It’s hard to type a blog post when one hand is being used to pat myself on the back.
Last year I wrote a post about the just launched Chrome browser titled Meet Chrome, Google’s Windows Killer. From that article:
Chrome is nothing less than a full on desktop operating system that will compete head on with Windows…Expect to see millions of web devices, even desktop web devices, in the coming years that completely strip out the Windows layer and use the browser as the only operating system the user needs.
One representative response to my quote above, from The Register: “In no way can this statement be construed to make sense, and I’m not just being a pedantic asshole here. Fortunately, El Reg readers are with it enough to know that you need a proper OS before you can have a browser.”
Purists complained that a browser isn’t actually an operating system, and brought up mundane issues about hardware drivers, memory and processor management, and other red herrings. Sure, they were right – the Chrome browser isn’t an operating system. It is, you could say, sans the bag of drivers needed to meet the definition. Still, the writing was on the wall – Google quite clearly saw Chrome as an operating system that competes with Windows.
Fast forward to today. The Chrome browser now has 30 million active users, says Google, and tracking services say it has 6% or so market share. Not bad for a browser that’s less than a year old.
And now, WOW. Google just bolted a big ol’ bag of drivers (also known as the Linux kernel) to Chrome and are calling it the Google Chrome Operating System. It’s going to be hard for people to continue to deny its operating systemness now.
The new OS will focus entirely on the web: “The software architecture is simple — Google Chrome running within a new windowing system on top of a Linux kernel. For application developers, the web is the platform.” What that means is this. The browser is the platform. The browser is the UI.
Now, finally, even the tech purists can see the light at the end of the tunnel. Windows is hardware management plus an application platform, and we call that an OS. Chrome OS is hardware management plus an application platform (the browser), and we call that an OS, too.
Don’t worry about those desktop apps you think you need. Office? Meh. You’ve got Zoho and Google Apps. You won’t miss office. Chrome plus Gears plus Google Wave plus HTML 5 and web platforms like Flash and Silverlight all combine into a single wonderful computing device. The Internet Is Everything. All the OS has to do is boot the damn computer, get me to a browser as fast as possible and then stay the hell out of the way.
Chrome will do just that. And it will be free, unlike Windows. Forget the netbooks, which Google is targeting initally. We’ll see PCs of all types being sold by the major manufacturers as soon as Google gets this out of beta next year. Microsoft has a very serious competitive threat to the core of their revenues. Every Chrome computer bought won’t have Windows and won’t have Office. That must send chills down the spine of the guys up in Redmond. But hey, at least they can now point to Google when the antitrust guys come knocking. Someone other than them are bundling the operating system and browser into one neat package.
Opera users double click submit buttons.
wow this is much better than twitter news
Oh my gawd, this is not a twitter related post!
I do think this is huge. See the talk I recently gave on the user-centered web for where things are going broadly; Google’s managed to provide a device platform that makes the ideas the web application community has been evangelizing for years much more real and vital.
Out of interest, Mike, how does this affect your CrunchPad plans, if at all?
[...] a Wisdom of Crowds attempt to parse Googles’ smartly worded announcement. But it gets worse. Michael Arrington triumphally declares: Don’t worry about those desktop apps you think you need. OffAAAClI/pMQe3Cz6gk8/s1600-h/google-chrome-logo.jpg
So add in Wave, which is clearly part of the same Master Plan.
What’s the goal?
Cloud domination ?
Google Docs takes on Office.
Google Wave takes on Sharepoint.
The goal, I think, is to dominate the new model for computing, where we access our apps and our data from anywhere, using the device that makes sense for us at the time. The web is the perfect platform for this, and Google are all over the business model.
I mean seriously you people just don’t get the REAL world and neither does Arrington
Less than 0.5% of people in the USA are using cloud based productivity apps like Google docs. And in hundreds of other countries it’s almost zero.
Oh, and what about Chrome? Less than 6% market share.
And now you are all having orgasms over a Linux Distro + a web browser and you have the audacity to say it will (nuclear) bomb Windows!!! ha ha
I would love someone to do a running count of all the doom and gloom statements made between the year 2000 and now and all the hyperbole statements made around cloud computing, apps, open source, Linux, blah, blah, blah.
And what has happened to Wave in the mainstream real world? Zero, nadda, nothing.
You people live in an alternate universe which in no way reflects the real world majority and the statements and claims you are making (like Google OS nuclear bombing Windows) are just plain stupid.
+1.
These stats are something fanboys need to address.
With Chrome, Wave, OS et al Google is fighting everyone on every front. We’ll see just how big the GoogleBorg is with all these nascent apps underway.
Google has still only ever won one battle decisively – search.
I think Chrome is the best browser but there are tons of web users who either don’t give a shit or they don’t have rights to install anything else. M$ kicks Google’s ass in the office. For this OS thing to be a success they’re gonna have to announce some pretty big deals with a few hardware co’s. For a lot of users choice in today’s internet stack is still nothing more than what site they’re going to visit.
Android still hasn’t caught on – there are other superstars out there. I don’t think this will be a success.
Paradigm shifts often solicit comments like @M2CDO’s.
Galileo
Darwin
Model-T
Nuclear Energy
DNA
Personal Computer
Web OS
Yep, right on the money. I’m sure Microsoft has reason to be worried for the future, but chrome/gmail/apps/docs/twitter + the next big bubble isn’t a normal computer usage experience for everyone. There’s a lot of very ordinary folk doing very ordinary stuff as well as very ambitious people doing stuff that needs computing power that these cloud “utility tools” just can’t provide.
Oh, and let’s not forget people who aren’t connected to the Internet 25 hours a day.
I mean seriously M2CDO, you couldn’t point to the real world given an iPhone with a built-in compass.
“hyperbole statements made around cloud computing, apps, open source, Linux, blah, blah, blah”
Apache webservers (open source) run half of all web servers on the internet… pretty much running on Linux. That’s double IIS and Windows.
http://news.netcraft.com/archives/web_server_survey.html
And, um… Wave is a private beta right now. By definition it can’t have wide-spread adoption.
Why don’t you go astro-turf the cave you live in with more MS propaganda. Stop reporting on the REAL world if you don’t live in it.
Did I say anything around the iPhone? I own one moron so your comment = FAIL.
Let me see, in and around the year 2000 almost every Tech writer said .NET vs Java would never succeed and it would fail. WRONG.
Since the year 2000 I have heard that Linux and open source will be the death of BOTH Windows Server and Windows Desktop OS and therefore Microsoft. WRONG. Win Server has been growing year on year for past 3 years more than 30% and Linux share has gone backwards.
For past three to 5 years I have heard that Linux desktop distros would claw substantial marketshare from Windows. WRONG. Barely breaking 1% share.
I have heard bloggers and tech writers saying for the past 2 years that the iPhone will be the death of WinMo. WRONG. When Microsoft makes announcement soon about PINK, naysayers will crawl back into their holes.
We heard the same around Xbox. Microsoft got it right and was the only one to build in social networking to differentiate and set it up as a major global social network. And guess what? 59% of them pay and Facebook and Myspace are still trying to find a business model.
We heard everyone laugh at Bill Gates and Microsoft about a computer in every home and the convergence of the home TV, PC and gaming console. Xbox Live has streamed 13m videos through Netflix via Xbox. Xbox game attach rate is best in business.
Zune has 8-11% market share in USA but everyone has written if off. Marketplace is way better than iTunes. Zune HD will once again change the market and when Zune / Marketplace, Xbox Live and mobile come together with Live, let’s have this conversation again.
We have heard that Google Docs, Wave and Gears will be the death of Windows, Office and the ‘revolution’ of cloud computing will remove the necessity for client software and be the death of Microsoft. WRONG. Microsoft has got it right with their strategy of Software + Services and not just services in the cloud. Once Azure comes online and Office 2010 for Web we will still see it trounce Google Gears and Google Docs. I am using Microsoft Online Services (cloud services in combination with client software and I pay small monthly fee for Enterprise capability).
I can go on and on and on and on…..
Wow… M2CDO… how much does MS pay you to troll forums?
I’m not looking for a flame war, so I’ll back off the inflammatory commenting, right after I point out that you went ‘on and on and on’ so much that you forgot what you wrote.
“I own an iPhone…iPhone will be the death of WinMo… announcement of Pink (whatever the hell that is) naysayers will crawl back into their holes.”
So you admit you do live in a hole.
Inflammatory commenting over, I would just like to request that maybe you could provide some links to support the various statistics that you’ve thrown out. For example, the link that I provided clearly states that Apache continually sees an increase in web server market share, while IIS is losing substantial share due to the closing down of MS’ own online services.
No support = astro-turfing.
“Zune has 8-11% market share in USA but everyone has written if off.”
In other news…
“The Wall Street Journal predicts that “at its much faster rate of decline, the Zune player looks like it’s headed from low to no market share”.
http://tr.im/rtBL
“I have heard bloggers and tech writers saying for the past 2 years that the iPhone will be the death of WinMo. WRONG. When Microsoft makes announcement soon about PINK, naysayers will crawl back into their holes.”
Firstly, when do articles even bother mentioning MIcrosoft’s pitiful efforts when talking about the iPhone. It’s compared to Android, the Pre, Symbian, Blackberry etc. But Microsoft’s pokey little devices which try to shoehorn a Start Menu etc instead of just designing devices which are best for purpose. And now they may be trying to copy from Apple (yet again, no change there as usual) you think Microsoft should be praised for this? Billions of dollars floating around and they can’t innovate to save their lives.
Microsoft start your photocopiers.
“Did I say anything around the iPhone? I own one moron so your comment = FAIL.”
I do have one question though. Why are Microsoft employing an overexcited teenager to handle their PR?
+1
So Google announce an OS that will do less than existing open source OSes, which have failed in the NetBook market. And this is supposed to magically succeed?
Do you really *want* it to succeed? Does a client OS really need to be a Java Script execution engine? is that really the best way forward for the computer industry?
Perhaps an OS being essentially a Javascript engine is not the best for the computer industry, but the growth in Javascripts capabilities due to this research and production will surely change the web for the better.
+1
Microsoft said that it will be a combination of cloud and normal computer, and I agree totally
I think of another statistic. What percent of people use their computers just for the internet?
I think of my parents who just use their internet to getting their news, doing email, managing their bank account and watching videos. They don’t use Office or Google Docs.
They’re also part of the demographic that would prefer a much cheaper alternative to Windows.
Yes,
I can’t wait to upload all my business data onto the Google cloud and have all my employees watch ads all day long so that I can save $499 per employee.
Nothing is Free.
This was the worst thing Google could do. It will provide legal cover for Microsoft to now completely destroy Google.
A ruthless business empire vs. a bunch of inexperience PHD students…LOL.
Went Short GOOG and long MSFT today.
I think this will be interesting. A Cold War between internet superpowers…
Btw in no way are the engineers at Google inexperiance, yes they are inexperianced in the Desktop OS field, but hardware-wise they are running some incredible servers, and software-wise they revolutionized search, and maps was a major hit. Microsoft will probably kick Google’s ass on the OS front as Microsoft has been doing it for decades, but Google has some formidable firepower.
Eitherway i sense some amazing improvements all over the computing world now that theres competition to accelerate advancements.
>Not bad for a browser that’s less than a year old.
Pretty bad for any software that has a link on the Google home page
They do not even have extensions ready for their browser (I know they work on it)
great article and a great outlook – playing the ms wording
Seems like the same business model as Android: free OS to get more consumers on the web == more advertizing clicks and revenue. If the advertizing revenue dries up for some reason…wonder what will happen?
First it was Chrome vs Firefox, now its Chrome vs Ubuntu. Maybe they should stop re-inventing the wheel and focus on applications.
I agree I can live without Office but what about video editing or gaming or doing anything when I’m not connected.
No OS will ever topple windows until there is bullet-proof, per application, built-in emulation for windows applications. VM’s or dual boot are inconvenient. I think 75% of windows users have something in their “Program Files” that they just can’t live with out or get in another way. Yes 90% of your time is spent on the web but it’s the other 10% using thick apps that can’t be replaced. MS was in the right place at the right era and there is so much lock-in that it will take a serious evolution before that changes.
Netbooks. The second, third, fourth, ubiquitous computer.
Google’s not aiming for your primary pc. Just all the others.
They stated they are also aiming up to desktops. If most people sit in front of windows at work and windows at home then they’ll want windows on the move. MS can kill this by just releasing a better, lighter version of windows for mobile platforms
You’ll have access to everything on your desktop, still, via Mr. Cloud living in your browser.
And your Chrome os apps living in Wave.
But your desktop will also have the power to run other, more demanding apps.
At least for the first few years, until the OS catches up.
OK. I’ll concede that they’ll take a small slice of the netbook market – I’m just saying all this talk of Google wiping out Windows or “Google drops a Nuclear bomb on windows” is absurd. I’m not really sure microsoft care about losing one percentage point of their growing market.
The keyword: will.
That’s the future and I hope it is true. More choices are usually* better. It surely is not happening today with Windows Mobile.
* Conditions apply. Void where prohibited. Please see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Paradox_of_Choice:_Why_More_Is_Less (Blatantly off-topic)
It’s a netbook OS; people don’t do those things on netbooks.
But it’ll be interesting to see where they take it from there.
I find this all very interesting, not because I particularly like Google (in some ways they scare the shit out of me), but because I think for most consumers this is headed in the right direction. For a lot of people, their computers are Word, and the browser, and their email. This makes more sense for them.
Of course, there are still issues: what happens when I connect a camera to my netbook, for example? Or a USB dongle? How does it handle those things?
We’ll find out pretty quickly when the source code gets released. We might, for example, see a Palm Pre type environment where local applications can also be written using web interface standards.
The Google Native Client would allow to do even things like video editing within Google Chrome. It is possible to play games using graphic accelleration within the browser:
http://code.google.com/p/nativeclient/
The Native Client does also work on MacOSX, Linux and Windows and connects the browser with the underlying OS and the Hardware.
If it works on Mac, Windows and Linux already why bother developing a platform specifically for it? That seems incredibly redundant if you ask me.
mac at home for heavy lifting. Netbook with Chrome/Gears/GMail/GoogleApps/HTML5 for portable and iPhone/Android for walking about
EXACTLY…
Thats my plan
he shoots he scores!!
Don’t you think Microsoft would come up with an IE OS to compete with the Chrome OS?
Mmm, Silverlight-based application suites. Gives me a warm feeling at the pit of my stomach.
Oh, no, not warm. What’s the other one? Nausea.
the netflix implementation is pretty darn cool.
and has better performance than flash
Your are so naive and narrow-minded
Please put your hatred of Microsoft away for two minutes and look at things clearly before you comment.
Technically: yes. Financially:no, because Microsoft couldn’t charge enough. Every netbook bought instead of a desktop is a big loss for MS, because the license is cheaper.
Isn’t that exactly what they are already trying to build since W’95?
I don’t understand why people place so much importance on Silverlight. It can only succeed if Microsoft holds off on implementing HTML 5. …
Plug that information with the fact that Microsoft has yet to comment on its roadmap regarding HTML 5 and voila!
Will the people here from DoJ please stand up?
Microsoft would ruin themselves trying to simultaneously build a “regular OS” and a web OS. They’d just be competing against themselves. There’s no practical difference between the two– I think that’s the point Google’s trying to make. So Microsoft just need to make Windows better.
All microsoft needs to do is make Windows much more lightweight, for example not chewing up 700mb Ram to run windows and my internet browser. If windows was lighter on the computer it could easily chew up much of the netbook market. Infact its pretty much only competing against linux right now, and Google next year.
IE has always stunk before – and doesn’t seem to be getting much better.
As we all know, it’s pretty useless to argue with maker of CrunchPad that the web isn’t everything.
The Internet is NOT everything.
Desktop apps will always be the most essential thing in an OS.
Chrome OS is just an effing browser. Period.
PS. Btw I bet my entire existence that CrunchPad will run on Chrome OS.
The web will be everything. There is no need for desktop applications when you can do it better and more comfortable on the web.
The CrunshPad will probably be released to early (at least I hope so) to run ChromeOS. But I firmly believe that a later version of the CrunchPad will run ChromeOS or that there will be an update available to switch from whatever it ships with to ChromeOS.
… at least that’s what I would do.
How can you “do it better and more comfortable” on the web?
Photoshop
Reason
Dreamweaver
Premiere
Illustrator
Cubase
Office
Etc.
^ Work tools. I prefer my local CPU to work for me instead of some remote server that takes forever. That’s a step backward. Oh, and you wait til there’s 6 hours of downtime when using your cloud app……then what?
Werd
Anyone remember the big internet upgrade that the big folks in infrastructure were talking about?
Then we don’t need no Windows OS.
But of all the things, the disdain and the contempt ih this article… “HAH! SCROO M$!!”
*That* was the best
The problem with Chrome right now is the lack of extensions, maybe they were keeping the extensions UI out of sight till this announcement?
Do you believe they have it?
Maybe nice for Netbooks, but this can never be positioned against Windows as a whole.
Some people still need to get real work done instead of fiddling with laggy and buddy web applications.
not even mentioning the GIGANTIC gaming market
If Gaikai works as advertised then gaming shouldn’t be a problem (assuming Chrome OS ships with flash, which is likely)
http://www.gaikai.com/
Couldn’t agree more. I think this is Google’s entry into the OS market. They had to do something different right? A purely browser based OS will never compete with what windows offers now.
Editing/storing photo’s, videos, gaming, downloading and burning dvds, etc etc. I see the web becoming a primary part of the OS (if it isn’t already) but it can’t be all there is to it. I’d never use this on my home PC, however on a device like the crunchpad it makes sense.
You clearly have not looked into 03D (http://code.google.com/apis/o3d/) and other HTML 5 … wait, I feel like I am spamming here with HTML 5 related posts. …
Or is it a recurring theme?
… not to mention the google native client:
http://code.google.com/p/nativeclient/
flash? look at Google O3D. Hardware accelerated 3D in the browser. Combine that intelligently with the cloud environment and you get a glimpse at the future of gaming.
I quote “Chrome is nothing less than a full on desktop operating system that will compete head on with Windows”
full on desktop OS !
Lets look at what this is and isnt. To me an OS has to run various programs. This OS is Just and only used to run a single app. A browser. Lets take windows 7, remove everything, every app that exists except IE8 and then lock it so that u cannot install or uninstall anything. Who in their right mind would get excited about this let alone want to operate it,
If MS stripped their OS down and said sorry cant install anything at all and thats it what a huge uproar there would be.
I am just saying this as I was excited and then though what am I actually excited about.
A net book that was way worse than the first iPhone OS The one that only had web based apps which are not really apps in my opinion but wont even have a contact list app or a photos app. Ok they can use the browser to look at some stuff like that but hey.
Now we get excited and consider more is less. Remember XP lite. an app to strip stuff out of XP. Maybe there is a use for this but surely it is not revolutionary to take 99% of the OS away. Most people want more apps and options not less.
“Most people want more apps and options not less.”
Technical users, yes. (I find myself struggling with the idea of running a programming IDE in the browser – although I’m sure it’ll happen.) But for many end-user consumers, this isn’t the case at all. Think about the simplified netbook interfaces that already exist on things like the Eee; sticking a web browser in place of that supercharges the same idea and actually increases the options while not really adding any extra complexity.
While you can technically run an IDE environment in the browser, why would you? Also, a bespin-esque system works potentially fine if you’re coding for a website, but what about the massive number of non-website coding that occurs?
Why would I want to attempt to code Flash in a browser when I already have a stable, robust desktop app to do that?
“I find myself struggling with the idea of running a programming IDE in the browser – although I’m sure it’ll happen.”
Already done:
https://bespin.mozilla.com/
OK. So Google has an OS, a browser, web apps…
So it is like Microsoft in the 90’s. Where is the added value for the user?
For starters, It’s FREE!!!
Yes, it’s for the third world countries, you are right.
Now this is what I call a constructive post, not like other blogs out there trying to gather attention and repeat the same stuff all over. If this goes as you say it would then MS definitely needs to buck up!
I believe this OS should be back targeting netbooks. I mean, are you sure ALL PC users have initernet the 1st time they own a new PC? and not all of us has a good internet speed. And not all of us trusts the internet.
Not all of us trust microwave ovens, or city-supplied water.
They have alternatives: tin-foil hats and South Beach Beverage Company …
Nice development. And to be expected, haha.
Yeah so how does this affect Crunchpad? Perhaps the simple answer is, it ramps up sales, speeds scale and makes it open source quicker so people with soldering irons and sheds can fiddle with wires and LCD’s rather than their wives or hard drives.
Conjugal rights are dead, long live the Shed Pimped Web Tablet!
I really hope this takes off, if only for purely selfish reasons. I already develop desktop style apps for the browser using AJAX/JS and I can see a lot more work coming in as a result of this.
Plus, of course, I am in support of anything that will eat into the market share of Microsoft’s sluggish buggy browsers (IE8 is included in this).
we are going to have a new king for computer and internet , i seems Google will just rule the internet and computer world , they are great .
Great at doing WHAT?
Wait… what if someone doesn’t have Internet access?
Obviously, no one thought of that…
HTML 5 supports offline application use. But you probably would need to connect to the Internet to use an application for the first time.
Google introduced a browswer and got no share.
Google introduced a phone OS and got no share.
Google will introduce a PC OS and will get no share.
Stick to what you are good at (and keep improving it…I’ve switched to bing because the results are better…c’mon google, make me switch bact_content>
No shit, Sherlock.
You really are quite the strategist.
Are you saying, NO Internet access at all? I am sure some clever developer will build something to allow you to download data and apps on another computer, bring it in a flash drive and put it in your computer and run it with HTML 5 …
… wait a minute, I demand the W3C to pay me if I mention HTML 5 once again!
Well it’s interesting, they reinvent can you explain how a javascript/html combo will be as efficient as a native, hardware accelerated, optimized framework ?
Please look at this:
http://code.google.com/p/nativeclient/
http://code.google.com/apis/o3d/
Yep, you seem to be the only one here who gets how big this is!
Cheers,
Nick.
with all the respect Mike, Joel Spolsky nailed it way back in 2004
http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/APIWar.html
and still, the “damm get out of the way” is what bothers the software industry for decades. It’s not that easy. And as real fan and user of Ubuntu, well, it still doesn’t “gets out of the way”.
well, i’m assuming the bad parts of linux will be stripped out…like the UI.
and to be clear, i’m nowhere near to saying that i was the first to predict all this. not even close.
We’re just glad that your one-handed typing is due to back-patting and not porn-viewing.
The UI? KDE4.2 has one of the best UIs I’ve seen.
geezus.
And if the internet ever goes down, you’ll be peeing in your TC-logo onesies and running back to Papa Bill! Yippy! More reporting about absolutely nothing.
you should read up on gears and html5 and offline use. plus, eventually the internet going down should be about as frequent as the electricity turning off.
as opposed to Windows locking up, which happens regularly – at least weekly for me.
well played and well said Michael
Uhm… what about China, India and, well, half of the world’s population? Not only the Internet does go down here (I’m in Shanghai), but the government disables services all the time, without having to give an explanation. I think we’ll not be shifting to the cloud anytime soon in this part of the world…
Your problem is your government. Not technology.
Haha yeah, apparently the Internet isn’t EVERYTHING there is to an OS.
Surely this be the default OS on the Crunchpad?