Google's Chrome OS: Good For Apple
Wednesday, July 8, 2009 at 8:45PM 
The sky is falling! The sky is falling! Google is working on a web-based operating system! Ahh! The news spread like wildfire, landing on the home page of CNN, no less (hey, Michael Jackson could only be on there so long). Some tech blogs pointed out the forthcoming OS will run on x86 hardware, be it Windows or Mac (it is it's own OS, after all) but the early installations will be on netbooks.
Frankly, this could prove to be a blessing for Apple. Don't forget, not only does Apple not compete within this sector, they don't make the OS available for other hardware suppliers. Who does? Microsoft, of course. If Chrome is successful, Microsoft will have to cloud-ify Windows more and more to stay dominant in that space. The further Chrome leads Microsoft into the cloud, the more pronounced the differences will be between OS X and future Windows products. After all, it's the tight integration of apps like iMovie, iTunes, etc, (as well as stability) that sets OS X apart. No cloud app in the near future will allow for the video editing power of iMovie, or meet the needs of professional photographers like Photoshop.
So for now, we say bring on the Chrome OS, and Microsoft, have fun chasing your own tail keeping up with Google. We'll be sitting over here with a tightly integrated hardware/software solution that doesn't require an internet connection to get pro work done.
Reader Comments (2)
The desktop OS as we know it is dead, although it may take 10 years before it's finally laid to rest. What Google and companies like OnLive are doing is the future of computing. If you can stream 60fps high end gaming to a netbook, you can stream a "desktop"
I agree with everything stated. I would just add that Chrome OS would also force MS to rewrite it's OS not patch it. After playing with Windoze 7 and Snow, I find 7 to be nothing but Vista with a fresh coat of paint builded on the junk of XP and ME. While Snow is builded on OSX native; TRUE 64 bit. If Chrome OS is 64 bit, mean and lean like Snow then MS will have some big problems