Chrome OS due out by end of 2010
Google CEO Eric Schmidt, while speaking at the Abu Dhabi Media Summit, announced that Google’s Chrome OS is still under construction, and on track to be released in the second half of this year.
Chrome OS is a lightweight Linux based OS that uses the Google Chrome web browser as the main interface, and is geared towards lower end computing, such as netbooks and devices that make use of the mobile-geared ARM processors.. When Google announced Chrome, I admit that I was a little skeptical largely based on the usability of such an OS on a netbook that was already running a full-fledged desktop OS. When early builds of Chrome OS leaked out, I tried it out, and my skepticism shrank, but just by a little. Since then, Google has added a media player and other functionality to the OS, which makes it somewhat more compelling.
Will it be able to do in the netbook market what Android did in the smart phone market? Unlike other Linux based OSes, Chrome has the power of Google behind it, but I’m not sure that’s going to be enough, beyond the geekier contingent. With the advances in Chromes target product class (netbooks), NOT running a full-fledged operating system could be the crippling factor. Many inexpensive netbooks as well as ‘thin n light’ laptops such as Acer’s Timeline series are now available, and they run circles around the first generation EEE PCs. For example, one of the latest netbooks from ASUS clocks in with a dual core Atom processor and NVidia ION GPU, which is more than powerful enough to play back 1080p content, as well as play games like Call Of Duty Modern Warfare and Left 4 Dead 2, with some down scaled graphics.
Since the Chrome browser, and most of Google’s services, are already available via the web on just about every imaginable platform, having an OS that is geared towards using ONLY those services seems limiting. As you can probably guess by the above image, I’m also a little skeptical of an OS that wants me to log in using my Google account. Now click on those Google ads please…
