That Google would eventually launch an Operating System has been rumoured for years?Rick Skrenta of Topix wrote about Google running its own large, custom computer, with its own operating system, which blogger Jason Kottke nicknamed GooOS. Kottke said then that Google isn?t worried about competitors in the search space?Microsoft with Live Search and Yahoo Search?but they really want to take on Windows.
Five years later, those words appear to have been prophetic: Microsoft Windows, which dominates the Operating System market, will have its first major competitor after Linux in the second half of 2010. Kottke?s 2004 statement about Google using open source Operating System Linux as a starting point is also remarkable, since that?s exactly what Google has done.
Being open source, like competitor Linux, Google Chrome OS will allow web developers the freedom to create their own versions, and develop software that will run on it. This announcement comes at a time when Microsoft is gearing up to launch Windows 7 operating system, which is expected to rescue the world from the clutches of memory hogging and painful-to-use Windows Vista.
This isn?t the first battle between the Google and Microsoft: indeed, several flanks have opened up over the past few years. A few months ago, Microsoft announced the launch of its web search engine Bing, taking on Google in its area of dominance. The buzz around Bing was significant. It?s unlikely Bing will overtake Google Search in the near future, but advertising that goes to Bing should be viewed as business that Google lost.
Nine months ago, Google encroached upon an area dominated by Microsoft by launching its own web browser?Google Chrome. The web browser market had been dominated by Microsoft?s Internet Explorer which ships as the default browser with Microsoft Windows, with open source browser Firefox as a distant second, and Opera as third. I?ve found Chrome to be more intuitive and less cluttered than the rest, though Opera comes a close second. Some studies on browser usage have suggested that Chrome is ahead of Opera.
In the instant messaging space, Google launched Google Talk, which took on MSN Messenger, and Google Documents offered users a free alternative to Microsoft Office, just as Google Apps offer a free alternative to Microsoft Outlook. Through its Google Pack, which provides free software like browsers, anti-virus, media players etc, Google also supported Microsoft Office alternatives like Star Office.
But these are mere services, not platforms, and to really become the lord of the digital realm, Google has to unseat Microsoft?s Windows. The platform allows Microsoft services the power of being the default applications?whether Windows Media Player or Internet Explorer, or Messenger?they all benefit from Microsoft being the dominant OS. Addressing the same potential on mobiles, Google has already released the Android platform, looking to unseat Symbian, which Nokia acquired last year.
In the battle for the PC platform, what perhaps works in Microsoft?s favour is the dominance it has enjoyed over the years, and?ironically?the piracy of its Windows operating system. Quite a few do use Apple?s beautiful Mac computers?some switched over recently, helped by Windows Vista?and many others swear by Linux operating systems like Ubuntu, but a majority of people are still most comfortable with Windows; they?re used to it because it?s all they?ve ever used or seen.
What has changed since 2004, when Skrenta and Kottke prophesised a Google OS, is that computing is much more mobile, and services are stored and used more from the Internet than ever before. The availability of Internet access on the move, whether from WiFi Hotspots or a 3G network, has also helped. The success of Netbooks?laptop computers designed primarily for Internet usage caught everyone by surprise and Google?s choice to go with a Netbook operating system, with a browser interface as its base is the right one.
But an operating system isn?t a small piece of software like a browser?downloadable and installable in minutes. The propensity to risk messing with an OS is limited to few. In order to unseat Microsoft, Google will have to build an entire ecosystem around Chrome. Which is why the company is currently working with companies like Acer, Adobe, ASUS, Freescale, Hewlett-Packard, Lenovo, Qualcomm, Texas Instruments, and Toshiba for Netbooks.
Interestingly, Google is opening two fronts in the Netbook battle?not one. The Android is also expected to power Netbooks, and Google is downplaying concerns about an overlap between the Android and Google Chrome OS.
The battle for the operating system is the biggest battle yet in the Microsoft-Google war. Perhaps, it is the final one.
The author is the Editor of MediaNama.com
