I think this article is off in so many ways but most people have addressed that so I won't. What I will say is Google doesn't have an army of developers behind them. Write a platform like .NET or get an army of Open Source Developers like Linux, maybe then they have a chance.

Does anyone else get a sense that this guy is "way out there" which while that should make him fit in well here, but makes one wonder if BN intentionally had him write this type of article to poke fun at the over the top back and forth that goes on here between posters. I may be a nutsac but I'm not a conspiracy nutcase but this smells suspicious.
If not, then Betanews has taken a huge step backwards.

"When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the [technological] bands which have [bound] them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all [end users] are created equal, that they are endowed by their [developers] with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." DOI
this may begin to apply in the real world today as things begin to unravel but in computers??? come on. this has to be a joke played on posters.

of Course, one could see some gaming potential here but who here would be cast in the role of the slave-owning Americans, the British and the Native Americans who took both sides and still got screwed. Me? I'll take a nice little house that i can see Russia from and then run for office.

Let me start by saying right up front that Joe Wilcox's views as expressed here are solely those of Joe Wilcox, and do not reflect the views of Betanews.

With that, I would beg the reader to allow me this opportunity to respond with my own viewpoint which also does not reflect the views of Betanews, but which are solely those of Scott M. Fulton, III. As always, I am solely responsible for my content.

Briefly, let me reiterate what many of my readers already know about me: I am a Windows user, and by choice. But I acknowledge that if the choice faced by the majority of consumers was as workable for them as the choice I made for myself, then they may not willingly choose Windows, and with good reason. So I applaud the efforts of any company or organization or group of developers to build and distribute a viable alternative to Windows, which in and of itself sounds like a very attainable goal.

All that on the table, I must register for the record my feelings about this article: On behalf of the brave men and women who have fought and continue to fight for noble causes under the American flag, including justice and human rights, and who have died for my right to print this and for your right to read it; and for the courageous people who founded our country with the aid of a document I hold dear to my heart, as the greatest statement of human rights ever written by the hand of man; I am insulted by the comparison of a software product announcement to the founding document of my country. And I find the misappropriation and re-editing of the Declaration of Independence to suit the purpose of ridiculing Microsoft to be offensive and undignified.

My other grievances are, for the most part, trivial by comparison. However, I will say -- again personally -- that there is a pronounced difference between a market battle and a war. I am a Windows user; that does not make me a terrorist. Whether you choose to use Chrome or Windows or Moblin or Macintosh does not make you a soldier in someone's army. You can wear colors if you want, you can fly an Apple on a flag on your doorstep or on the bumper of your car. You can be proud of the system you endorse; there was a day long ago when I wore Atari's Fuji on my s***.

Market battles are about the brands displayed on people's desktops and on the posters on their walls, if indeed people truly care that much any more, and most don't. Wars are about the causes infused within people's souls. The borders between the two are not even adjacent -- they're in opposite worlds. A few years from now, I could become a regular Linux user; that will not make me a revolutionary, and that will not change who I am or what I believe, nor will it change the makeup of the friends I keep. It is far more important than the fact that I use Microsoft software or that I drive a Hyundai or that I watch an LG television set, that I am an American patriot. I am proud to work with people who fly the flags of their respective countries, and who believe sincerely in the principles upon which they were founded. As for myself, you will pry the symbol of my country and the words upon which it was founded from my heart, long, long after my body's dusty remains have sunk into the core of this Earth.

-Scott Fulton

Well said and I agree and glad to hear you say that. That is the point of ridiculing this person and the mind-numbing rage debates that sometimes go on here. Real life trumps everything else and , right now, with our soldiers dying in the quagmire of the Afghan war and our people suffering equating the DOI with the mundane of an OS or Browser is disrespectful to the American people and our soldiers. Thumbs up on that one Scott.

sounds exactly like something PC_Tool would post.

Fatty? not sure who you are referring to- me, Scott Fulton or the writer but how about not using it as an excuse to tear someone else down. I know you and Pc_Tool don't get along but it seems the better approach is instead of taking potshots just ignore.

this OS will be in beta longer than any other OS in history :)

i'll have to say no to joining googles fight, at this point i trust MS and even apple in the OS game more so than google

er, why take sides, they're both huge companies that dominate the field in which they earn most their money, google in search and microsoft in os. Lets hope for greater competition in price, features and innovation

No, I won't be "joining the fight".
Well, perhaps on the other side...

Google. With all my data! Fat chance.

In the tone of a soldier yelling for aid to his injured comrade: EDIT!!! Please, we need an edit!!! First for logic, then for readability. I only slogged thru this effluvial rant because it'd been forwarded to me by a friend for a giggle. I'm astounded by the clowning that passes for analysis and informed opinion these days.

First, Google didn't invent the browser-as-OS, either from a technology or a marketing perspective. Have you ever heard of a guy named Scott McNealy? Maybe Gosling? Second, Microsoft has more to fear from the internal collapse of its revenue model than from any specific technology promulgated by a competitor. Third, the social startups and their presumed armies have no relevance to this discussion; most of them would be just as happy to twatter or faceplant thru their iPhones or other distinctly locked-down devices. They are not your open source army. Fourth, Chrome is not open source, it's *based* on the already-open-source Chromium. This is an important distinction. Fifth... oh, nevermind. I could go on, but really, what's the point? Calm down, emo boy. EDIT!!!!

Google poses no serious threat as they don't have any developer tools, languages, or direction. An operating system that has no support from the developers is dead before it's released. They should have started with a visual studio clone first.

Google Chrome + Google Toolbar = Google OS?

Good thing I don't have any of those on my "XP OS".

*laughing*

Woah there, Drama Queen...back up the "I should have been on Broadway" train...

*laughing*

Excellent piece of fiction. Loved it. Had Google gone about things differently, I would have been cheering them on every step of the way.

...but they have no chance as it stands now. Really. We don't depend on Google for anything but Email and search. This does not an OS, or even a desktop make. Had they continued the Search/GMail tradition and revolutionized Google Docs and Google chat? Then hell yeah! Right there they'd have the majority of what most PC users *use* their PCs for locked up. Throw it all together in a browser in a way that the users don't ever need to close the browser to get their work done and the desktop, even the OS powering it becomes obsolete. Google could throw the OS under it and Google could have wiped out Windows, OS X, and Linux without so much as a whimper.

Sadly, they screwed up Google Docs. It's virtually a non-starter. They need the hooks of their Apps and services to negate the OS. They just don't have it.

...here's hoping they get it together though soon and give everyone (even me) a surprise.

Google Docs really is bad. That's what you get for cobbling together different services, and creating a poorly organized login system.

I hope they can get it together, this surely is a start. The question is how long will it be until we can survive on Web apps alone. 5 years? 10 years? 20 years?

Well, for businesses? Never.

But home users? They could probably do it *now* for the most part.

The only issue at this point is functionality and usability, both of which Google Doc's lacks in. I really do wish they'd done better on their apps before launching this.

google against microsoft = clash of the titans

call to arms, i don't know?

i'll have to see what my flying horse thinks.

I disagree. I think it's more like the birth of Jesus Christ. Will you be martyred for the Google faith?

Only this time, 2000 years later, mankind isn't so silly and naive. We can communicate across the planet in real time, so there won't be any obviously ridiculous myths about some ordinary man who has magical powers and an ego the size of an elephant claiming to be a god.

I don't think the whole British/American analogy is appropriate either, since Google is hardly at a disadvantage in terms of money or other resources, as compared to Microsoft. Maybe ten years ago, but not today.