[Video] Google O/S - open source code now available

November 19, 4:41 PMUsing Computers ExaminerHarold Nolte

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Two interesting, somewhat related events occurred last summer, the first at Microsoft and the second at Google. Microsoft has long dominated the operating system market, and conversely Google is by far the most widely used search engine.  So what events took place? They took jabs at one another. 

First, Microsoft announced Bing, an all-new search engine.  Microsoft hoped that Bing would overtake Google as the search engine of choice.  In fact, Microsoft touted it as a "decision engine," not a "search engine."  Clearly Google's territory. 

Then Google announced that they were going to start development of an operating system, Microsoft's long-held domain. 

Today, Google announced that the Google "Chromium O/S  open source project" is now available.  Anyone can now get the source code for Google's new operating system, although the O/S itself will not be out for another year. 

Chromium O/S is a fundamentally different operating system model.  Google says it is more secure, will be very fast (boots up in seconds) and will be "light" - just enough O/S to get you onto the internet "where you spend 90% of your computer time" anyway. 

The video below discusses the goals for Chromium O/S.  

For more information, also see Google's official blog. 

So how will these two events play out?  Will Microsoft and Google succeed in taking market share from each other?  Indications are that Bing has improved Microsoft's share of the search business, but not by much.  It's too early to tell whether Google will take market share from Microsoft with its new O/S.  But we believe that Google has a better chance of succeeding with their new O/S than Microsoft has with their new search engine. 

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