Can Chrome Laptop Driver from Google Beat Microsoft?
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To see is to believe, but Google is confident enough to let the public know about the new operating system they’re hard at work developing. This might as well be a challenge issued against the indisputable leader in the software industry.
What’s Chrome All About?
This new laptop driver from Google is specially designed for individuals who ‘live on the web’ and works best with netbooks – the kind of laptop that’s more popular with budget-conscious users because of its affordability. Of course, it’s also less powerful than most laptops, but this doesn’t bother its owners when all the latter wants is to surf the net and that’s certainly something netbooks can do.
Google, however, envisions its future OS to be used with full-sized desktops as well.
At present, the company estimates the number of users of their Chrome Internet browser to be at thirty million – not a bad figure considering it’s only been out for nine months. The Chrome browser will be incorporated with its new OS.
Chrome is admittedly a potential threat to the Richmond-based software giant, Microsoft, which has been the leader in its industry for over twenty years. Google describes its new laptop driver as a ‘natural extension’ of what Chrome – the Internet browser – could do and an ‘attempt to rethink what operating systems should be’.
Chrome will be launched mid-2010. Engineering director Linus Upson and Product Management VP Sundar Pichai stated in the company’s website that the new OS was designed for those ‘who live on the web’. These individuals commonly use their netbooks to keep in touch with friends, shop, catch up on the news, check their email, or simply search the Internet for information.
Google believes that the operating systems currently used by browsers may be lacking because they were designed in an ‘era where there was no web’. With its new laptop driver, the company aims to completely redesign ‘the underlying security architecture of the OS’. More specifically, it hopes to prevent users from being troubled by viruses, malware, or even the inconvenience of security updates.
Android, an operating system that had been released a short time in the past by Google, was designed for mobile phones but may also be installed on netbooks. Google, however, aims for its new laptop driver to be operable even with larger machines.
These developments are considered to have ‘widespread implications’ by CNET’s Stephen Shankland. It shows the company’s determination to make the Internet function as an integral foundation not only for static pages but also for active applications, too. Certainly, it also means competition for Microsoft, but more importantly, these moves may also require the attention of anti-trust regulators.