DarkStealth

Google Drops a Nuclear Bomb on Microsoft. And It's Made of Chrome.

This only seems useful for the Netbook market, and even then, it's not clear that's a good trade for people. Windows is so successful because of network effects - your PC running Windows is more valuable because your friends run it and you use it both at work & home. You reuse learning on one device & it applies to all. And your same applications work everywhere. Providing what they're branding as an operating system will leave their users without some of the network effect. True, maybe you can run some applications in a web browser, but many of them are imperfect substitutes for Microsoft Office.

It's surprising that Google is branding Linux + a window manager as an operating system. And of course, it's a downgrade for people that already have a PC or laptop. (Gotta play my games...)

Does Google really think they can make money this way, or is this just to spoil Microsoft's revenue from Netbooks?

Does the World Need Google's Operating System?

So Google wants to throw away the existing body of applications I've already got, and hope that everyone is happy to migrate to the web, with crappy replacements for Office? How am I going to play my games? I'm not downgrading to Linux and installing a new window manager (which Google is attempting to pass off as an operating system!).

This is useless on the server and a downgrade for existing PC owners. Maybe the Netbooks market is compelling, but that's automatically assuming that everyone will be happy using apps running in a web browser, with their lesser functionality. Do they come with pop-up ads? Perhaps they have a chance on the phone - oh wait, did they think about the iPhone?

It's hard to imagine Google making a decent amount of money here. Maybe they'll disrupt Microsoft's plans. But will a Chrome window manager pay for its own development, or be a huge money sink like most of Google's other free apps?