The Google Chrome Operating System – Vindicated yet, Ellison?

Google announces an OS. For anyone even remotely familiar with cloud computing (is that term still used?), thin/dumb clients, Android, Chrome and how Google operates, this is not a real big surprise.

Google’s answer to OS bloat is lean and mean (and uses an open-source Linux kernel). Empowering the programming community could (should) bring some true innovation to the OS. Speaking of these developers, Google wants us to remember that “for application developers, the web is the platform.”Any readers do any mainframe work at all? If so, this should sound familiar — hence the props to Larry Ellison of Sun. And it is fascinating to see his vision unfold, even if it isn’t being controlled by him and has taken on some unique permutations. The story is similar to that of Eric Buell and the underframe exhaust. Great concept and sound reasoning, moving a heavy exhaust can from the high tail of a motorcycle to underneath the frame to lower the center of gravity and improve mass centralization. But sometimes it takes more than a niche producer to take a concept into the mainstream.

If you really are still wondering why this approach may be good, please read from Google:

“We hear a lot from our users and their message is clear — computers need to get better. People want to get to their email instantly, without wasting time waiting for their computers to boot and browsers to start up. They want their computers to always run as fast as when they first bought them. They want their data to be accessible to them wherever they are and not have to worry about losing their computer or forgetting to back up files. Even more importantly, they don’t want to spend hours configuring their computers to work with every new piece of hardware, or have to worry about constant software updates. And any time our users have a better computing experience, Google benefits as well by having happier users who are more likely to spend time on the Internet.”
c/o http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2009/07/introducing-google-chrome-os.html

Look for the OS on hardware in 3Q 2010.