Jul 21st, 2009
Will Google ChromeOS Make an Impact?
While I certainly am all for competition, I’m not quite sure how Google’s announced ChromeOS will make much of a dent into the Microsoft and Apple operating system market shares. ChromeOS, from what I can gather at this early date, is a Linux variant running Google’s Chrome Web browser and designed specifically for Web applications. It will be open source, designed primarily for the netbook market (at least to start), and I anticipate it will be licensed for free or very close to it.
What do you get with ChromeOS that you don’t currently get with a machine running Windows? Well, you will hopefully get a lower price. You will also lose the ability to run Windows software, which could be a large issue for many people.
Leaving the Mac OS out of this equation–Mac people are Mac people are Mac people and they’re not all that price sensitive–what do you get with a ChromeOS machine that you don’t get with one running, say, Ubuntu Linux? As far as I can tell, nothing, except for the Google name–and the ChromeOS may not have much if anything in the way of local storage or a way to run native applications, as it’s so heavily touted as running Web applications–the type that run in your Web browser like Google Docs or Google Calendar.
So how will ChromeOS make its play here? It’s tough to say. Yes, the Google name is worth a lot–I’m a Google stockholder and I love many of the company’s products–but aside from that, I don’t see a whole lot here. Right now I can get more with an Ubuntu installation than I think I will with ChromeOS, and I can do that right now for just about zero cost.
In the end, while I applaud more competition, I have yet to see how this will make much difference in the operating system market.
