Does the world need another Linux-based OS? Hell no!

Rodney Gedda

Rodney Gedda is the former deputy editor of CIO and former editor of Techworld.

Here I am using another “hell no!” cliché and here I am writing about Google's product strategy. Last time it was “hell no” to Google's Chrome Web browser, this time it's “hell no!” to Google's proposed Chrome OS.

Don't get me wrong, there are no flies on Google and Chrome OS looks like an opportunity to make hay while the Sun shines during the emerging revolution in portable computing – x86 and ARM-based netbooks.

But where is all this OS fragmentation heading? New products breed innovation, but there still needs to be broad appeal for “innovation” to be relevant. How more “innovative” can a new PC operating system be?

Chrome OS will run on x86 and ARM architectures, but then so does Ubuntu.

Is it simply a case of Google turning green with envy when it hears the word apple?

Android gave Google an iPhone-like phone operating system, Chrome gave Google a Webkit-based browser like Safari, and now Chrome OS will give Google a user-friendly, Unix-based operating system just like Mac OS X. Great minds think alike. Then again, fools rarely differ.

Are there any positives out of Chrome OS? Sure, every cloud has a silver lining, and in this case it will be more market acceptance of Linux and its associated open source drivers.

If Google can use its marketing muscle to shoehorn an open source operating system into the ever-dominated-by-Windows notebook industry then consumers will invariably benefit through more innovation and better products. Many hands make light work.

We are seeing innovation in the form of Mac OS X, Android, netbooks, the iPhone, smartphones, Linux distributions, SaaS and Windows 7.

The biggest problem Microsoft is facing is not lack of innovation or opportunities, but it's product distribution cycle. The early worm catches the fish.

Microsoft, unlike Apple, Google, or Linux distributors, is now dragging its feet with new operating system releases. To remedy the situation it needs to be more nimble with future versions with a definite two-year release cycle, not the five and six-year cycles it has got away with over the past two decades. Remember, a stitch in time saves nine.

There is speculation Google's eyes are bigger than its belly in even attempting to develop and support a full PC operating system. Only time will tell if the search giant has bitten off more than it can chew.

After all, Google has progressively released many applications over the years – ranging to the sublime (Gmail) to the ridiculous (Answers) – but still generates some 90 per cent of its revenue from search advertising.

Looking at Chrome (Web browser), it was difficult to see how it could be monetised back when it started, and it will be equally difficult to postulate how Chrome OS will pay off.

But that's what its like in the brave new world of free software. A company with an ounce of software development capability can, with relative ease, aggressively fight a competitor.

While Chome OS may never achieve the market acceptance of Windows, Mac OS X or regular Linux distributions, but it will certainly throw a cat amongst the pigeons.