Is Google Chrome OS Coming This Week? Does it Matter?

Over the last few days the Internet has been full of rumours that, this week, Google will release a Beta version of their Chrome OS. Google’s Chrome OS was announced back in the summer as a re-think of what operating systems should be. Google’s thinking is as follows: today’s operating systems, that run our web browsers, were designed in an era where there was no web. So today we need a new operating system which is designed with the web in mind.

The rumours all started when TechCrunch announced that they have heard from a reliable source that “Google's Chrome OS will become available for download within a week”. From there every major gadget and technology site spread the rumour still further.

So what is all the fuss about. On one had it is a lot a noise about not very much and yet on the other hand this could be significant in the long run.

Noise
First the noise. Basically what we have here is a rumour, nothing more and even if it is true and Google release a Beta of Chrome OS this week or even next week or even on Christmas Day, the fact of the matter is it won’t change anything, well not at least today. Chrome OS is a Linux based operating system and it will be released as open source. It is aimed to be lightweight and will run not only on traditional PC processors from Intel and AMD but it will also run on a breed of processor called ARM. The ARM family of processors are often found in smart-phones and is in the processor used in the Apple iPhone, iPod Touch and the new Nokia N900. It is also the processor of choice for Google’s Android smart phone operating system. And it is this link with the Android project that turns the noise into something interesting.

With Android Google released a Linux based operating system that was finely tuned for running on smart-phones. They signed up a bunch of manufacturers and created the Open Handset Alliance (including Acer, ASUS, Motorola, Lenovo, LG, Samsung, Sony and Toshiba). This sparked a whole market of mobile phones running Linux by Google. These phones rival the iPhone for their features and touch screen design.

The Cloud
Now Google is trying to do the same with netbooks. Google are clever enough to know that they can’t unseat Microsoft from their dominant position on the desktop but Google doesn’t really need to. To Google the world is the Internet (or the Cloud as it is more fashionable called nowadays). Take for example the new Google Maps application with turn-by-turn navigation that Google is testing in the USA. To access the maps and get the navigation information the phone, running Google Maps, needs to be connected to the Internet and it gets its information live from Google. Previously Sat-Nav systems used the maps stored in their internal memory for the navigation information, but now any more.

So Google is trying to release an Operating System where connecting to the Cloud is the most important feature. This means that Google is aiming this OS squarely at netbooks and Internet Tablets which will at least have WiFi and optionally some form of 3G connectivity. This is why Chrome OS will support the ARM family of processors out of the box as well as processors like Intel’s Atom. These are the natural choices for mobile Internet devices.

In the online world searching for information, checking email, catching up on the news, shopping or just staying in touch with friends isn’t dependant on your OS. But rather on the applications you use to connect to the Internet and the truth is that the most used application on my computer is my web browser. I do 90% of my work there. In the Google world you use Gmail for email, Google for searching, Google Docs for word processing, Picasa for photos and so on. In this sense the web is operating system agnostic. It actually doesn't matter if you use Windows, OS X or Linux. Firefox (and ultimately Chrome) is available for all of them and what do you care which operating system is running under the hood.

Like with the Open Handset Alliance, Google has signed up a bunch of hardware manufactures who are working with them to create netbooks where the keyword in netbook is “net”. Among others, these companies include Acer, Adobe, ASUS, Freescale, Hewlett-Packard, Lenovo, Qualcomm, Texas Instruments and Toshiba. Interestingly this list has some familiar Open Handset Alliance members in it.

Conclusion
So what does it mean for the average gadget fan. Simply it means that Windows and OS X will remain dominant on the desktop but future Internet savvy devices will start to run Google Chrome OS. And as yet Microsoft don’t have an answer for this. Interesting Apple is in a much better position than Microsoft in that the operating system used on the iPhone and iPod Touch already does everything that Google want to do with Chrome OS (but with Safari rather than Chrome). If the rumours are true about an Internet Tablet from Apple then you are pretty much guaranteed that it will run a variation of the iPhone OS. This means that there will be a app store for the Internet Tablet and because they are Apple everything will be cool. So really Google is going head to head with Apple and Microsoft will be left behind (again).