Netizen: Bill Gates On The Chrome OS

Image via CrunchBase

Bill Gates on Google's Chrome OS CNET News looks a lot like a familiar foe: Linux. ....... I am surprised people are acting like there's something new. I mean, you've got Android running on Netbooks. It's got a browser ....... "The more vague they are, the more interesting it is," he said. ....... the word browser has become a truly meaningless word ..... Ballmer noted that half of PC use today is spent doing work outside the browser. ........ Microsoft really doesn't know what Chrome OS will look like. ...... "Who knows what this thing is?" Ballmer said.
Gates on physics, Chrome OS, and Project Natal CNET News an effort to make a series of classic physics lectures available for free over the Internet. ...... Gates said that putting great educational content online is an important part of getting people interested in science. ..... Project Natal, the technology shown at E3 this year that uses depth-sensing cameras to allow one's own hands to act as a video game controller. But Natal is not just for games, Gates said, noting that the technology is also being used by the Windows team, which sees uses both for controlling media at home as well as in a number of workplace scenarios.

Bill Gates is alarmed. Bill Gates is dismissive. Bill Gates has a been there, done that air about it. Bill Gates' entire career has been defined by Windows. He is on record from the mid-1990s saying if he could turn the internet off, he would. A few years back he offered to buy Google "at any price."

His reaction is understandable, but largely misses the point. The Chrome OS is the first time Microsoft has been directly challenged. Office might go online partly. But where will Windows go? The operating system that has defined the desktop experience will stay big but will slide into the background. And it will not stay big forever. Windows' fortunes could change faster than Bill Gates seems to imagine.

Do you want to stare at the Windows? Or do you want to venture out and admire the scenery? Chrome OS promises to be about the scenery. That is a fundamental shift.

Bill Gates is a legend. He defined an era. He is an entrepreneur for the world history books. I am a huge fan of the Gates Foundation. More rich people should go to Africa, I think. But in the ideas space, just like Microsoft dominated the PC software space, I am not going to say Google is going to dominate the IC software space, but it sure has been taking the lead in defining it. Microsoft might also do well in that IC space, but it would require a paradigm shift that they so far have been incapable of. They want to cling to the PC concept for as long as they can. Short term business success can sometimes get in the way of truly breathtaking innovation.

Google Chrome Operating System: Pinging Bing
Bing ---> Chrome OS ---> Office 2010

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