The announcement of a new operating System from Google called the Google ChromeOS came as no surprise to me as an OS from Google had been long expected. The rumors had been doing the rounds – remember the gOS which was mistaken for the Google OS. Well, it never really took off. Wonder if any single PC right now is running the gOS. And then, Google launched the mobile OS – Android. And for a long time, people believed that it was the Google OS which people expected. And now, in the recent announcement [ Read: Introducing the Google Chrome OS ], GOOG has made it official, that come next year[ a vague dateline of second half, next year] Google’s new OS – Chrome will be released for users. And yes, it will be opensource, free, lightweight and is initially going to be targeted at netbooks.

So what does this mean to me and you? What does it mean to Microsoft/Windows XP-Vista-7 users, Apple/MacOSX users and Linux users? Is all the buzz and hoopla worth it? Let’s deal with them one by one.

a) Google Chrome OS is Chrome extended :

It has worked for the browser- which is clean, clutter free, simple, fast, instant start-up, reliable and lightweight. Going by the name, ChromeOS is aimed at replicating all of these features. From what we get from Google’s release post, it is indicated that the user interface will be kept extremely simple, and most of the user experience will take place on the web.Now that raises certain eyebrows and questions about the user experience in an offline environment. We have yet to see any demos and exact feel of how the OS is going to look like, so its a bit early to comment further on this.

Also – Chrome OS is not Android + :
Android is for mobiles. ChromeOS is for Netbooks. Chrome OS is designed to cater to people who spend a lot of their time online, and hence the obvious choice of Netbooks. However, Chrome OS will aslo be able to run on desktop systems as well.

b) So what is new with this Chrome thing?

For people who just can’t wait for PCs to boot up, browsers to open and get ready in a total of almost 2 minutes;
For people who are just way too careless to not backup their important files;
For people who do not want constant software updates or struggle with compatibility issues – there comes the Chrome to save the day. Or does it? We’ll get to know it next year. The vision is to accomplish all of the above mentioned things, and also redesign the security architecture of the OS to fight back malwares and viruses more efficiently.

c) Should Microsoft be worried?

11 million netbooks were sold last year. By 2013 this figure would reach 39 million. The PCs and Laptops market will be 400 million – which is almost 10 times the size. So, if Chrome OS is just aimed at the Netbook segment , there is just way too much room for Windows and Linux and Mac OS.
Also, if Chrome OS is aimed at Netbook users, will the UI be appealing enough? We have to accept the fact that with time, we have all kinda got accustomed to the whole taskbar with a start button, thanks to Windows. We have seen that in different shapes and sizes – Finder and Dock on the Mac, and similar stuff on the Linux flavours. One of my major concerns is how the UI going to be? If it is going to be entirely web based – in a form which is going to resemble the browser, will user adaptability be considered? And hence, I don’t see Google Chrome OS posing any form of threat to Windows or Microsoft.

d) I know its just aimed at being Anti-Microsoft, but how?

Its opensource, its free, and its aimed at the next – rising market of computer users. Windows don’t seem to be offering any free OS in recent future. Windows XP running on Netbooks, was originally designed for Pentium IIIs and above. But the Chrome OS is designed to run on even x86 and ARM chips. The way to go for Chrome OS to get this done by next year is that they are going full on with the project, releasing it to the open source developers community. The source code will be released by the end of this year.

Quoting from Techcrunch’s post [ Read: Google Drops A Nuclear Bomb On Microsoft. And It’s Made of Chrome.]

Google says the software architecture will basically be the current Chrome browser running inside “a new windowing system on top of a Linux kernel.” So in other words, it basically is the web as an OS. And applications developers will develop for it just as they would on the web. This is similar to the approach Palm has taken with its new webOS for the Palm Pre, but Google notes that any app developed for Google Chrome OS will work in any standards-compliant browser on any OS.What Google is doing is not recreating a new kind of OS, they’re creating the best way to not need one at all.

e) The big difference between Chrome OS and others:

This will be evident more when we get other technologies worked up alongside to truly reveal all the details. I am talking about HTML5, OpenVideo and most importantly Google Wave. All these clubbed with the Chrome OS could be something to watch out. The web-apps section is what Chrome OS will be aiming at to hit it big. So, Google Docs, Calendar, GMail, GTalk, ZOHO, Chrome, Labs, Google Wave, HTML 5 – is that what Google Chrome OS will look like?
What remains is a media player. But if we are talking of having everything online, then possibly a YouTube feature makes more sense, given that it is owned by Google as well. And not to forget Twitter, Facebook and other Social Networking apps. So, will that please us? We at Techkeyla will keep a close watch.

Also Read:

Google Chrome: Redefining The Operating System

Why Chrome OS Now? Because Microsoft Office In The Cloud Comes Monday.

Chrome OS Partners: Acer, Adobe, ASUS, Freescale, Hewlett-Packard, Lenovo, Qualcomm, Texas Instruments

Why Google’s Chrome OS Bomb Has Minimal Fallout On Apple

Why we need to chill about ChromeOS

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