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Comment by jacquesm | Hacker News Reader

Interesting, but a netbook running linux also does not have the microsoft tax associated with it and can do all that googles os promises and more.

Things that come to mind:

- work when you don't have a network connection

- store a sizeable amount of media to entertain you while on an airplane

- use 'skype' and several hundred thousand open source packages

It does boot slower, but I find it hard to benchmark software that hasn't been released against software that does exist.

I wouldn't be sad one bit of google threw their weight behind linux adoption, for them to go and launch yet another OS to fragment the market is not what I was hoping for.

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But something happens when you say 'new operating system from google' instead of 'linux': you no longer have trouble selling it to a random person in Best Buy.

The average person rarely understands the difference between an operating system, a browser and a search engine. And they're almost all pretty skeptical of FOSS, even after you explain it.

But most know, like and trust Google. And they know Google is fast and free. So when the Best Buy flunkie says it does the internet super-fast and the battery lasts longer, they're inclined to believe. There are no new concepts for them to tackle.

The up-side of a Google Operating System vs any other Linux distro doesn't really go to the user. It goes to the netbook vendor, who now has a far easier time moving Windows-less product and thus a stronger position when dealing with Microsoft.

Also, OS fragmentation is the logical end result of the web. The OS is still relevant, but it's not the main draw. So there's a lot of room for innovation, specialization and competition.

It's A Good Thing.

Until you've seen it, I don't think its safe to make those assumptions.

Neither would it be safe to to assume anything about the OS before it has been released.

Yes article, I am looking at you: "it should be faster", "Google is promising boot times measured in seconds", "If Google can come up", "we might just have the ultimate", "Google may use these"

That is: should, promising, if, might, may. Not a single bit of concrete data at all, just pure speculation.

I know Google has released quite a few solid products, but aren't we giving them too much credit on something yet to be delivered? Google may know how to run servers and write web-apps, but why are we assuming they know anything about how to build a decent client OS?

If Microsoft was to release anything like this, with just as little data, the entire tech press would be up in arms about how this was going to fail.

I guess I'm getting about as tired about the Google-hype as the iPhone-hype. I use both, but that doesn't mean I believe in magic before I see it.

"If Microsoft was to release anything like this, with just as little data, the entire tech press would be up in arms about how this was going to fail."

For good reason. They have ample precedent of huge Microsoft failures. Google, not so much (yet).

Google groups ? Google Video ? Click-to-call ? Google notebook ?

I think groups has their niche` users and those that stick are very high quality, and google video would still be going but they bought YouTube, which is probably turning out to be a great move.

Ubuntu is already pretty fast on a Dell mini 910n & a Dell mini 10v. I believe they have a goal of 8-second boot times on netbooks in 2010. And they usually achieve their goals.

I believe Google will pull this off, because it entails repackaging and refining software that's already well on its way.

I wouldn't believe Microsoft will pull this off, for 2 reasons: (1) they don't want to threaten their Windows cash cow. (2) business partners (Intel) don't want netbooks to become an acceptable replacement for full-fledged laptops.

None of the reasons is technical.

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