Does Google's OS mean Windows' days are numbered?

Wednesday 08 July

Will Chrome shine - and take the gloss off Microsoft's Windows 7 OS?

Almost all of us that own a PC use Microsoft’s Windows operating system (OS) on a daily basis – but now the software giant has a big rival on the horizon: Google. The search engine and software behemoth has just revealed that it’s beavering away on an OS of its own: Google Chrome.

As rivals go, they don’t come much bigger. Like Windows, most of us also use Google software every day, whether it’s to search the web, watch online videos (Google owns YouTube) or send an email with Gmail. It’s a massive brand and holds a lot of sway in the PC industry – so much so that Google has already arranged for netbooks to start shipping with Chrome OS preinstalled as early as next year – those are netbooks, in other words, that won’t be running Windows.

So are we looking at Microsoft’s long period of domination coming to an end? Could Chrome take a huge chunk out of the big M’s market share? That’s the tricky one – and I guess it all depends on how usable Chrome really is. It’s easy buying software and games for a Windows PC, but will companies be as quick to embrace Google’s OS? Looks like 2010’s going to be an interesting year for PC users…