Is Google's Chrome OS Really a Threat?

An article on Macworld entitled Google OS may force Microsoft to reinvent Windows has a couple interesting quotes in it in addition to it's provacative title.

“Google Chrome OS is the death knell for a PC-centric OS,” Gillett said. “The next versions of Windows need to be much more Internet-centric.”

"Google’s OS challenge will certainly accelerate the move to a world where applications are no longer dependent on an operating system"

As I see it the article raises three questions.

1. Does Google OS really mean Microsoft needs to "reinvent Windows"?


2. Is Google Chrome OS really "the death knell for a PC-centric OS"?


3. Will Google's OS push the world more towards web apps that are independent of the OS?

To the first question, how does an operating system whose centerpiece is web browser and using apps through that browser pose a threat to Microsoft, or Apple and Linux for that matter? Do they lack browsers? It doesn't appear so. I have three installed on my MacBook Pro alone. I can develop apps that work on each of them without any problem. So with Windows, OS X or Linux I can have a browser application work great. I can also create rich, visually complex applications for them using mature, well documented API's. I would lose that with Google's OS. From what I've read their windowing system is a light, brand new system. They expect pretty much everything to be done over the browser. That's not good enough. Never has been, never will be.

Case in point. When Apple released the first iPhone it was great, but they said you could only create browser applications for it. Developers were very disappointed even though they loved the device. They knew what they could do if they had an iPhone SDK to write native apps. Eventually Apple provided an iPhone SDK and when they displayed the applications being developed at the next WWDC it was simply amazing. Anyone who claims browser apps are all you need must justify that statement in the face of the runaway success of the Apple AppStore after the iPhone SDK was released.

Now to the second point. What exactly is a "PC-centric OS"? I have all the things I need to develop for Windows Mobile using the .NET compact framework on my laptop right now. Those apps will work on any number of devices running Windows Mobile on the market today. They're losing marketshare badly to Apple's iPhone, Research in Motion's Blackberry and now the Palm Pre, but that's irrelevant to the discussion. They do have products to meet this market now, they just need to improve their product offering. I've played with Windows based netbooks at the stores (I personally have no need for one) and they seem to be fine. Of course Microsoft can work on optimizing performance for them, but they'll also get more and more horsepower as time goes on. Their specs are already far better than the first servers I ever worked on when I was getting started in the business!

The third point has been debated in the industry ever since Netscape first started to openly challenge Microsoft on this front in the early 90's. I hate to surprise the person who made the quote, but any company that creates a web based application that only works on Internet Explorer is taking a risk with their business right now. This is a present reality. Certainly there are many companies out there whose web applications only work in Internet Explorer, but this has been becoming more and more rare for quite awhile. The 90's browser wars are over in the sense of competing proprietary DHTML API's being developed. The new browser wars are based on standards compliance, features, ease of use, speed, etc.

On a lighter note, I've also seen many people openly wonder if they'll be sued for tying their web browser to the OS like Microsoft was. Oops, did I reveal my opinion of that particular lawsuit? Well, let the lawsuits begin. I hear Google is flush with cash after all...


About The Author

Ron Grove draws on over ten years of training, network administration and development experience. He loves to work with new technology and see how that technology can be best utilized by his clients. You can find him through his company Evanoah, LLC and his LinkedIn profile is here.