klingon 10 Posted July 10, 2009 Share Posted July 10, 2009 Quote: It is the technology industry's equivalent of the irresistible force meeting the immovable object. Google, the web upstart founded 11 years ago, has announced it will go head-to-head with Microsoft with an operating system (OS) – the programs that make a computer work – for machines ranging from handhelds up to desktop computers. If Google can get enough people to buy computers running its new Chrome OS, it will cut into Microsoft's two biggest cash cows: Windows and its Office suite of programs, including Word, Excel and PowerPoint. Microsoft, which once spoke of "cutting off the air supply" of a web-based rival, Netscape, has woken up to find a new threat reaching for its throat. The confrontation has been expected for years – despite Google's insistence it had no such ambitions – but it still caught observers by surprise when a Google spokeswoman confirmed to IT news service IDG that it plans to announce this week the names of computer makers in Taiwan and China signed up to work with Chrome OS, and said that it will show off Chrome's user interface later this year. Link to post Share on other sites
RobBright 35 Posted July 10, 2009 Share Posted July 10, 2009 Money is on google - just simply for the fact that a lot of people will view it as 'cool' and jump ship. Link to post Share on other sites
grungy-gonads 54 Posted July 10, 2009 Share Posted July 10, 2009 i hope our friendly laser-equipped shark wins myself. Link to post Share on other sites
Error404 0 Posted July 10, 2009 Share Posted July 10, 2009 Knowing (or understanding) as little as I do, it is difficult to say much. Isn't the first version over a year off anyway? Link to post Share on other sites
bobby12 0 Posted July 10, 2009 Share Posted July 10, 2009 I think this is massive and it makes me want to buy google shares. They have been working on open source Office style apps for a while, which have the advantage of being web based (if underpowered at the moment), so this is the next logical step. Imagine you can buy a PC and the OS is free, comes with free "google Office" and runs much faster and trouble free than windows. It will be the defacto choice for budget PCs, if they can get 3rd party software and peripheral drivers to work with it. They also need to improve the Chrome browser. But I think this will all come in the next 3 years. Link to post Share on other sites
griller 9 Posted July 10, 2009 Share Posted July 10, 2009 Sure will be interesting. And hopefully give MS a kick up the arse as well. The idea of "cloud" will need to get into mainstream more though. Link to post Share on other sites
bobby12 0 Posted July 10, 2009 Share Posted July 10, 2009 I think it can work. People do not mind using a console for example for specific applications (games), which is basically a stripped down PC. Same would go for netbooks - its a cheap laptop for mucking around on the net with and simple office apps. I read once about someone comparing a PC to a boiler. In the old days people had a big boiler in the house and used it to power various things that connected to it in the same room. Then, electricity and portable devices came along so things could be 'unplugged' from the central power device and moved to more remote locations. Maybe this will happen with computing - netbook for carrying around the hosue and surfing the net, console for games, maybe all your white goods networked up over wifi so they can be controlled from the netbook / handheld device... Link to post Share on other sites
BagOfCrisps 24 Posted July 10, 2009 Share Posted July 10, 2009 I would always bet on the shark. He looks sharp. That google logo thing reminds me of Simon Says game. Link to post Share on other sites
frannyo 2 Posted July 11, 2009 Share Posted July 11, 2009 Tell you what sounds interesting and MS having some serious competition like this can't be bad. Link to post Share on other sites
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