I wonder then that this will mean for screen readers?  Has Freedom
Scientif or GW Micro teamed up with anyone at all?





On Wed, 15 Jul 2009, peter altschul wrote:

>   Google's New Platform Chrome Aims To Show Microsoft's Windows
> the Door
>   * Microsoft's monopoly threatened by web rival
> * Apple may hold key to fortunes of Chrome
>   Charles Arthur
> guardianddcodduk,
> Wednesday 8 July 2009 21.40 BST
> httpccwwwddguardianddcodduk/technologystblebjjistjulstblejh/googl
> e-chrome-microsoft-windows-os
>   It's going to be a Fight Night for heavyweights Google
> and Microsoft
>   It is the technology industry's equivalent of the
> irresistible force meeting the immovable object.
> Google, the web upstart founded 11 years ago, has
> announced it will go head-to-head with Microsoft with
> an operating system (OS) -- the programs that make a
> computer work -- for machines ranging from handhelds up
> to desktop computers.
>   If Google can get enough people to buy computers
> running its new Chrome OS, it will cut into Microsoft's
> two biggest cash cows: Windows and its Office suite of
> programs, including Word, Excel and PowerPoint.
> Microsoft, which once spoke of "cutting off the air
> supply" of a web-based rival, Netscape, has woken up to
> find a new threat reaching for its throat.
>   The confrontation has been expected for years -- despite
> Google's insistence it had no such ambitions -- but it
> still caught observers by surprise when a Google
> spokeswoman confirmed to IT news service IDG that it
> plans to announce this week the names of computer
> makers in Taiwan and China signed up to work with
> Chrome OS, and said that it will show off Chrome's user
> interface later this year.
>   The challenge to Microsoft is implicit, yet also
> direct.  In a blog post, Sundar Pichai, Google's vice-
> president of product management, and Linus Upson,
> engineering director, explained that "the operating
> systems that browsers [used to access pages on the web]
> run on were designed in an era when there was no web".
> That is a swipe at Windows, which dates back to the
> 1990's.  Pichai and Upson also promise that with Chrome
> OS, "we are going back to the basics and completely
> redesigning the underlying security architecture of the
> OS" to ensure that "users don't have to deal with
> viruses, malware and security updates" -- another swipe.
>   An operating system is the set of programs that makes a
> computer act as it does: the same computer can run
> Windows, Apple's Mac OS X or the free Linux operating
> system.  Each computer will then behave differently, and
> do different things; but connecting to the internet is
> key for all.  So even if Google's dramatic attack fails,
> it still wins.
>   The reason is its dominant position as a search engine
> - a key activity -- and in selling adverts against
> search ("AdWords") and web pages ("AdSense"), which is
> how it makes money.  As Nick Carr, an author and
> journalist who has studied Google for books such as The
> Big Switch, observes: "For Google, literally everything
> that happens on the internet complements its main
> business.  The more things people and companies do
> online, the more ads they see and the more money Google
> makesddIn addition, as internet activity increases,
> Google collects more data on consumers' needs and
> behaviour and can tailor its ads more precisely,
> strengthening its competitive advantage and further
> increasing its income."
>   Chrome OS will be based around the Linux operating
> system, and will initially be offered on "netbooks" -
> the small, cheap laptops that have seen explosive
> growth in the past two years due to their size, weight
> and price.  Data from IDC suggests that while the PC
> market as a whole shrank by 6.8% in the first quarter
> of 2009, netbook shipments kept growing (from a low
> base) to 9.5% of all computer shipments.  If any
> significant share of the market moves to Chrome OS,
> Microsoft will lose the Windows revenue and revenue
> from its Office products, which won't run on Linux.
> That could slowly bleed the giant to death.
>   Not everyone is convinced Google will succeed, however.
> Michael Gartenberg, a consumer devices analyst at
> Interpret, based in Los Angeles, was unimpressed.
> "Folks who have never seen it, used it or spent five
> minutes with it are claiming it's huge threat to
> WindowsddggIf that's the case, wouldn't it also be a
> threat to Apple and Mac OS, an argument I've not seen
> this morning?)" He added that history doesn't run in
> favour of Chrome OS's principles: "Consumers have
> overwhelmingly rejected Linux-flavoured netbooks for
> Windows-capable machines that they could actually
> accomplish things on, such as run PC applications."
>   He thinks that the aim is to distract from Microsoft's
> next version of Windowsearelease of latest version of
> Windows 7, which will be released, due this October:
> "By creating of lot of fear, uncertainty and doubt this
> morning (after all, every PC runs web-apps really well
> and no one is looking for devices that web based only
> for the most pat).  they hope to take the attention and
> lustre off Windows 7."
>   It may in fact be rival Apple that determines whether
> Chrome OS succeeds.  Its iTunes music playing,
> organisation and purchasing program is installed on
> >do 100m computers, more than half of which are
> Windows machines.  If Google can persuade Apple to
> provide a version that runs on Linux, people may move
> over to Chrome OS.  Otherwise, leaving behind their
> music collections comthe dearest digital property many of
> them own, might be too much.  Still, Google has a good
> chance of getting a hearing: Eric Schmidt, its chief
> executive, has been on Apple's board since 2006.
> Perhaps Steve Ballmer, Microsoft's chief executive,
> should start worrying now.
>
>
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