Google Chrome is being dismissed by competitors and analysts, but it may just be the official beginning of the cloud computing era by freeing users from big, heavy PCs and operating systems.
Google is getting a ho-hum reaction from the IT world following last week’s release of the Chrome OS, its attempt at an operating system designed for cloud-based applications and contender to the Microsoft desktop crown.
Critics and skeptics, however, have labeled Chrome with such tarnishing descriptors as dull, uninspired, lackluster and ne’er-do-well. Microsoft has issued statements calling Chrome a poor competitor to Windows 7 (it’s comeback effort following the disastrous Vista), and Microsoft maven Mary-Jo Foley has likened the Google OS to Microsoft’s Silverlight, the platform designed to make apps run better on the Web. Gartner tells eWeek that enterprise adoption of Chrome is at least 10 years in the offing.
Chrome detractors have zeroed in on what the OS doesn’t do - no downloads, no desktop apps, no deep integration with the host machine. And that’s what PC World’s Robert Strohmeyer correctly calls its strength. Google’s intention is to make the budding netbook market even more powerful by making Chrome the preferred and optimized enabler of cloud computing via lightweight devices.
Google Chrome is being dismissed by competitors and analysts, but it may just be the official beginning of the cloud computing era by freeing users from big, heavy PCs and operating systems.
Google is getting a ho-hum reaction from the IT world following last week’s release of the Chrome OS, its attempt at an operating system designed for cloud-based applications and contender to the Microsoft desktop crown.
Critics and skeptics, however, have labeled Chrome with such tarnishing descriptors as dull, uninspired, lackluster and ne’er-do-well. Microsoft has issued statements calling Chrome a poor competitor to Windows 7 (it’s comeback effort following the disastrous Vista), and Microsoft maven Mary-Jo Foley has likened the Google OS to Microsoft’s Silverlight, the platform designed to make apps run better on the Web. Gartner tells eWeek that enterprise adoption of Chrome is at least 10 years in the offing.
Chrome detractors have zeroed in on what the OS doesn’t do - no downloads, no desktop apps, no deep integration with the host machine. And that’s what PC World’s Robert Strohmeyer correctly calls its strength. Google’s intention is to make the budding netbook market even more powerful by making Chrome the preferred and optimized enabler of cloud computing via lightweight devices.
