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Science & Technology
Google to Challenge Microsoft With Computer Operating System
2009-07-08
July 8 (Bloomberg) -- Google Inc., owner of the most- visited Internet search engine, is developing a computer operating system based on its Chrome Web browser, taking aim at Microsoft Corp. in its strongest market.

The system will be designed at first for low-cost laptops called netbooks, Google said in a blog post. The company is in talks with partners on the project and computers running the software will be available in the second half of 2010.

The plan escalates Google's rivalry with Microsoft, which extends to Web search, browsers and business applications such as word processing and spreadsheets. Windows, Microsoft's flagship product, runs about 90 percent of the world's personal computers. Google is also trying to spur Web-ad sales after reporting its first sequential revenue drop as a public company.
Posted by:GolfBravoUSMC

#10  I look after a couple of dozen Mac users located hither and yon with no central office in a rapidly growing small company. All biz apps are hosted web applications. Most work happens in Google Apps (gmail, docs, chat, calendar, etc.) plus hosted business software like Salesforce.com and some web based collaboration apps we host ourselves. Everybody has a Blackberry or an iphone which play great with Google Apps. Our licensing, administration and user support costs are *tiny* compared to anything we'd see with Microsoft desktop and server software and the end user satisfaction is incomparable. Our one Windows based app is an accounting package we run painfully via hosted Windows desktop. (Somebody really needs to do a proper web based small biz accounting app).

I get the appeal of Chrome OS. Netbooks are getting cheap to the point of being disposable-less than a decent bar tab. Perfect for worry free travel provided they boot fast and run Google Apps like greased lightning. Our head techie has been playing around with running bootleg Mac OS on Netbooks (not ready for prime time). Giving our staff Windows XP netbooks would be truly retrograde and the Linux user distributions are still too much work to set up and support users on. We'd start buying Chrome OS netbooks today if they were available.
Posted by: Classical_Liberal   2009-07-08 22:23  

#9  You guys are thinking too much at the homeowner and individual level, start thinking at the SMB and corporate level and this is real money. License fees being paid to microsoft can sometimes drive a company from being profitable to being in the red. Google just potentially threw down the gauntlet that would let a lot of businesses go away from Microsoft Windows running Microsoft Office and associated CAL costs with servers. Think how much money a company with 500+ users can save if they didnt have to pay for CAL's for each of their employees who need to use Sharepoint or Office or any number of associated programs. I know if I'm running even a small business and I have for example 25,000 a year just in licensing fees alone I would highly be interested in anything that saves me that money.
Posted by: Valentine   2009-07-08 20:13  

#8  Lest we fergit, GOVERNATOR DA ARNUUULD SKYNET > > "JUDGEMENT DAY IS INEVITABLE"!?
Posted by: JosephMendiola   2009-07-08 18:57  

#7  Back in the early 80's Apple was starting to get a toe-hold in schools to the exclusion of others.

I recall thinking that Apple was acting mighty anti-competitive when they sued MS for Windows.
Posted by: Grenter, Protector of the Geats   2009-07-08 18:02  

#6  As a Mac/iPhone user, I'll take Apple any day, thankyouverymuch. If Apple ever got 90% of the market they'd be as insufferable as MS, but they won't so I'm not worried.
Posted by: Steve White   2009-07-08 17:44  

#5  Most people don't realize how bad MS Windows is, because they have never seen a viable alternative. Ditto IE and Word.

I'll dump Windows in a heartbeat for anthing that promises me better protection from all that crap that inevitably infests Windows machines because of its dismal security and awful user interface.
Posted by: Phil_B   2009-07-08 17:18  

#4  It doesn't matter whether Google kills Microsoft or not. Microsoft will never again wield the power they did back in the 90's. The OS is becoming increasingly commoditized, and Google is smart to take advantage of that.
Posted by: Iblis   2009-07-08 16:10  

#3  Netscape II
Posted by: ed   2009-07-08 15:38  

#2  I have two words for Google: "money pit".
Posted by: Zhang Fei   2009-07-08 14:27  

#1  Um....no thank you. Microsoft may not be everyone's favorite company, but I'll take them over Apple any day and as for trusting my computer to Google that way.

Hell no.
Posted by: Silentbrick   2009-07-08 13:22  

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