« WebDT SA3000 Powers Digital Signage with Dynamic Full HD Video | Main | Cisco Chooses Wyse Technology to Demonstrate Optimum User Experience »
July 08, 2009
Google Plans a PC Operating System - Windows is just an OS2 now...
No surprise here except sooner than expected. Google is after netbooks which can qualify as thin terminals. Already has Android for mobile. Would you rather develop an app for the net, or for Windows is the question that seals the fate of MS. Windows it seems has been ironically transformed into an OS/2 it seems :-)
Google Plans a PC Operating System
By MIGUEL HELFT and ASHLEE VANCE
Published: July 8, 2009
SAN FRANCISCO — In a direct challenge to Microsoft, Google announced late Tuesday that it is developing an operating system for PCs that is tied to its Chrome Web browser.
The software, called the Google Chrome Operating System, is initially intended for use in the tiny, low-cost portable computers known as netbooks, which have been selling quickly even as demand for other PCs has plummeted. Google said it believed the software would also be able to power full-size PCs.
The move is likely to sharpen the already intense competition between Google and Microsoft, whose Windows operating system controls the basic functions of the vast majority of personal computers.
“Speed, simplicity and security are the key aspects of Google Chrome OS,” said Sundar Pichai, vice president of product management, and Linus Upson, engineering director, in a post on a company blog. “We’re designing the OS to be fast and lightweight, to start up and get you onto the Web in a few seconds.”
Mr. Pichai and Mr. Upson said that the software would be released online later this year under an open-source license, which would allow outside programmers to modify it. Netbooks running the software will go on sale in the second half of 2010.
The company likely saw netbooks as a unique opportunity to challenge Microsoft, said Larry Augustin, a prominent Silicon Valley investor who serves on the board of a number of open-source software companies.
“Market changes happen at points of discontinuity,” Mr. Augustin said. “And that’s what you have with netbooks and a market that has moved to mobile devices.”
Rest of article on NY Times - recommended
Posted by Staff at July 8, 2009 02:49 PM