Microsoft vs. Google — Mutually Assured Destruction

jmcbain writes "Robert X. Cringely asserts that nothing good will come out of the ongoing war between Microsoft and Google: 'The battle between Microsoft and Google entered a new phase last week with the announcement of Google's Chrome Operating System — a direct attack on Microsoft Windows. This is all heady stuff and good for lots of press, but in the end none of this is likely to make a real difference for either company or, indeed, for consumers. It's just noise — a form of mutually assured destruction intended to keep each company in check.'"

Comments

Re:The outcome:

[masshuu]

i would use my mod points but...
+----------+
|  PLEASE  |
|  DO NOT  |
| FEED THE |
|  TROLLS  |
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that troll has been everywhere recently.

Re:not good?

[bonch]

I think it's very likely that Chrome OS will replace Windows for most non-geek consumers -- and because it's going to be open source, a lot of geeks will probably adopt it

Wow. That's a hefty prediction.

Google Chrome OS exists just to run the Chrome browser. Google even says its apps will run in any standards-compliant browser. Windows PCs, Ubuntu netbooks, and Macs can already run the Chrome browser, as well as Photoshop, MSN Messenger, The Sims, and so on. So why would you run Google OS for any reason?

As for geeks, they're paranoid about corporate branding, so do you really think all the Slashdotters are going to run a Google OS to run a Google browser and check their Google mail, type documents in Google Docs, edit photos in Google Picasa, etc.? And they won't even have access to other Linux apps, including X11?

To be honest, I think Google OS will be very niche.