Google's Chrome OS

This Tuesday Google announced the "Google Chrome OS" on their blog, and got the tech world all excited. Google has long been rumored to be working on their own operating system, and for the many looking for a real alternative to Microsoft a Google OS has always been the dream.

Google has actually released an operating system already in Android, for smart phones, but despite some talk of trying to use it on netbooks, people understand that it is not designed to be useful on anything except phones. Google's upcoming Chrome OS is not a real operating system either, and it is best that people realize that before they get too excited.

Google's Chrome OS is nothing beyond using Google's current Chrome browser as an operating system itself. It is nothing beyond the logical conclusion that the browser is the operating system.

This of course implies that this new operating system will not be compatible with any existing applications for either Windows or linux and may or may not even be able to save files locally.

Instead this is an operating system that consists of a single application, the web browser. The Browser will contain everything and as a result will have to rely on cloud based services for applications and file storage. This of course plays to Google's advantage as they have control of many of the most popular web based applications.

It also means that the operating system won't be adopted by most people and will be ignored like most cloud based services currently are. While it would encompass the basics of a netbook in that it would allow you to simply access the web from a light and cheap notebook there will be nothing else to it.

Alot of people have missed that this is Google's real intention for their "operating system", based mostly on the fact that Google stated that it will be based off of some linux code. However the linux code will inevitably turn out to be nothing more than the necessary APIs and backend required to allow the Chrome Browser to launch directly from underlying assembly architecture.

This is more or less spelled out in Google's blog where they mention that "for application developers, the web is the platform". And that for anyone interested in developing for the OS that "new applications can be written using your favorite web technologies." Even beyond that the fact that they named the operating system after their web browser should be a clear indication that this is not really a traditional operating system at all.

For those wanting a true Google backed alternative to Windows the wait will continue to go on. Instead of getting all excited about what everyone wants a Google OS to be, instead it is important to look at what this Google OS actually is and to accept it or dismiss it based on what Google actually plans on delivering.