Google Chrome OS cometh

It has long been speculated that Google may have been working on their own operating system and finally the speculation is over - Google are to launch a new web based OS called Google Chrome OS. My first thoughts when seeing the headline was pretty much the same thoughts I had when people were speculating about a possible OS venture by Google “Its probably a version of Linux”. Surprisingly and much to my delight its not based on any operating system at all its going to be built from the ground up.

Personally I full heartedly welcome the introduction of a new OS to the Operating System arena especially one by the likes of Google. I think another OS adds more options and more options can only be good for the consumer. It keeps all the other OS vendors on their toes and forces them to make their OS’s better and more reliable and by other OS vendors of course I am referring to Microsoft, Apple and Linux. Google has the corporate muscle to push an operating system to market that will get it taken seriously.

Now its all very well having a new Operating System but its pretty much useless without software. A brand new operating system is going to need applications pretty fast to catch up with the likes of the other OS vendors out there who have thousands (probably millions) of applications already. I would have it as a guess that Google would first push its browser which would then support its other web based applications such as Google Docs, Google Spreadsheet and Google Wave. Maybe the browser will be an integral part of the OS with heavy usage of Google Gears? Google are also going to want the likes of Adobe Flash on their OS, otherwise content from the likes of Google’s company YouTube would not work on their OS along with other popular web apps. One of my questions is, just how far will Google venture into the OS market? Will we see Google for workgroups or possibly a Google OS appliance server as we do with their search appliance?