So, Google announce last week that they're developing an operating system, and today Microsoft announce that they're making the office applications available as free web based products from 2010.
Will either of them be real competition for the other? Will the linux - based Chrome OS ever be serious competition to Windows? Currently it's only being targeted at netbooks, but two years ago netbooks didn't really exist. The world changes fast.
Conversely, will the lightweight web based versions of word, excel and powerpoint catch up in popularity terms with Google docs? Time will tell I suppose.
They say all competition is healthy, and I'm watching the developments of these two rivals - with two very different business models - with interest. I'm also wondering whether we are now witnessing the beginning of a real shift away from desktop operating systems and applications towards the web and the cloud.
I do feel sorry for Microsoft's group product manager for Office who told the BBC: "We believe the web has a lot to offer in terms of connectivity". This rather unfortunate quote is being widely tweeted around at the moment, usually followed by a comment about how up with the times MS are.....
2 comments:
Don't ignore openoffice! A good solid product for when you don't have internet access. There are also zillions of slightly different versions of Linux for the OS, on a CD, on a USB stick or even on your HDD. As OSX is merely a proprietary "skin" on linux, there is no real need to go that way either.
I wish the linux community team up and produce some thing good rather then everybody working on different distributions and ending up with nothing, this is so stupid
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