Thread: Google To Produce PC Operating System

SAN FRANCISCO, July 8 (UPI) -- U.S. Internet company Google says it is moving to challenge software giant Microsoft by introducing its own personal computer operating system.

The company announced Tuesday its system will provide an alternative to Microsoft's Windows operating system and will be based on its Chrome Web browser, The Financial Times reported.

Google officials said the Chrome OS will be available from "multiple" computer hardware makers starting in the second half of the year and will work for all types of PCs, "from small netbooks to full-sized desktop systems," the newspaper said.

The company said its new operating system will be an improvement over Windows in several respects, reportedly resolving its slow start-ups and vulnerability to viruses.

The Times said Google's move into PC operating systems is part of a progression from its core Internet search engine technology into software, which has long been Microsoft's turf. Google has produced a suite of Web-based software to rival Microsoft Office, and its Chrome browser is designed as an alternative to Internet Explorer.
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Yea...heard about this yesterday... looking fwd to it...

One more OS for sidney the macist apple eater to worry about.

Originally Posted by vince

One more OS for sidney the macist apple eater to worry about.

Me? Worry? For where! That's why Google went after Windows and not Apple.. Fight de pesin wey you fit beat.....



<Foolish man!!! I actually laughed out loud when I read this!!>

Goodluck to them. Beating loyalty isn't an easy task.

Originally Posted by Pete

Goodluck to them. Beating loyalty isn't an easy task.

Windows isn't about loyalty, but an absence of choice. Apple isn't really a viable alternative. Some of us don't like its rigid business practices and garroting tendencies.

That said, this is an OS for Netbooks, not a full PC OS...for now.

Originally Posted by Sola

Windows isn't about loyalty, but an absence of choice. Apple isn't really a viable alternative. Some of us don't like its rigid business practices and garroting tendencies.

That said, this is an OS for Netbooks, not a full PC OS...for now.

Please explain this comment.. Not sure I understand what you are talking about..

Originally Posted by sidney

Please explain this comment.. Not sure I understand what you are talking about..

I think what Apple has is better spin/marketing. They make owning it seem cool, you know, like it can do anything the PC cannot, and to buy into that hype, you pay this higher price. Above all, the proprietary nature of applications Apple allows to run on the MAC...Its like the company wants to suck you in and never let you look elsewhere. But that's probably a lot of unfair generalisations from me, but it doesn't really matter what I think now...

Originally Posted by Sola

Windows isn't about loyalty, but an absence of choice. Apple isn't really a viable alternative. Some of us don't like its rigid business practices and garroting tendencies.

That said, this is an OS for Netbooks, not a full PC OS...for now.

"garroting" Very nice chioce of word, Sola!

Originally Posted by Sola

I think what Apple has is better spin/marketing. They make owning it seem cool, you know, like it can do anything the PC cannot, and to buy into that hype, you pay this higher price. Above all, the proprietary nature of applications Apple allows to run on the MAC...Its like the company wants to suck you in and never let you look elsewhere. But that's probably a lot of unfair generalisations from me, but it doesn't really matter what I think now...

Ok. I will start my saying it is an extremely ill-informed opinion, that you have every right to have...

I bought my first Mac after 3 months of research. I swear on my life, 3 full months. And I was open to buying anything! If you really want to, compare a laptop and a Mac, apples to apples... NOT, what you may need versus what a Mac or PC offers, but compare Speed, size, processor, screen size, install software. I used cdw.com. Their search engine is precise and you can specify exactly what you are looking for and see the results.

I went and looked at the exact specifications of a Mac and tried to match it against a pc laptop. I found Lenovo laptops, which are excellent by the way, but they were $500 to $1000 more expensive! I shit you not.. That is apples to apples, matching every item as closely as I could. This was the case, 2 years ago. It may not be the exact case now, but you will find that the Macs are comparebly priced. This does not include the level of software developement that is simply superior, from a UI and user experience perspective. This is a universal opinion across even PC, Windows users. In fact there is a small community of developers that installed the Mac OS of a dell laptop.

It is not that Macs as "overpriced" for what is provided, it is that they do not have scaled down version of their hardware. The have a high starting price point. I am preaching to the chior to tell you that a $400 laptop is nothing compared to a $2,500 laptop. Apple simply does not have the $400 option. This is where the issue is. Notice even those PC commercials start with a premise, buying a computer for under $1000... PC's will win everytime, when it comes to price point. But take my challenge and use cdw's search engine and see if you find Mac to be overpriced with respects to what is provided.. You will see that you are flatly wrong. Even the iPhone is cheaper than the middle tier Blackberry...

The Tech community is the savviest community and cannot be fooled for years on end by marketing alone. This is simply false. You better deliver the goods and keep delivering the goods or your product will drop off the face of the earth.. T-Mobile Blackjack an example of the former, Palm Pilot, and example of the latter...

Additionally, no-one, not Mac or anyone has ever, let me repeat, ever said that the Mac does anything a PC cannot. Never. It simply does some things infinitely better than a PC...

Originally Posted by sidney

Ok. I will start my saying it is an extremely ill-informed opinion...

And I would respond by saying you exaggerate. There's nothing "extreme" about what I said. As for being "ill-informed" - I am in good company then, since the web is full of techies who also have a similar view. A recent article from ComputerWorld and another from 2008, on the eWeek website. Read this PCMag piece too. There's a zillion of them all over the web, so you can google 'em yourself. These chaps probably devote more time to these sort of issues than I do daily.

Originally Posted by sidney

It is not that Macs as "overpriced" for what is provided, it is that they do not have scaled down version of their hardware.

Isn't that one of the reasons they remain producers of hard/software for tech snobs? Steve Jobs has been ill for months and the whole MAC web has been agog with speculations as to the fate of the company! That's how tightly integrated hardware, software and makers are, probably accounting for all the emotions when addicts gather. That may have its pluses, but the minuses are just as glaring. The MAC market share has been reportedly dwindling since last year. Windows 7 is obviously going to bite even more out of whatever the MAC has left...

I would have sworn though that Apple is trying to appeal to that "scaled down" market with the iMac series, at least once upon a time. It just ends up still being too expensive obviously...How can you even be less expensive when you do not permit competition? Recently, a company came out with MAC clones. Apple killed the company in court. The product and its manufacturer just abhor competition, that's all. And they've sold the hype well enough to followers who swallow it so completely.

Originally Posted by sidney

The Tech community is the savviest community and cannot be fooled for years on end by marketing alone. This is simply false. You better deliver the goods and keep delivering the goods or your product will drop off the face of the earth...

I don't doubt the "quality" of Apple products. They're even pretty inovative. I just believe they're also expensive, that's all. Even their iPhone and iPod prices only came crashing when competition swelled like a storm. No be so? (I don't use them, so I hope I'm not wrong).

Originally Posted by sidney

Additionally, no-one, not Mac or anyone has ever, let me repeat, ever said that the Mac does anything a PC cannot. Never.

I'm not sure how you can say that so categorically...No one, EVER? As far as you know, really, right? I can say categorically though that there is nothing I've ever wanted to do that a PC hasn't handled to my satisfaction, so why bother with the aspiring competition?

Originally Posted by sidney

It simply does some things infinitely better than a PC...

Yeah. And the reverse can be said about the PC over the MAC, Sid. With the MAC, you're stuck with just a handful of models/configurations, while the PC offers you a zillion and even allows you to build yours from the barebones box to a smoking Alienware comparable machine. Its more expandable, more flexible to upgrades, offers an "infinitely" wider array of choices, accessories, etc. A MAC, after so many years, is still WYSIWYG.

I admit much of what we're comparing here can be subjective, sure, so I'm not trying to score points here. It isn't a discussion to be won or lost. I just think the days of "Go MAC" are long gone. There's a saying that everyone who seriously wants a MAC already owns one, and PC users are obviously not converting, however easier to use the MAC is touted to be. There's the belaboured argument that MACs have no viruses, but, as someone once observed, with the insignificant market share they have, it probably doesn't benefit virus coders to pay attention to it!

I understand your point. However you initial post referred to how the Mac owners were somehow marketed into drinking the Mac kool-aid, as oppose to that the Mac actually delivered what they needed. Is there some elitism, touted by Apple themselves? Of course! But you initial asertion that is was the marketing alone is what I took issue with. In your subsequent post you note that you don't doubt their quality of innovation. In original post, you made it seem that these were not factors in why people buy Macs. That's all I was addressing.

As for the price points, do your own research.. I gave you a website you can definitely see for yourself if those articles were indeed accurate...

<hssssss> Yeye PC man....

Sidney,the apple eater macist!

-Let apple make it's producta a bit more competitive on the price level.
-It should start making desktop home computers(and i do not mean imacs)that ordinary folks can afford.Not every home needs a workstation.
-It should stop this nonsensical cult like attitudes towards the mac platform and open it up for other companies to get involved.
-The new google OS should be allowed to function on the mac platform(that has been promised by the googlers,anyway)

Maybe then it will have a chance of eating into the PC market.The quality is in no doubt,but it needs to open up more to the general public and become more competitive, pricewise.

Originally Posted by vince

Sidney,the apple eater macist!

-Let apple make it's producta a bit more competitive on the price level.
-It should start making desktop home computers(and i do not mean imacs)that ordinary folks can afford.Not every home needs a workstation.
-It should stop this nonsensical cult like attitudes towards the mac platform and open it up for other companies to get involved.
-The new google OS should be allowed to function on the mac platform(that has been promised by the googlers,anyway)

Maybe then it will have a chance of eating into the PC market.The quality is in no doubt,but it needs to open up more to the general public and become more competitive, pricewise.

Why should they do any of this? Prior to the Ipod, I would have said absolutely, all of these things should have been done. But the Ipod and not the Iphone have changed the dynamic of the industry. People who were former PC people, like myself, have moved over.

But the Windows PC platform will not be overtaken. Unless there is a shift from the .NET platforms many companies rely on. I am a Mac man, but also a C# .Net programmer. So I must always have a PC or at least access to a Windows environment. I don't see that changing anytime soon.

I wouldn't touch a Mac with a 50 foot pole. If mac fan boys were pastors, they'd only get one reluctant convert once every 3000 yrs. . .