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This is my argument against Randall Kennedy’s Why Chrome will fail — big time. Before diving further, let me summarize Randall’s argument here. He claims that there are 2 factors that will cause the untimely demise of the Chrome OS, which are:

• Linux Foundation. Claim: Because Chrome is built based on the derivative architecture of Linux, it will inherit the flaws of Linux which are in his words “spotty hardware compatibility”
• Web User Interface. Chrome handles everything like a browser and individual webpages with pop ups.

The Counter Argument:

Lets break this down piece by piece.  Firstly, the Linux Foundation clause. We are now looking at a significantly faster paced world where the open source crowd is gaining significant momentum due to economic downturns and budget cuts with IT departments all around. Added to the fact that Open Source is also gaining significant support from government agencies world wide (See Australia and Malaysia for example). What this means for Linux is more users and contributors taking a serious look at compatibility across platforms for various types of tasks performed from financial, to administrative, down to simple surfing and serious programming and design.

This paves a pathway for Linux and Unix platforms to mature and gain industry recognition as enterprise ready operating systems with increased scalability and easy deployment options for system administrators worldwide. In fact, the banking industry, being one of the most conservative industries out there ( next to the medical industry and defense) are centering their IT strategy around open source platforms.

How does this relate to Chrome ? Well, what Chrome has that’s an added advantage to this recipe for success is quite simply Google and its very fat wallet. Google will most likely be using a two prong approach with Chrome OS as they have with some of their other products. Google will not only rely on the very able hands of developers out in the open source world to aid in their quest for increased compatibility, they will also be able to fund the very best of them under the umbrella of Google. This model, which is quite similar to MySQL’s model for success will drive Chrome OS even further than if Google were to close source the project and keep it completely tucked away.

Futurisitic. Image Courtesy of Wikipedia

In addition to this, in order to bolster adoption of the Chrome OS, Google has very adequately aimed for the netbook market which is currently at a boom. This is also a market that does not aim very high for hardware performance due to the primary use of netbooks which is mainly for mobility and the so called “surfing on the go” lifestyle. In other words, this is more like a user acceptance test for Google’s OS in order to enable it to iron out the kinks and climb greater heights if it has enterprise adoption in mind for the future.

Now, lets take the web user interface argument for a spin shall we. Yes, it is a new user interface, and yet another one to get use too but lets be honest, is this is steep learning curve for most users. The simple click and go interface of the especially with the rise of minimalistic, social oriented designs surrounding the web, every interface exposed to day old internet users have a common feel to them. Users do not fear the web and in fact embrace it significantly more than say tinkering with the old OS’ engine. This is hardly an issue with the Chrome OS and quite honestly doesn’t deserve any further discussion.

The Clause.

Despite all the sweet things that Chrome OS has promised, there is a major clause that lies at the very heart of its success. Bandwidth. Quite simply put, Chrome OS is completely internet reliant. While this is hardly an issue in more modernized nations, Asia or South East Asia in this case is still lagging behind the broadband war with the exception of Singapore of course. The one thing that Chrome will have to work on very diligently is the optimization of its kernel as described by its very simple architecture diagram. Chrome will have to find a way to deliver the same if not better user experience of the current OS’ by utilizing the least amount of bandwidth. Traditional OS’ do not rely on bandwidth as much primarily due to the lesser dependence on web apps which seems to be Chrome’s primary forte. This does not bode well for Google if their aim is to also spread Chrome to third world countries for instance where bytes are still too expensive for the common man.

Although so, Chrome is still in its lifecycle infancy and leveraging on cloud computing is the key concern for most IT CIOs, what we do see happening that could very well become the architecture of the future is local datacentres for villages and towns, so instead of having to access cloud applications in servers far away, we could reach an aim of having localized mirror servers that serve as a gateway to other major servers sort of like a large interconnected WAN. This would be the ultimate platform of the future and the very ecosystem in which Chrome OS will thrive. We have always known Google to push the boundaries of technology and the age old adage, that with limitations come innovations, we have yet to see what the future hold for us but as for now Chrome is out and it is here to stay.