I know this is technology related and may not be of particular interest to gossip fans, but I cannot contain my excitement at this news. A new Google web-based operating is coming! For frustrated PC users like me it could offer a viable alternative to Microsoft Vista and the other crappy MS operating systems that have continually failed to perform, crash seemingly at random and download updates with little if no warning. (My husband keeps recommending that we switch to Linux, but I’m daunted at the task.) I love Google’s browser, Chrome, and find that it has slashed a huge amount of wait time out of my work day compared to slower IE and Firefox. I’ve replaced all Microsoft Office products with Google Documents and refuse to shell out the money for Office. (There’s also free alternative from Sun Microsystems, OpenOffice, but it seems to be incompatible with Vista in practice and crashed my OS, and a friend’s OS, after we installed it. Go figure.) Google products are intuitive, user-friendly, and they work like they’re supposed to. I cannot wait to see what they come up with. The only thing is – will it be completely dependent on internet connectivity and what happens if our connection is down or if Google is experiencing problems like that difficult day in May?

“The operating systems that browsers run on were designed in an era where there was no Web,” the blog post said. “So today, we’re announcing a new project that’s a natural extension of Google Chrome–the Google Chrome Operating System. It’s our attempt to rethink what operating systems should be.”

Among the benefits Google touted are “speed, simplicity and security,” Pichai and Upson said. “We are going back to the basics and completely redesigning the underlying security architecture of the OS so that users don’t have to deal with viruses, malware, and security updates.”

Google is talking to Netbook partners now, and the project will become open-source “soon.” It will run on members of the x86 and ARM processor families, Google said.
Google declined to comment on its plans beyond the blog posting.

The company also didn’t mention how exactly it hopes to profit from Chrome OS, but it seems likely it’s the latest variation on trying to get more people using the Web more often and more deeply–behavior that correlates with more searching and more search advertising.

“Any time our users have a better computing experience, Google benefits as well by having happier users who are more likely to spend time on the Internet,” Upson and Pichai said.

Hints of Chrome OS
Hints of the direction have been abundant, but it wasn’t clear Google would go as far as creating a product branded as a full-on operating system.
On the software side, one hint was Gears, a plug-in to give browsers the ability to run Web applications even when offline.

Next came Chrome itself in September 2008. Google said its ambition with the open-source browser was to make the Web a faster, richer foundation for Web applications. Naturally, Gears was built in from the outset, and Google continues to bang the Web-applications drum loudly.

Next came Native Client and O3D, plug-ins that let browsers tap directly into the power of local processors and, if all goes according to plan, match the performance of PC-based applications. Native Client is for the main computing chores, and O3D is for hardware-accelerated graphics, and Google wants to build Native Client at least directly into Chrome.

The other set of clues came from the Web side of the company’s operations. Google’s cash cow is selling ads alongside search results, but the company has been trying for years to build a portfolio of Web-based applications that people could use for everyday computing. Google Docs offers a Web-based word processor, presentation, and spreadsheet, and Google Apps bundles that along with Gmail and Google Calendar.

For others trying to make a run at Web-based applications, Google offers Google App Engine, a foundation for online Python and Java programs that can run at the scale of Google’s own computing infrastructure, though free use is more limited.

One of the primary advantages of Google’s cloud-computing approach is that data is available from anywhere you can find a networked computer–or, increasingly, mobile phone. It also permits more natural collaboration, since multiple authors can work on the same document simultaneously rather than e-mailing variations or sharing them on a central server. And with data stored on the Net rather than on a PC, upgrades and laptop theft are relatively painless issues.
The disadvantages are abundant, though. Web applications are slow and primitive compared to those that run on PCs, network access is far from ubiquitous, familiar applications are missing, years of accumulated files and data must be migrated to a new system, and not everybody is prepared to have precious corporate or personal information housed at Google or other companies.

The Net is a different place than when the Sun’s JavaOS and network computers flopped in the marketplace, and Google is powerfully profitable. But many of the original challenges remain.

[From News.CNet.com]

So maybe it will be a while before Google operating system completely replaces Microsoft. If people develop applications fast enough they’re poised to take a big bite out of their market share, though. I’m not ready to switch over to Mac OS and buy all new computers (we have a few and I prefer to upgrade where possible) along with all new software. This could be a very viable alternative and I hope Microsoft is shaking in its boots. Here comes Google, and they’re nicer, faster, and easier than MS by a long shot. Try to compete with that, Mr. Gates. A good start would be by not interrupting my work day to automatically install your damn updates. Still, Google could easily fall prey to the same arrogance that plagues Microsoft products, especially once they increase their hold over our daily lives. At least they try to think what their customers want first, though, instead of trying to make us adjust to their idea of what computing should be.