Google’s New Chrome OS versus Ubuntu and Windows 7

Google is stirring the operating system pot with their Chrome OS announcement. It’s basically a cloud-aware Linux flavor that targets netbooks and other entry-level systems where Internet access is the primary need.

It’s pretty early to make predictions, but as we’ve seen with the Chrome browser and Google Apps, Google’s projects grab business users attention (even though the majority of the applications aren’t suitable for everyday business use).

Cloud Computing in general offers users the idea of simplified systems and web-based collaboration. It’s a new century flavor of the old mainframe server and terminal concept  Of course, Google’s model is far more sophisticated for Chrome, but the idea is still centralization. The only problem with this is bandwidth. Wireless — Wifi and especially 3G — doesn’t allow for the real-time throughput that would be necessary for live applications. And, ironically, mobile users are becoming the ones who need the apps the most.

Our guess is that Windows 7 will retain its marketplace, Google will grab its niche, as it did with Android phones, and Apple’s Snow Leopard will just hum along.