Mike Griffiths

You might think of Google as your doorway to the Internet. Google is the search engine most people use to find what they’re looking for on the Internet. But the fact is, Google is a brand and the search is simply their flag ship product. Google releases new products regularly, they have well over 50 products; some of them are used every day by millions of users (Google Mail) and others are used occassionally by a few thousand users (Google Code Search).

It has since been released that Google has a new product on the way, a product that has been rumoured for some time now and it’s making a lot of people very excited, and a lot of people very nervous.

Google is releasing it’s own operating system.

The operating system (OS) will be know as Google Chrome OS (at least for the time being). It’s due for release in mid-2010. To begin with the OS will be used solely on netbooks, but it’s very likely to be brought into use on laptops and desktops very soon after.

Google have said that they are taking everything back to the drawing board and changing the way computers work. Most computers today are built using similar kernals, whether they’re Windows, Linux or Unix – the basic architecture is the same. It’s well known that Linux and Unix systems are more stable than other systems, but that doesn’t make them any more safe. All computers are prone to viruses, but Google believe they’ve come up with a way of stopping viruses, worms and malware on computers all together. It will be interesting to see how.

The OS itself will be tiny. The OS will simply work with the computers hardware to connect to the Internet and display web content. The good part about it is that it’s built for cloud computing. Cloud computing is a new term popping up more and more. It’s the term used to describe systems or software that are available on the Internet, but not at one central location. Google are already at the forefront of this technology with their products Google Mail – a webmail service – and Google Documents – a free browser-based version of Microsoft Office.

To do basic tasks on a Windows or Mac you need to install a hefty sized OS, which costs. You’ll then need licenses for your word processing or spreadsheet software, which is another cost again. You then need an email host and server set up, which can cost rental and can be difficult to set up. You’ll then need some where to store it, whether that’s a home network or your computers hard drives. The idea of Google’s OS is that you install the free Chrome OS, and that’s it. The OS comes with the web browser that you’ll need to do everything, from the browser you can access Google Mail, Google Documents and anything else you’ll need.

So essentially Google are releasing a package that is completely free, all you need is your hardware, which will be even cheaper when buying from vendors like PC World as they won’t be made to purchase the OS license fees.

All of this must be getting Microsoft and Apple a little worried. Google are known for getting things right, and with Microsoft’s track record of late deadlines and resource intensive software, and Apple’s reputation of being ridiculously over priced – both companies must have their tails between their legs. Even more so with the latest press release from Google that states a list of companies that Google will be working with on this project, including hardware manufacturers such as HP, Acer, Asus, Lenovo, Texas Instruments, Freescale and software vendor Adobe – but no mention of Dell or Intel.

In my personal opinion I believe that in 10 years time we’ll all be paying next to nothing for computers, but instead renting virtual space on a series of servers some where, and as the price of storage and bandwidth comes down it’s likely to get a lot cheaper for all of us.