Something else to wait for from Google

Last night Google finally admitted they were planning a PC Operating System.

I have a note for a future blog post (in Evernote, of course) on the inevitability of Google coming out with an OS. Really, I did.

Of course, like many, I thought they'd be expanding on Android.

Tonight, reading over today's traffic, I see there was a lot written about this today. Some trying to say Microsoft is now dead, while others say it isn't a big deal.

The product is a year out. A lot happens in this space in a year. All I can say is, we'll see.

My first thought was that turning the browser into an operating system was inevitable. Marc Andreessen, the founder of the Mosaic browser which begat Netscape, Firefox, and even Internet Explorer, was moving in that direction back in the 90's. It is what forced Microsoft to move to "cut off Netscape's air supply" as one Microsoft executive wrote in an email later subpoenaed in the Microsoft anti-trust action.

Microsoft feared a browser with the right support from its underlying operating system could eliminate the need for a bloated OS, and allow creation of online versions of Office applications so they moved rapidly against Netscape.

The Guardian said today :

"If Google can get enough people to buy computers running its new Chrome OS, it will cut into Microsoft's two biggest cash cows: Windows and its Office suite of programs, including Word, Excel and PowerPoint. Microsoft, which once spoke of "cutting off the air supply" of a web-based rival, Netscape, has woken up to find a new threat reaching for its throat.The confrontation has been expected for years – despite Google's insistence it had no such ambitions ..."

They did manage to get ten years more for their OS dominance and Office Suite.

And now, like Wave and for some, Google Voice invites, we have something new to eagerly anticipate from Google.

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