What Google's Chrome OS Means To Students
Wednesday, July 8, 2009 by Mike Bertolino 
Image Courtesy: The Next WebA lot has been talked about Google's new operating system over the last twelve hours since the Google Blog broke the news. If this OS is widely adopted, then it will change some things about being a student. Chrome will be developed from the web up saying, "the operating systems that browsers run on were designed in an era where there was no web." For students nowadays everything revolves around the internet. From social sites to music to even word processing. As the blog post says, "we live on the web" and there isn't a better example of that than the college student.
The first version of the Chrome OS will be targeted at the thriving market of netbooks. The plan for the operating system is keep the user interface minimal as to maximize the screen real estate. This could be a good buy for students looking for a new machine at the start of 2010 school year. The lightweight OS should keep your memory and CPU usage down so you don't have to bulk up your netbook with extra ram and a faster processor. Plus, Google says that the OS will have you booted up and on the web in a matter of seconds.
Developers will be able to make applications for the operating system like they would make any other web application. The applications they make can be used in the Google Chrome OS and in the browser being used in the other operating system. This definitely broadens the user base for web developers. So all you computer science majors out there, start writing code now and you could the owner of your own Chrome OS application raking those Benji-greens.
What does everyone think about the Chrome OS? Will it succeed? Comment below to voice your opinion!
Reader Comments (6)
Most college students should have adopted Linux by now. Aside from making everything web-based, it does just about everything that Google claims Chrome OS will do. Most user-friendly Linux distributions come with open-source software perfect for productivity, web browsing, photos, office, and music and video. And you know what the best aspect is? It's all FREE.
Now just cross your fingers and see what happens.
Thanks for the info dear !
It really depends on whether the OS is simply easier to use. I'm getting pretty fed up with my PC as it's constantly buggy and I usually have to put in an hour of fixing time for every 10 hours of use. I was thinking of switching over to apple but I might just wait for Chrome to see if I can get the ease of use of a mac with hopefully the software availability of PC's.
Linux is no harder to use than a Microsoft Windows OS. Go for a noob-friendly distribution like Ubuntu. They've made ease of use their priority since 2004 and have a wonderful support forum.
Personally, I think it is a long shot that it will displace MS. Remember, many netbooks launched with LINUX-based OS before. Now, 90% of Netbooks run MS Windows (mainly XP). What does this say about the future of Chrome OS? Also, keep in mind Google's spotty track record of developing web-based services. They excel in search and ads. That's it.
I can only talk about their past record, who knows Google might go whole hog this time and actually take a chunk out of Microsoft's hide. They better do it quick because BING is poised to eat into their search market share.