Late Tuesday night Google announced a new operating system(Google Chrome OS) set to be released some time in 2010 this OS is set to target Netbook a market that Microsoft and some Linux distros currently own. Google for their part took a version of Linux and provided (we think) one window the Chrome web browser. This seems like an odd choice given that even the mighty Microsoft had to back off of their limited Windows Starter edition on netbooks.
Since Tuesday I have been collecting some of the interesting press converge
I find it interesting that we move in a circular pattern, In the beginning there where servers with dumb terminals. Then we move to actually doing the work locally, and ever since we have been trying to move back to that one server with a dumb terminal. While netbooks are a new dumb terminal and still some what hard to define, the real question in evaluating Chrome the OS’s importance will be is “Is a cloud os really able to do every thing a desktop os can?” I don’t think this is the case there are still tasks that require the power and latency of your local desktop/notebook. While there may be many people that just use the web and can get by with just web apps there is a dirty little secret, the internet pipes are getting clogged and our historically low cost bandwidth much like oil will be coming to an end unless new infrastructure is built.
In the era of peak bandwith, I think you’ll find that yes the OS matters much less but so will the web browser. What will have the most impact are the cross platform/browser runtimes such as Adobe Air, Microsoft Silverlight, and Java. A market where Google is no where in sight.