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[tickmike]

Interesting and its Linux based  .

You may have seen it on national news this week.

"Welcome to the weekly newsletter from Personal Computer World.

Google has dropped a bombshell with the announcement it is to produce a desktop operating system based on Linux, giving
it a product to directly compete with Windows for the first time.

The open-source Chrome OS complements Android, Google's operating system for mobile phones, which is also based on Linux. Not only is it the first desktop OS from Google, but its also the first Linux distribution with branding from a true household name in computing. This is a major boost to Linux and the open-source approach to software development, which has struggled to compete partly down to a lack of strong branding. The Chrome OS will  beneift from being completely free, and designed for use with web applications, such as Google Apps. Google has promised that even on netbooks, Chrome OS will boot quickly, getting users onto their PCs within seconds.

However, despite some commentators predicting the end of Microsoft; being free, branded by Google and open source may not be enough to convince the population to give up Windows or Mac OS. Google Docs, which stores your documents in the cloud, has barely dented the market
share of Microsoft Office, and Windows 7 is on the horizon, which suffers from far less problems than Windows Vista. Unlike some other vendors of Linux distributions though , Google has a strong customer focus, and many believe that Chrome OS will be the most user-friendly distribution yet.

Despite the speculation, Chrome OS is still some while away, and is unlikely to arrive before Windows 7. The delay may be long enough for Windows 7 to become the OS of choice, leaving Chrome OS as a second-choice, rather than equal, offering to Windows.

Orestis Bastounis
Reviews Editor,
Personal Computer World "

http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2009/07/introducing-google-chrome-os.html

[roseway]

This is a cloud computing OS, using Google Chrome as its principal user interface. It's got a lot of attraction for small low-powered netbooks because the heavy processing is done elsewhere, with the PC acting as a thin client. And it's handy for people who travel a lot, as they don't have to carry a lot of data and processing power around with them.

The weakness of any such system is that it relies totally on a reasonably fast internet connection. This isn't always available, and without it the machine will be next to useless. And a lot of people and companies will be unwilling to entrust confidential data to another company, particularly a foreign-owned one.

So, while this may well act as a bit of a spoiler for Windows 7 (which may in part be Google's intention) I don't see it taking over the world. Personally I prefer to keep my data under my own control, and always available.

[tickmike]

Maybe this does not sound so good, I also would not trust anyone to have my data.

[mr_chris]

I wouldn't suppose Google were interested in what I had to save in the vast majority of my documents, but universal high-speed net access is far from a reality, and as such it is completely useless you only travel to places where you are guaranteed fast Internet connectivity. Even then, what if it goes down?

I know Google have plans to make their Apps and Docs available offline for when there is no connection, but even so, I too wouldn't entrust the my important documents to remote Internet storage - I'm sure it's pretty safe, but I'm with roseway, I prefer to have my data such that *I* am responsible for it, and I know exactly where it is stored!!

[roseway]

Interesting article on the subject in the New York Times:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/13/opinion/13cringely.html?_r=1

[mr_chris]

That's a really good take on things eric - I enjoyed reading that article - he speaks a lot of sense on some very controversial topics in a very calm and reasoned way .. thanks for posting that

[roseway]

Yes, I liked it too.

[kitz]

Excellent article