Google Sitting on Cloud Nine
Google Chrome OS: Web Platform To Rule Them All With Chrome OS, Google aims to make the Web the primary platform for software development. By Thomas Claburn, InformationWeek, July 10, 2009 Google's plan to release its own operating system based on its Chrome browser is at once audacious and laughable. Microsoft Windows represents slightly less than 90% of the personal computer operating system market, a position it has held for years. . . . It's hard to imagine a less promising business for Google to enter, especially given that Google plans to give Chrome OS away for free. And Google's grand plan to shake up the operating system market isn't made more credible by the absence of any actual programming code or substantive information about Chrome OS. . . . Within a year or two, Web browsers will gain access to peripherals, through an infrastructure layer above the level of device drivers. Google's work with standards bodies is making that happen.
_______________________________________________________
And that last, that access to peripherals thing, is what is called the cloud. Everyone in the game, from Apache to Sun Microsystems is planning for the future with the cloud promising permanently cloudy skies.
You and I (and all the folks in most corporate environments) will have very simple access machines--essentially netbooks. The notebook is on the way out and the netbook on the way in. Your (and my and Wal-Mart's) information, as well as the software they use, will be safely out of reach of hackers on a deeply protected safe-house in cyberspace, called the cloud.
We'll go there to visit our work (or recreation). We won't need to actually own Microsoft or Linux operating systems, won't have to buy expensive versions of PhotoShop or Dreamweaver, allowing us to finally cut loose from outdated software on outdated operating systems.
It's going to take a while, but who wouldn't love to live on Cloud Nine?