It's about time Google

Something Google has been suspected of developing for a very long time has finally been acknowledged by them. Google is working on a lightweight operating system (OS) based on their current Chrome web browser. In case you don't know what I mean by operating system, in this situation think 'a replacement for Microsoft Windows and Office and Internet Explorer'. This new OS intends to leverage online resources in a big way and will likely make use of all of the existing Google Apps, with designs on more online programs in short order.

This is a somewhat new paradigm that in fact is a return (at least in direction) to the olden days of mainframe computing using dumb terminals. Google is betting that eventually, regular computer users will see the benefit of owning a computer that needs less resources because all the work is being done 'in the cloud'. This has the potential to save the general computing public a lot of money.

There are numerous benefits of this type of computer system. The days of worrying about running out of hard drive space would be over. All programs and saved files will be run or stored online (courtesy of Google). When software is stored by a reliable, trusted online entity, the job of updates and security issues can be dealt with much more efficiently. Consider this example: Is there a new update for Google Docs? It's already in place. For everyone. When all the hard work of running a program is done online, you no longer need the world's fastest video hardware or CPU. Your computer only needs the power to connect to the internet and little else. Collaboration becomes seamless in this type of environment. But the best benefit of all is simply that you can log in from anywhere, on any computer, and have access to your collection of programs and files. Once you experience that reality, you'll wonder how you ever lived with a plain old PC before.

I was expecting this would come to pass sooner or later, but wasn't sure if Google had it in them. Expect things to roll out early 2010. The first version will be suited to netbooks (small form factor, low speed / power CPUs, little RAM, small capacity hard drives), but they will eventually make a version suited to desktops.

Here's another article on what that world would look like.

Oh, in case you were wondering - it will be free.