An excerpt/article from Good Morning silicon valley: :) :). Have a good read.... M$ is probably in big trouble!
The five scariest words in tech, as we’ve noted before, are “Google has entered your market,” and Tuesday those words hung over Microsoft headquarters as clearly as if the search sovereign had hired a plane to sky-write the message above Redmond. The day began with Google finally removing the beta label from its Apps productivity suite<http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2009/07/google-apps-is-out-of-beta-yes-really.html>, signaling to enterprise customers that it should be regarded as a mature, cloud-based alternative to Microsoft Office. And the day ended with Google announcing an offensive long the subject of rumors and predictions, a strike at Microsoft’s core franchise, the Windows operating system. As outlined by Google<http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2009/07/introducing-google-chrome-os.html>, its Chrome OS is not so much a direct assault on Windows as a flanking maneuver, an effort to redefine “operating system”<http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/07/08/google-chrome-redefining-the-operating-system/>and “desktop” for an age of Web-oriented computing. Using the Chrome browser in a new windowing system on top of a Linux kernel, the open-source OS will run on both x86 and ARM chips and will initially show up on netbooks in the second half of 2010. The application platform will be the Web itself, allowing developers to create apps just as they do for any standards-compliant browser. “Speed, simplicity and security are the key aspects of Google Chrome OS,” said company execs Sundar Pichai and Linus Upson in a blog post. “We’re designing the OS to be fast and lightweight, to start up and get you onto the Web in a few seconds. The user interface is minimal to stay out of your way, and most of the user experience takes place on the Web. And as we did for the Google Chrome browser, we are going back to the basics and completely redesigning the underlying security architecture of the OS so that users don’t have to deal with viruses, malware and security updates. It should just work.” Many of those who had been anticipating a Google grab for the desktop figured the vehicle would be Android, an OS created with mobile phones in mind but also adaptable for netbooks. But Google’s post says these are two different animals: “Android was designed from the beginning to work across a variety of devices from phones to set-top boxes to netbooks. Google Chrome OS is being created for people who spend most of their time on the Web, and is being designed to power computers ranging from small netbooks to full-size desktop systems. While there are areas where Google Chrome OS and Android overlap, we believe choice will drive innovation for the benefit of everyone, including Google.” For the moment, the air is full of questions<http://technologizer.com/2009/07/07/eleven-questions-about-googles-chrome-os/>. Are consumers willing to embrace cloud-computing? Will there be provisions for offline use and storage? What about user interface, peripheral support, non-Web applications? What’s the potential effect on Google’s relationship with Apple<http://deals.venturebeat.com/2009/07/08/after-chrome-os-how-long-can-the-google-apple-friendship-last/>? How about the antitrust implications? Will Google follow through with intensity, or will it end up just dabbling? The list goes on. The air, at least in the blogosphere, is also full of excitement, a Colosseum-crowd eagerness to see a full-on OS battle with the prospect of the current and unloved champion getting bloodied. So is Microsoft shaking over a new challenger in this arena? Not likely<http://blogs.zdnet.com/Howlett/?p=1065>. There’s many a mile between press release and product, and potholes aplenty. As some Redmond spokesman is likely to contend any moment now, while cloud computing and Web-based apps will become increasingly important, there remain among businesses and consumers strong reasons to have a heavy-duty OS on a local machine. Windows 7 will be rolling out soon, and the early notices give the company reason to hope for a favorable reception. Microsoft is expected to confirm its release to manufacturing as early as Monday at its annual Worldwide Partner Conference<https://partner.microsoft.com/global/40018508>, and there may also be more evidence<http://www.neowin.net/news/main/09/07/08/microsoft-set-to-respond-to-google-os-next-monday>that Microsoft, too, is trying to reconceptualize the browser and the OS. And there better be some serious R&D money flowing in that direction, because while Microsoft may keep its hold on the desktop, the desktop as currently defined will play an increasingly smaller role in our broader computing and networking environment. We may well need one machine in the house with an OS complex enough to handle big jobs or specialized tasks or particular hardware, but the growth is going to be in all those other screens that we’ll carry on our person or in a briefcase or from room to room, devices that don’t need to run Photoshop or edit video, devices that just need to be able to talk to the Web and to each other. Behemoth that it is, Microsoft needs to be already well into the process of adjusting course for this or it’ll end up still cranking out big heavy gas-guzzlers after the demand has moved on to less expensive, more efficient compacts.
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