Google today announced an open source, light weight operating system which is specifically designed for the netbook computers (initially). According to Google:
It’s our attempt to re-think what operating systems should be.
I don’t know if I’m the only one but I am not really sold on to the idea of having an operating system with only a browser and web apps. Google is strategically placing Chrome OS as a separate thing from Android which is only designed to work on Smartphone’s, this is something similar to what Microsoft has done with Windows and Windows Mobile. Chrome OS will mostly rely on the bundled web browser Chrome, but what if EU asks Google to ship Google Chrome OS without bundling the browser? what will it contain then?
Chrome OS is designed to work on both x86 and ARM architectures. What? no x64 support? Is this what Google attempts to call an operating system of choice in year 2009 (or 2010)? and yet no support for x64 architecture? Or maybe Google is betting on netbooks as the next biggest platform of choice replacing desktop and notebooks. Sorry Google, but many power users like me wont be sold in buying a computer (desktop or a netbook) which can only run web apps because they simply wont meet our demands like High-end gaming (Windows is still the biggest platform for hardcore gamers), rich one-click access to desktop clients like Instant Messengers, Media Players, Professional picture and video editing tools and so on..
This is basically Google’s attempt to try and get into the market which has been ruled by Microsoft Windows for almost 2 decades now. Microsoft is on the verge of 
RTM’ing Windows 7 on 13th July. Word of mouth sentiment for Windows 7 has been overwhelmingly positive and so Google couldn’t resist but to announce Chrome OS to take some hype off from Microsoft’s big announcements coming up next week with some friendly help from the likes of TechCrunch.
For those of you who are sold at the idea and cant wait until 2010 for Google to release Chrome OS can try these nice alternatives which my friend Imran of ithinkdiff has posted over at his site.
I’m certain that all of my computers including netbooks would all be running Windows 7 after Google has shipped version 1.0 of Chrome OS. What about you?
I would also highly recommend all my readers to read this excellent article from Mary Jo Foley about Google Chrome OS announcement.
