The much hyped and anticipated product of the year is almost ready for its release. Google Chrome will release in about a week’s time if sources are to believed. The entire computing fraternity is waiting in bated breath to see if Google’s OS can prove to be a formidable competitor to Microsoft’s Windows. As all of us know, Windows has been the clear leader in the OS market with around 90% of the market share. In fact, Microsoft Windows is the de-facto standard for operating systems all over the world. Other OS’s came and went, but did not create as much as a flutter in the market.
But this time, things may be different. Google expects to create a wave with their new lightweight operating system. “Speed, simplicity & security” are the 3 key aspects of Google Chrome. Since the era of web based computing has arrived, Google Chrome has been designed in such a way that users can just start up & get on to the web in a few seconds. All of the user’s data will be stored in a cloud so that a user can have access to data anywhere. And this is expected to be done in minimal time. Hence, the user interface is also very minimal .
Chrome is in fact a windowing system built on top of a linux kernel. Though linux is a vey reliable and most importantly – stable OS, it did not pose any major challenge to Windows. The key reason for its failure being that you had a number of vendors proving you different flavors of Linux and users were definitely confused. But Google Chrome is going to catapult linux kernel into popularity. The sheer brand name is sufficient to create awareness about linux kernels.
Another key factor that lies with Chrome is that its open source – free of cost! And for you computer geeks, the source code of Chrome OS is expected to be available later this year/early 2010. If reports are to be believed, Chrome is also expected to support desktop applications like Microsoft Word & Photoshop.
But the biggest question that is currently on all user’s mind is – Will Google be able to beat Microsoft??
Honestly speaking, these are very early days. Even if Google Chrome becomes a roaring success, there is no guarantee that it will overtake Windows. Millions of developers or users may just not migrate to Chrome when they have been using Windows for more than a decade or so. Seriously, it takes a lot of time for users to switch to Chrome. This may range from a 2-3 years to probably a decade. And with Windows 7 receiving positive reviews from critics & users alike, things may become tougher for Google.
But one things for sure – Now Microsoft faces a stiff competitor in the market it dominated for so long.
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