Linked by Jordan Spencer Cunningham on Wed 8th Jul 2009 18:34 UTC, submitted by rlem6983
Google's recent move of revealing the Chrome OS to a suspecting public has put a great many people on alert. Some say it's a major privacy issue, some say Google oughtn't to become more and more monopolistic, while others think that the wide array of popular Linux distributions shouldn't become even more fragmented than it already is. "Google's decision to create its own Linux distribution and splinter the Linux community decisively once again can only be seen as foolhardy and self-obsessive.
Instead of treading its own path, Google should have sought to leverage the stellar work already carried out by Mark Shuttleworth and his band of merry coders and tied its horse to the Ubuntu cart."
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Member since:
2005-07-13
I can't help but be amazed, though I shouldn't be, at the level of heated debate all across the interwebs, built upon what is nothing more than ambiguous speculation, concerning the impact of Chrome OS.
From what I gather, this is nothing more than a lightweight OS optimized for internet use. Sure, they're going to release it in the wild for users to install, but the real goal is OEM installation on netbooks, probably partnered with regional mobile service providers. I guess we'll have to wait and see, but I can't for the life of me see the advantage of replacing your existing OS with Chrome OS, when you can simply run Chrome on your existing OS.
Seems to me that they're basically trying to solidify the perceived niche between smartphone and rich-client desktop, though I'm not sure that's a niche that truly needs to be filled. Companies have been trying for more than a decade now, and failing badly. Frankly, by the time the devices hit the market, the line will probably be blurred with the capabilities of next-gen smart phone platforms anyway.
Regardless, there's nothing for MS shareholders to really be afraid of here. Netbooks are popular, but I doubt the beancounters in Redmond can even measure the incremental impact that licensing has on their revenue. And there's certainly no reason to believe, or even an indication, that Google will target enterprises with Chrome OS. This will ultimately compete with the Windows desktop in much the same way that iPhone OS or Android competes with the Windows desktop, in that it won't. Not really. Cutting through the buzz, Google is aiming for an internet appliance, not redefining the desktop paradigm, which is far outside of what a single browser can accomplish.
Beyond that, I found this article in El Reg amusing:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/07/09/dzuiba_google_chrome_redux/
A little harsh, but since it basically articulates my opinion over this whole event, I'll leave it at that.
Just my 2c...