We’ve been waiting for it like another messianic product since it was introduced back in July. One of the biggest Google announcements from the past 10 years… yep, probably the most envisioning project since Larry & Sergey started it all.
Chrome OS just confirms one of Google’s several new ambitions… becoming the next cloud computing giant and replacing Microsoft as a software referent. They control the web advertising business & lead the creation of new web applications, will control the mobile market (and its advertising delicious pie) and if that weren’t enough they’ve just decided to control your pc (… netbook) and the way you access the internet (another potential advertising source?).
Chrome OS is not only an itchy mosquito bite for Microsoft, is a complete rethought of how the user approaches & interacts with his computer, questioning the need of heavy and demanding operating systems like Windows and giving the PC industry a hint of where the future is: the “traditional” PC market is shrinking, we have to move on. Cloud computing has been out there for years and Google just took the first serious step to make it real (although we shall not forget other great but less visible adventures like Jolicloud by Netvibe’s founder or Intel’s Moblin).
“You can’t use Photoshop or play Far Cry” has been the reaction of many PC nostalgic geeks. Of course you can’t! Because Chrome isn’t going that way…. for now. There are already so many web-based applications & programs that can and will substitute heavy software programs. Companies like Adobe might eventually have to offer “light” and on-line versions / applications of our favourite solutions.
Regarding Far Cry…. just have a look at what adolescents are really playing at today: IMVU, Monopoly City Streets, Gaia on-line, or Facebook games like Pet Society or Crazy Planets. And if on-line games like QuakeLive which barely require any space on your device are the next logic step for companies like Activision or Ubisoft, then you won’t miss installing those CDs or downloading ISO images.
But let’s get back to the real topic. Right now while writing this post I have no Internet, and I feel incomplete, just like my PC feels lonely and useless. We’ve become so dependent on the net that any device without a connection nearly looses all of its attractiveness.
Google just presented our connected future, and Chrome OS would be our door to the wholewideweb. An operating system built on a browser so the internet experience becomes an indivisible Google experience. If Microsoft got scolded for not giving Windows users a browser choice (now it does in the EU) then what should we call this?
If you decide to use Chrome OS then your default homepage would be Google and even though Larry & Sergey want to keep it “holy”, they’ve already started to take advantage of their dominant position (like placing Google-related products on top of search results). Still too many unclear points about how will Chrome OS let you access the cloud; will they introduce ads in the Chrome experience? Will they block the access to certain apps? Will they…. take advantage like MSFT in the past?
The good thing about all this is that we finally get a serious alternative to the netbook Windows experience and maybe in the future an alternative to…………….
Will you then say… “I’m a PC and Chrome OS was my idea”?
When we talked about the browser wars we already thought about something like this. The future problem is not who controls your PC, but who controls your access to the web, and thus, the web.
Two business models opposed, Microsoft has already started to adapt but is it too late or is Chrome OS another pebble in Microsoft’s shoes?
See you @ Bristol
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