I’m a big advocate of open source software and feel most comfortable when I’m using a Linux OS. However, I’m quite content on just about any OS as long as I have my Firefox. I seem to live out of my browser anymore and the OS comes second. Tasks that used to require a separate client such as email, calendars, tasks, and even word processing now have a home in my browser. I even present my talks these days using Firefox and Google Docs.
There have been rumors for a while that Google is working on its own Linux Distribution. Some expect Google to release it to world some day and others think it is just an internal project intended for Google employees. This past week Google finally released its operating system – and it’s a browser. This makes total sense because most of Google’s applications and services are either totally or partially web-based. Google Docs, Maps, Calendar, and Gmail are the applications and Chrome is the OS. Sure the apps will run on other browsers, but you can bet that Chrome will be optimized to run Google’s services at peak efficiency. Chrome even has a built-in task manager (as do all operating systems) to manage the many processes one may have open. Another OS-like feature in Chrome allows you easily create desktop shortcuts of your web apps.
Chrome is no-where near as feature rich or extensible as Firefox currently is and so far it only runs on Windows. I’m willing to bet, however, that Chrome will be a viable alternative browser (OS?) in the next couple of years. Word is that Google is also preparing a version of Chrome for future versions of its Android platform for mobile devices.
