Adding to the ChromeOS Deluge…

The last thing I want to do is add to a meme – here at CloudAve we pride ourselves on having a modicum of insight and not just regurgitating press releases. Krish’s post this evening is a case in point – while most of the world is jumping up and down with excitement about the Google announcement – Krish takes a more reserved view.

From the outset I need to say that I’m against operating systems per se – we live in a world that revolves around the web, as I posted nearly two years ago, an operating system that essential runs a few hardware drivers and launches a browser makes little sense to me – especially when it means two layers of security vulnerabilities for people to exploit.

I also concur with one of those commenting on Krish’s post who pointed out, quite correctly, that “Linux has terrible take up outside of the techy community.” Linux has not, and will not, get to critical mass in the marketplace – it’s an (arguably) sad fact, but it’s a fact.

What surprises me however is the knee jerk reaction that people come to over this. Numerous tweets and blog comments have come out around the theme that “this is the nail in the coffin for Microsoft – it’s a nuclear bomb for them”. Even some traditional media commentators, usually more reserved about these things, have come out claiming that it’s the end of the world as we know it.

It seems the world needs to be reminded – there’s millions upon millions of PCs sitting in cubicles around the world running XP (or worse) and IE6 – the simple fact is that the ChromeOS, if and when it eventuates, will be a very cool and exciting product for us, the digerati. Yes I know I’ve been guilty of hyperbole in the past, and yes – I’m totally excited from a geek perspective about ChromeOS, But Microsoft is a company full of very smart people (and, truth be told, some excess baggage as well), it’d be doing them a disservice to think that this development which, expected for years now, will be enough to crush them.

So watch this space – the second half of 2010 is a long time from now – lots can happen before then…