Windows 7 vs. Google Chrome OS – Why Google might fail miserably

When you think of Microsoft, you also think of Intel. Those two names are connected to each other very closely. But will this change soon? Will we think about Google instead of Microsoft when we hear the name “Intel”?

Intel teamed up with Google to work on a OS simply called “Google Chrome OS”. According to heise, there are many other companies who will support Google’s new operating system:

• Acer, ASUS, Freescale, Hewlett-Packard, Lenovo, Qualcomm, Texas Instruments, Toshiba and Adobe

Despite the fact that Intel is working on a netbook OS too, they are working closely together with Google now. How can that be?

Intel’s latest CPU’s “Core i7″…

Intel Core i7

… are doing pretty well:

Intel Core i7 Benchmarks hardocp.com

Core i7 Benchmarks at hardocp

When those fast processors and Google’s (supposedly) lightweight OS are combined could it possibly be the fastest system availabe? And at what cost? Google already confirmed that “Google Chrome OS” will be open source and 100% free. We can expect to get our hands on test builds shortly before Windows 7 comes out.

Will Google's OS be a success?

Why Google might fail

Obviously many people will download it, Google will do it just like Microsoft and build up a system backed up by user feedback. But how can they dare to challenge Microsoft?

• Google Chrome OS won’t be a real OS, it will be a system optimized for the usage of Google Apps. But seriously, are you using Google Docs, Office, Mail and all the other apps regularly? Well, Google Mail is quite popular, but what about the ohers?
• When Microsoft released Windows Vista, people complained about the crappy backwards-compatibility. What do you think will happen when Google releases their OS? Exactly the same and people will move on and buy a copy of Windows 7. There is just too much you have to take into consideration: devices, applications, drivers and so on. Even with Intel’s support they won’t release a full-fledged OS for free. Many things will simply not be compatible. Therefore it will always be a 2nd choice.

Positive side-effects:

• Microsoft finally has some competition. As a result prices will drop, which is always a positive thing.
• Companies, especially start-ups won’t have to spend anything to get their OS. If Google manages it to make Chrome OS as user-friendly as Chrome, it will be a cost-effective office solution, just like Linux.