Wednesday, July 15th 2009
Gates Downplays Chrome OS
Google's recent announcement of the Chrome OS, a web-oriented operating system that aims to use practicality and speed as its USPs, created more than just a few waves in the IT world. The firm later added that Chrome was going to be a free software, and has the support of some of the biggest names in the industry. At the receiving end of a potential competitor both in the operating system and cloud computing businesses, undoubtedly is Microsoft.
In an interview with CNet's Ina Fried, Bill Gates took the liberty of commenting on this development and implied that the waves Chrome OS created, are but in a teacup. "There's many, many forms of Linux operating systems out there and packaged in different ways and booted in different ways," Gates said, "In some ways I am surprised people are acting like there's something new. I mean, you've got Android running on Netbooks. It's got a browser in it," he added.
Gates further went on to downplay Chrome OS saying that there's nothing much left to talk about it, since Google kept such a low profile on how it's going to implement the idea. "The more vague they are, the more interesting it is," he said. Google earlier announced that it wants its developer community to focus on web-based applications, rather than Linux-based ones, so the application has the broadest compatible platform base. Perhaps Chrome OS will then serve as the best client platform for these applications.
A similar statement came from Microsoft's CEO, Steve Ballmer, during Microsoft's Worldwide Partner Conference in New Orleans, who said that the Windows is the right approach, rather than a browser-centric OS such as Chrome. "We don't need a new operating system," said Ballmer. "What we do need to do is to continue to evolve Windows, Windows Applications, IE (Internet Explorer), the way IE works in totality with Windows and how we build applications like Office...and we need to make sure we can bring our customers and partners with us," he added. Both Ballmer and Gates stressed that having two major client operating systems isn't necessarily a positive thing. Google maintains that its Chrome OS will be consumer-ready by the second half of 2010.
In an interview with CNet's Ina Fried, Bill Gates took the liberty of commenting on this development and implied that the waves Chrome OS created, are but in a teacup. "There's many, many forms of Linux operating systems out there and packaged in different ways and booted in different ways," Gates said, "In some ways I am surprised people are acting like there's something new. I mean, you've got Android running on Netbooks. It's got a browser in it," he added.
Gates further went on to downplay Chrome OS saying that there's nothing much left to talk about it, since Google kept such a low profile on how it's going to implement the idea. "The more vague they are, the more interesting it is," he said. Google earlier announced that it wants its developer community to focus on web-based applications, rather than Linux-based ones, so the application has the broadest compatible platform base. Perhaps Chrome OS will then serve as the best client platform for these applications.
A similar statement came from Microsoft's CEO, Steve Ballmer, during Microsoft's Worldwide Partner Conference in New Orleans, who said that the Windows is the right approach, rather than a browser-centric OS such as Chrome. "We don't need a new operating system," said Ballmer. "What we do need to do is to continue to evolve Windows, Windows Applications, IE (Internet Explorer), the way IE works in totality with Windows and how we build applications like Office...and we need to make sure we can bring our customers and partners with us," he added. Both Ballmer and Gates stressed that having two major client operating systems isn't necessarily a positive thing. Google maintains that its Chrome OS will be consumer-ready by the second half of 2010.