Google's Chrome OS Threatens Linux, Is Good For Microsoft

Mitch Wagner, California Bureau Chief, Light Reading

July 8, 2009

5 Min Read

Google's announcement late Tuesday that it's developing a lightweight operating system based on the Chrome browser sounds great at first. But the more I looked into the meager information available, the less attractive the offering seemed. The first problem with the operating system is that it's vaporware; it's not going to be available for more than a year. Also, it threatens to fragment the Linux community, crippling Linux in exactly the way Unix suffered more than a decade ago.Google announced Chrome OS late Tuesday (the timestamp on post on the company blog 9:37 pm PT). The company said it will be an open source, lightweight operating system that will initially be targeted at netbooks. Later this year, the company plans to open-source the code, and the company expects netbooks running Google Chrome OS will be available for consumers in the second half of 2010.

Speed, simplicity and security are the key aspects of Google Chrome OS. 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.

Google says the operating system will run on x86 and ARM chips, and the company is working with multiple manufacturers to bring netbooks to market. "The software architecture is simple - Google Chrome running within a new windowing system on top of a Linux kernel. For application developers, the web is the platform," Google says. Existing Web apps will work, as will new apps, which will run in Chrome or any standards-based browser on Windows, Mac, and Linux.

The Google blog goes on to differentiate Chrome OS from Google's other lightweight operating system: Android. Android is designed to work on a variety of different kinds of devices, including phones, set-top-boxes and netbooks. Chrome OS is specifically designed for computers, including netbooks and full-sized desktop systems. Also, Chrome OS is designed for people who spend most of their time on the Web; the Google blog doesn't say this, but Android is a multi-purpose software platform.

The Chrome/Android one-two combination positions Google in the direction the computing market is going. As my colleague Tom Claburn explains, the PC market is shrinking, while the mobile phone and netbook markets are growing. "Last month, iSuppli reported that PC shipments in the first quarter of 2009 fell 23% compared to the same period in 2008, while netbook shipments grew 10% during the same time frame. Last November, IDC predicted that 42.2 million netbooks would be sold in 2012, almost four times as many as in 2008." And Microsoft has trouble getting its heavyweight operating systems running on the lightweight netbook platforms.

But what about Linux? The Google Chrome OS adds one more Linux distro to the confusing proliferation of Linux varieties already on the market, just as users were beginning to settle down and standardize on Ubuntu, writes Renai LeMay at ZDNet Australia.

He cites Unix as a cautionary tale, noting that the operating system fragmented into several different flavors in the 1980s and 1990s, forcing IT managers to learn several different platforms, Solaris, AIX, HP-UX, and more, just to keep their company networks running. Similarly, Linux had its multiple distros: Red Hat, Fedora, Mandriva, SuSE, Slackware, and Debian.

Now, over the past few years some of us had begun to believe that we could see a bright light forming at the end of that confused and heterogeneous tunnel. Out of the ferocious Linux distribution wars, one contender has emerged with the seeming strength to take on the rest; at least when it comes to the Linux desktop platform.
I speak, of course, of Ubuntu.

Instead of coming out with yet another Linux distro, Google should have built its Chrome OS on top of a stripped-down Ubuntu, LeMay says.

Chrome OS has another problem: It's vaporware. It doesn't exist yet. As of this moment, it's an empty promise, due to arrive at consumer's desktops in late 2010 (assuming no delays). The code won't be available for public consumption until later this year. Chrome OS sounds wonderful, but, then again, vaporware always does.

Microsoft's practice of announcing vaporware products well before their ship date was one of the habits that got it into trouble when the company faced federal antitrust prosecution a decade ago. Now, Google is also facing the threat of antitrust investigation, and it's announcing vaporware.

My colleague Tom did a great job with his article, but I have to disagree with one of his conclusions. He writes that Google Chrome OS is a challenge to Microsoft. Maybe Google sees it that way-but, in fact, Chrome OS potentially strengthens Microsoft, by sowing confusion among the Linux competition. Where there is confusion in the marketplace, hardware manufacturers and consumers look to the safe choice, and the safe choice is Microsoft. When the Unix market was fragmented into multiple different flavors, Microsoft settled the confusion by driving everybody to Windows. Now, with Linux fragmented, Microsoft has the opportunity to make history repeat itself.

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