Google Introduces Chrome OS

It’s official.  What many people have been waiting so anxiously for has been announced.  The Google operating system, which will be known as Google Chrome OS has been introduced on the official Google blog.  The operating system which will be based on Linux is going to initially be offered for netbooks and then move its way into other markets (at least that’s Google’s plan).

Google Chrome OS will be free, open source, and rely solely on the web – you will be living in the browser. I imagine Google’s vision has no room for so called “desktop applications” which will definitely put a burden on software makers to create web based versions of their product if they want people to continue using their program (assuming Chrome OS is a success, that is).

The road ahead for Google Chrome OS isn’t an easy one.  It will be faced with many road blocks and obstacles (and Google knows this).  According to the blog post, “We have a lot of work to do, and we’re definitely going to need a lot of help from the open source community to accomplish this vision.”

Does Google have a chance here?  Should Microsoft be shaking in their boots?  Of course Google has a chance – they are Google.  They have the time, money, and resources to devote to a project like this.  The real test here will be if they can get the open source community behind them.  If they can get open source developers around the world working on this project with them they may truly have a reason for Microsoft to worry.  But, it is still way too soon to tell.  I mean, there still isn’t a final version of Google Chrome available for Linux yet.

The problem I see that lies ahead for Google is certain desktop applications such as Photoshop, video editing applications, etc require a lot of processing power and storage. Moving those types of applications into the cloud may prove to be difficult and costly.  Will there always be room for desktop applications?  And better yet, will there always be a place for Microsoft in the world?  I think so.  Even with HTML 5 based applications such as Google Wave, I think desktops applications and operating systems which can run these applications are here to stay.

What do you think?  Leave a comment!