Not to say that Google's latest product announcement -- Chrome OS -- won't be a great product, but I think our SemiAccurate author is, well not too accurate in his past history and predictions.
Intel has been facing stiff competition from RISC processors for decades (yes, I know Intel is RISC at the core). Many predicted Intel's demise too many times... and all have been proven quite silly.
AMD and Intel are going down the SoC road. This is where the true value is! No other company on earth right now can integrate more into a SoC than Intel and AMD... and it gets better each year. Sure ARM has a very small thermal footprint, but what else do you get?
Along comes Google and says, in effect, "You can do everything you need to on the net with our widget that uses only 1/4 the CPU power of a Windows machine, 1/4 the RAM, half the storage space, and we consume 1/2 the wattage". Compelling argument.Or is it? What about the fact that it will have about 1/20th of the applications! Are you going to try and convince me that Linux apps are equivalent to Windows? Believe me, I sure wish they would be, cause I'm an Open Source fanatic and have been using Linux as my OS of choice since 1995. But no matter how much I've tried to introduce OpenOffice to a few secretaries and receptionists, Firefox on Gnome to friends and families, or just about any other open source application compiled for Windows, I pretty much get the same feedback! What is this!?
People have been accustomed to using Windows OS, applications and tools. And people like to stick with what they know.
Want proof? That's easy, just ask yourself where is Linux in the world today if you exclude all the Linux systems that run as a server and installed by geeks. The answer is practically nowhere! My point proven. And this is the reason why x86 is here to stay... and lead the way.
Even if there was a sudden movement where companies started porting their applications to a non-x86 architecture, it would take over a decade. Let's not even talk about the cost of all this.
Would you rather have a $1000 notebook with a 4 hour battery life that runs a few more apps, or a $200 Chromebook that has a 24 hour battery life? Apps compatibility isn't going to be much of a problem, Google has the clout to twist arms and the financial might to spend what is needed.To get 24 hours of battery life, you'd be running a notebook with embedded graphics with the processing power equivalent to a decade ago. And who's going to sell you these chips? Apple? Nvidia? AMD's and Intel's will be embedded into their SoC and be twice as fast as the latest discrete GPU! Can an ARM chip match that?
But only time will tell. My bet is NOT on an ARM dominated industry!
But I do agree with one statement that you've made:
MS has an uphill slog for sales, and lacks a plan B. It has the stick, but no carrot, and not enough time to grow a few. MS is on the way down, fast.And I'd like to point out that I've very happy to hear Google will compete with Windows. What the Linux world needed really bad in order to make it into the desktop world was credibility and support. Google will be able to bring that with force.
