What is Google’s Chrome OS?
I go away on holiday, not turning my back for five minutes, and what happens? Google go and announce a new operating system (Chrome OS). Can I not leave you alone for two minutes? You’re worse than the kids! Seriously though, what is this Chrome OS then? Well, it’s an operating system that will be “initially targeted at netbooks”, but Google hope to roll it out to desktops too. It will be open source, based on the Linux kernel and Google are already working with technology companies (Acer, Adobe, ASUS, Freescale, HP, Lenovo, Qualcomm, Texas Instruments and Toshiba) to ensure that it will be available on netbooks when it ships during the second half of 2010.
What is the hype around Chrome OS?
Not surprisingly, such an announcement from Google has created a lot of buzz and hype on the Internet, typical of the response is this from Rob Enderle, President of the Enderle Group
“This is huge! This is the first time we have a truly competitive OS on the market in years.”
Well this is clearly hype and doesn’t stand up to scrutiny. Firstly, since Chrome OS doesn’t ship until the second half of 2010 there is no real way to tell at the moment if it, is or is not, going to be competitive (more on this later) but even if it is, it’s hardly “the first time in years” that this has happened. New, niche, distros of Linux are respun on a fairly frequent basis. If they are lucky they get a small but dedicated following but never really go anywhere; and under the hood, Chrome OS is just a Linux respin.
Is Chrome OS a Microsoft Killer?
Google’s stated aim with Chrome OS is to challenge Microsoft’s current market dominance. With over 90% of the desktop OS market Microsoft are the obvious target for any company wanting to gain market share. But then there’s the issue Google face straight away, that 90% relates to Microsoft’s share of the desktop OS market, is Chrome OS really going to be able to compete there? Look at the use cases for a PC user (as apposed to a netbook user). Gaming? Nope, can’t do that on Chrome OS. Photo and video editing? Nope, can’t do that out of the box with Chrome OS. Music ripping and creation? Nope, can’t do that out of the box with Chrome OS? You get the idea? On the desktop, Chrome OS in no way competes with the current OSs in the market place.
So what about Google’s stated initial target for Chrome OS, the netbook? Well, Google does have certain advantages here. Firstly, Chrome OS will be free. I had to smirk when I saw this for the first time. Google aggressively entering a market place by giving away a product that the market leader currently charges a premium for, does that tactic sound at all familiar to you? Secondly, Chrome OS will be targeted specifically at this platform, so the user experience will be much more rewarding than that of a general operating system. Thirdly, there is, umm… well nothing really. That’s it. When you look at it like that Chrome OS doesn’t seem to have that strong a position. For a start the sub-notebook market is small and not one that Microsoft has been that interested in recently, though that may change now of course. As for Google giving away Chrome OS, well I’m sure MS could easily afford to give away a netbook only version of Windows 7. Whether or not they do of course is another story, as that opens up a “whole can of worms”. Giving away an OS sets a precedent and will open MS up to pressure to give away other versions; say Windows 2000 to third world countries for instance. However, giving away a netbook version is a road they could go down, to compete with Google, if the need arose.
So will Chrome OS rock on the netbook?
As an evangelist, I’m a bit of a digital nomad, I have and use extensively a Acer AspireOne netbook running Windows 7 RC1, and so I’m the target market for Chrome OS, so let’s see how it will fair with my use cases.
Firstly, travelling to Leeds to present at a user group meeting. This means a four hour train ride for me and so I want to download the currently unread items from the DevExpress forums, into Thunderbird, so that I can read and answer them during my train journey. When I arrive at the hotel I want to use the wifi there, or my mobile dongle, to connect to the Internet and upload my replies to the forum. Currently I can do this. With Chrome OS I can’t.
Secondly, travelling to LA to demo XAF and XPO at PDC means an 11 hour plane ride. During that journey I want to write blog posts, read and respond to email, and get up to date with what is happening in the blogosphere. Currently, using a mixture of Outlook, Windows Live Writer and my favourite RSS reader I can do this. With Chrome OS I can’t.
The pattern here is a simple one. If my netbook runs Chrome OS and I can’t connect to the Net, then what I have is a 300 dollar paperweight.
What about Chrome OS on the desktop?
On the desktop the story is even worse. The above holds true, without connectivity the Chrome OS netbook is a brick, but even with connectivity the purely desktop tasks – video editing say – rely on someone creating a service to do that which will run on Google’s servers. Once someone has created such a service you can carry out these tasks, until they do you can’t get your work done. Unless of course you have one of the many desktop OSs already available in the market place for which companies have already written mature applications to carry out these tasks.
Can we trust Google?
The biggest issue I think that faces Google in this area, however, is one of trust. At the end of the day Google is not an operating system company, it is an advertising company. If you read the EULA that Google issues that cover anything you upload to their severs (and that includes your work in Google Apps) then you will see it gives them quite a lot of rights over it. Ever sent an email to a friend, in Google Mail, recommending a product, only to see ads for that – or competing products – show up the next time you use Google Mail? Think what it could be like once everyone is sending more and more of their data to the Google cloud. Is this what we really want? At the end of the day, it could be this fact, rather than it’s lack of functionality, that retards it’s uptake amongst netbook owners. I’m interested to know what you guys think though, so please feel free to leave your thoughts in the comments. Right, time to get back to my holiday, where did I put that beer…