Google… the operating system!!

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On  July/7/2009 Google announced two things. One, after five years Gmail, Google Calendar and Google Docs would finally be coming out of Beta, and 2010 would be the year we see Google release their new operating system. Hold it… what? An Operating System by Google? I almost shot coffee out of my nose when I read this.

Here is the official announcement on their blog.

So, what are we talking about here? Will this be an Operating System to rival Microsoft? Will it’s simplicity and ease of use finally kill Apples struggling OS? Well at this point no one really knows.
Here is what we do know. It will be a web-centric operating system meaning most of the apps will run in the browser. This may sound a little limiting at the moment but of you look at the current trend, their vision becomes clearer.

More applications that we use every day are going online and there are exciting plans to move even more in the near future. Email is almost exclusively online using applications such as Gmail, Yahoo and Hotmail. More and more people are putting expensive applications like Microsoft Word aside for free browser based options like Google Docs (which I am using right now to write this). There are even new technologies coming out like oToy that will enable low end PC’s to run super high end games and graphical programs by doing all of the rendering online using server farms.

Companies are excited about this for several reasons. If you have to log onto their website to be able to use their software, that eliminates pirated software as well as hugely reduces tech support calls as all of the hardware would be handled on their end. Really the only thing that could go wrong on the user end would be internet, browser or keyboard/mouse related.

The truth of the matter is that know one knows what to expect from Google. We have not even seen any (credible) screen shots. The few that were released turned out to be fakes. So if you hear anyone saying that Google OS is nothing special or someone else saying that it will be a huge game changer, they may both be right.

One thing is for sure, everything Google does makes a huge impact so it will be interesting to keep an eye on.