Google CEO Eric Schmidt said his company is looking to Chrome Operating System to take Google farther into the cloud as an alternative to Microsoft Windows and Apple Mac computers.
Google is betting heavily on the cloud with Chrome Operating System, a Web
platform for netbooks that Google CEO Eric
Schmidt said is predicated on leveraging reliable networks and diskless
machines.
While Microsoft Windows and Apple Mac machines rely greatly on software
residing locally on the hardware, Google intends Chrome OS to fuel Web
applications in the Chrome browser.
With Chrome OS, users won't download software or store data internally-data
resides in Google's cloud, supported by rows of parallel servers in data
centers all over the world.
The company hopes consumers use the apps developers build and offer in its
new Chrome Web Store, Google's new supermarket for free and paid Web apps that
will be accessible from Chrome OS netbooks.
Schmidt said the open-source platform, which is based on Debian Linux,
provides a third choice in platforms to Microsoft Windows PC and Apple's Mac
machines, a bold statement in an era where Linux has failed to gain much
traction.
"Before there was no cloud computing alternative-now we have a product
which is fast, robust and scalable enough to support powerful platforms,"
Schmidt
said in a blog post, adding that computer scientists have long
envisioned this but lacked the technology to build it until now.
However, official Chrome OS machines remain a picture in the distant future.
Google had planned to roll them out to consumers this holiday season.
Bugs, performance tuning and things like the lack of a way to port camera
photos to the platform threw wrenches in the company's well-oiled plans.
Samsung and Acer are
expected to ship finished Chrome netbooks in mid-2011. In the
meantime, Google has
created a pilot program using an unbranded netbook called the
Cr-48 to let business partners, media and consumers test-fly it.
There's no question the machine launches super-fast. In eWEEK's limiting
testing the netbook booted up in 6 seconds just by opening the lid. Powering
down is also a dream. Users may tap a button or simply close the lid. No more
walking from meeting to meeting with an open laptop.
"With Chrome OS and its related Chrome browser, Google is hoping to
appeal to users with a simple, compelling, no-frills interface that allows them
to store their information in the cloud," Jefferies and Co. analyst
Youssef Squali explained in a research note Dec. 9.
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