A year and a half from now, you may see a new choice in the computer aisle of your local electronics store : little laptops or notebooks, with an operating system made by Google instead of Microsoft. Google announced that it will make a personal computer operating system, to be called Chrome OS, based on the Linux operating system.
The main advantage of Chrome OS is that it is free. Microsoft’s Windows 7 is reported to cost netbook makers at least $45 per computer. Even if Microsoft is forced to cut the price to the $25 level that it has been charging netbook makers for its ancient Windows XP system, a Chrome netbook may well be in stores for $30 to $50 less than an equivalent Windows machine.
This is how Google describes the experience it is trying to create : People want to get to their e-mail instantly, without wasting time waiting for their computers to boot and browsers to stand 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 do not want to spend hours configuring their computers to work with every new piece of hardware, or have to worry about constant software updates.
So what do all my blog readers think about it? Would you buy a Web-oriented computer with a Google opearting system? Or is there something special about Windows and its applications for which you would be willing to pay an additional $50 ? Drop in your comments and let us know.