has steered most personal computers for the past two decades.
Google's chief executive, Eric Schmidt, and its co-founders, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, have made little attempt to conceal their disdain for Windows in recent years.
Schmidt maintains Microsoft sometimes unfairly rigs its operating system to limit consumer choices — something that Microsoft has consistently denied doing. Google fears Microsoft could limit access to its search engine and other products if Windows is set up to favor Microsoft products in the default settings.
Page and Brin have frequently derided Windows as a clunky operating system susceptible to computer viruses and other security problems.
Google made a veiled reference to Windows' perceived shortcomings in its blog posting.
"We hear a lot from our users and their message is clear — computers need to get better," wrote Sundar Pichai, Google's vice president of product management and Linus Upson, Google's engineering director.
A Microsoft spokesman didn't immediately respond to an e-mail request for comment sent early Wednesday morning.
Schmidt and Brin are expected to discuss Google's new operating system later this week when they appear at a media conference hosted by Allen & Co. at the Sun Valley resort in Idaho.
Despite its own power and prominence, Google won't have an easy time changing the status quo that has governed the personal computing industry for so long.
As an example of how difficult it is to topple a long-established market leader, Google estimates about 30 million people are now using its Chrome browser — a fraction of those that rely on Microsoft's market-leading Internet Explorer. And there have been various attempts to develop open-source software to undermine Microsoft with relatively little effect.
The Chrome operating system will run in a new windowing system on top of a Linux kernel — computer coding that has been the foundation for the open-source software movement for nearly two decades.
Google has already introduced an operating system for mobile devices, called Android, that vies against various other systems, including ones made by Microsoft and Apple Inc.
The Android system worked well enough to entice some computer makers to begin developing netbooks that will eventually run on it.
Google, though, apparently believes a Chrome-based system will be better suited for running applications in netbooks.
"We believe choice will drive innovation for the benefit of everyone, including Google," wrote Pichai and Upson.




source

http://tech.yahoo.com/news/ap/20090708/ap_on_hi_te/us_tec_google_operating_system

[ravi_9793]

official source:
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2009/...chrome-os.html

[Indyan]

This is definitely big. This is what I believe (from my blog) :

....Make no mistake, this is a direct invasion into Microsoft’s territory. This announcement is huge and expect the web to be buzzing about this announcement for the days to come. Clearly, this is something Google had in mind for a long time and they had been systematically working towards it. In order to achieve this vision they first released the critical components of a web based operating system – the browser (Chrome) and a platform for enabling the development of richer web applications that can have a tighter integration with the desktop (Google Gears).
Should Microsoft be worried? Yes, definitely. Will Google OS shake up the market? It may have a major impact in the years to come and give a much needed impetus to alternate operating systems besides creating a space for itself. However, will Windows be obliterated by Google OS? No. Google OS is targeted towards a specific market. Not everyone does all their work on the web. In fact the quality of internet connection required for using a Web OS isn’t available in many parts of the world. It will be hard to topple Windows. Windows has many strong suites that endear it to both professionals and casual users. On one hand there are professional applications like Adobe Photoshop and Microsoft Office and on the other hand there are thousands of high quality games. In fact games are responsible for attracting a significant quantity of casual users (and obviously gamers). Another big challenge for Google will be familiarity. As Internet Explorer has demonstrated, people love using what they are accustomed to and most of them don’t actively seek alternatives.....

[Liverpool_fan]

Very interesting.
New Windowed system on top of Linux? Do they mean to build their own X and/or Desktop Environment?

[red_devil]

It is going to be a netbook platform as of now...would absolutely love to see it run sometime soon

[cyborg47]

hope it wont be as glitchy as chrome was...my chrome crashes very often when compared to mozilla and opera....but still i use it..

[Ecstasy]

Hail Google. =]

[Kl@w-24]

Judging by Google's other offerings, it's gonna stay in BETA for at least 4 years!

[Indyan]

Nope. The final release will come in 2nd half of 2010.
Remember that Chrome browser shed its beta tag pretty fast.

[NucleusKore]

Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8141964.stm

Google has announced which hardware firms have pledged to build machines that will run its Chrome OS.

The search giant said it was working with many firms on Chrome OS hardware including Acer, Asus, Freescale, Hewlett-Packard, Lenovo, and Toshiba.

The software is designed to work with the web and Google said it was most likely to appear on smaller portable computers known as netbooks.

Read On.........

[x3060]

this is gonna be really big...i think they have planned this properly.

[Rural Terror]

Initially targeted towards Netbooks.

[NucleusKore]

Originally Posted by x3060

this is gonna be really big...i think they have planned this properly.

Yes looks like it. A lot of behind the scenes discussions. As it is going to be run on top of a linux kernel I see the linux community benefiting too, at least as far as the kernel is concerned (read that as hardware support).

[infra_red_dude]

They want to mainly target the lower end machines now (smartbooks/netbooks). No wonder they've partnered with TI, Qualcomm. I'm hoping to find a developer build soon in our labs

[NucleusKore]

With the introduction of the Atom processor this "lower end" market has really taken off. It serves common use quite well, like running office applications, listening to music or watching a movie. Besides good battery life.

[infra_red_dude]

Originally Posted by NucleusKore

With the introduction of the Atom processor this "lower end" market has really taken off. It serves common use quite well, like running office applications, listening to music or watching a movie. Besides good battery life.

Actually compared to ARM architecture, Atom is a very hopeless processor in terms of power consumption. Intel has a long way to go to compete with ARM. Its like Intel in coming "down" from the desktop arena while ARM is going "up".

[amitabhishek]

I would have loved if Google partnered with Canonical on this...I always thought they used Ubuntu internally - Goobuntu. Google on top of a Linux kernel is hardly exciting!!! Anyways there is at least some competition now!!! If this OS is too succeed they need to start beating drums now not after it is launched.