Bob Browning's blog

The press have gone wild over the Google operating system announcement.

Google gets set to shatter Windows’ dominance
Google’s operating system escalates Microsoft duel

etc.

I don’t think so.  This is another Linux distribution.  There are hundreds of these including Ubuntu (the hot distro du jour), Moblin from Intel, Google’s own Android and for that matter the Apple Mac Operating system which is built on Linux.

Google have the marketing power to launch something, that is for sure, but it is unthinkable that this will take over the desktop from Microsoft.  From the Google blog.

“The software architecture is simple — Google Chrome running within a new windowing system on top of a Linux kernel.  For application developers, the web is the platform. All web-based applications will automatically work and new applications can be written using your favorite web technologies. And of course, these apps will run not only on Google Chrome OS, but on any standards-based browser on Windows, Mac and Linux thereby giving developers the largest user base of any platform.”

So what they are really selling here is not a new operating system, but a browser-based platform for Cloud computing – Google style. It is targeted initially at netbook computers; these low-power, cheap palm-tops that are emerging – fast.

Your netbook is a feeble computer, built for web browsing and other simple tasks,  so why not offload the work onto Google’s application servers so you can run other office applications as well?  Also because cost is an issue with these gadgets, you don’t want to buy office applications from Microsoft, you can use Google apps online for free. The logic is inescapable.

This is wrong on so many levels:

Just because they are called netbooks doesn’t mean that they are net devices

Its just a name.  The whole point about netbooks is that they are small and light.  I can pop one in my rucksack without having to spend 2 months in the gym doing weight training.  I can open it up in Starbucks to work on a report without sending cofffee cups flying.  Will I access the Internet to do my word processing on a Google app?  The netbook probably has a SIM card in it, from my local mobile operator.  One click and I am on-line.

And paying through the nose for the privilege.

I don’t think so.  Not until cost and bandwidth restrictions from the mobile operators get very significantly improved.

Netbooks are not so feeble you have do do your processing on a remote server

It is a mistake to think that netbooks are the ideal platform for cloud computing because they are low-powered.  Quad-core ARM processors are round the corner.  Your netbook won’t run like a high-priced workstation, but it will be OK for word processing.

I don’t need free Google apps because Microsoft charges so much for Office

I don’t have to pay for the slicker, more functioning, hard-disk based office applications because I can quite respectable software from OpenOffice.

I worry about the proliferation of  Linux distributions, each one confusing and splintering the market.  Personally I think it would have been much better for Google to get its marketing efforts behind an established players like Ubuntu Netbook Remix which is running now and already has some sort of exposure or even Moblin.  Add Chrome and as far as I can see you have done the job.

The market will eventually decide what chip family and what operating system will run netbooks.  Potentially superior ARM- based netbooks will only take off if one of the many candidate Linux-based GUIs gets ahead of the pack.  There are some great ones out there, we don’t need another one.  In particular what we don’t need AT ALL is Google pre-announcing something at least a year away in order to freeze the market.