Google rides Chrome OS onto Microsoft turf

Computerworld - With Google Inc. working on its upcoming browser-based Chrome operating system, the company is intensifying its rivalry with Microsoft Corp.

If Google's new OS , which is expected to be on the market in about a year, catches some momentum, it won't just propel the company into a new market, it also will give Google Apps a boost against Microsoft's ubiquitous Office software. It will also give Google one more avenue into the enterprise, which has always been Microsoft's lofty domain.

"This really is a fight to the death for Google and Microsoft," said Jim McGregor, an analyst with In-Stat. "It is a fight between business models for software, applications, advertising and the Internet. I think this battle will eventually benefit everyone because it is pushing the boundaries of technology and business."

Google announced today that it is releasing its Chrome OS project as open source, including the code base, user interface experiments and some initial designs for ongoing development.

"First, it's all about the Web," wrote Caesar Sengupta, a Google group product manager, and Matt Papakipos, an engineering director, in a blog post. "All apps are Web apps. The entire experience takes place within the browser and there are no conventional desktop applications. This means users do not have to deal with installing, managing and updating programs."

For Ezra Gottheil, an analyst with Technology Business Research, Inc., Chrome OS reflects the ascendancy of the Web and the browser. Both the buildup of the Web and the upcoming release of the new operating system will pool to give Google even more power and industry position than it has today, he said.

And that would only help the company in its ongoing battle with Microsoft.

The two companies have been locking horns this year over enterprise applications and their search engines. It's a war between the longtime software monolith and the new Internet-based giant on the block.

Now, Google appears to be setting its sights on taking a chunk out of Microsoft's operating system market share. With many users viewing their computers as simply a way to get on to the Internet, a browser-based OS could be a good step into that arena for Google.

"For most people most of the time, the PC is just a Web player," Gottheil added. "Google is leveraging its Web expertise to strip away a lot of the stuff that people don't use as much any more, and delivering an OS optimized for the Web... This makes business sense for Google. Getting in Microsoft's grill is just gravy."

Analysts also noted that users running the Chrome OS are likely to use Google Apps, such as Gmail, Google Calendar and Google Docs, along with it. That means pushing out the new OS could bolster sales of Google's office-based applications as the company drive into other Microsoft territory.