David Heath
Sunday, 19 July 2009 19:51
Opinion and Analysis
Page 3 of 3
Chrome OS is the missing link.
As the focus moves to the cloud, the necessity for complex infrastructure at the desktop wanes.
The Cloud is probably the first real deal-breaker for Microsoft at the OS level. Gone is the need for complex Operating System infrastructure to support a myriad of applications on an uncertain hardware platform. Instead, the vast majority of business software will happily run on a trivial desktop with a browser connection to any number of cloud services.
'Trivial desktop' is the key here. All the desktop need be able to do is run a browser. Any OS with grander designs is destined to be a dinosaur. Returning to the title of this piece, we have to recognise that the Internet is the deal-breaker in all this. In fact even Bill Gates recognised this in 1995 when he famously changed Microsoft's direction 'on a dime' as it were to support and embrace the fledgling Internet.
Unfortunately, Gates only recognised half of the problem – he bet the company on a client-only solution. It's a pity that will end up being only the minor component. Thus Chrome OS - the smallest amount of OS needed to support a browser. Chrome OS will never challenge Windows - that's the wrong thinking. Instead, it will create a whole new desktop ecosystem that Windows can never be part of.
Whereas Gates and Microsoft believe that the desktop is king, the cloud is telling us that the king is everywhere.
The king is dead, long live the king – it's the Internet, stupid.
