Google Chrome OS is Usable Linux
Is there any news source that hasn’t weighed in on the Google Chrome OS, even though there is next to no information available? There are a few tantalizing clues already.
Well, there has been some. Android has had its first generation run on hardware, and its generally known that Intel and Google have been working together on getting a variant of Android to run on netbooks. With engineers at one end of the table and marketers at the other end, it should be no surprise that someone would simply ask why they weren’t doing it.
Android is an amazing accomplishment but there is far more functionality you could have on a netbook and – after all – Windows XP Home is already finding a new home on the hardware platform. Either Android has to stand against Windows XP Home or it needs a bigger brother that can.
I think Google Chrome OS won’t blow Windows XP Home out of the water in terms of functionality. What it will do however is create a new Linux based ecosystem which we haven’t seen before – and this will happen because Google will be forced to make this a Linux that is usable by the same customers who already own Windows XP. They have to – there is plenty of evidence in retail that the return rate of netbooks is much higher for the Linux based ones, and that customers are returning them to exchange them for the Windows based ones. Google Chrome OS has a battleground, and that is ownership of the blooming netbook platform.
