If there is one thing about the tech blogosphere it is its predictability. Just as you could predict the almost breathless press that surround Google’s announcement that yes they were working on an operating system, yes they were going to open source it (in other words free), and yes everyone can now get excited but you’ll have to wait until next year when you buy a netbook to use the real thing.

There’s gotcha number one – while you can download it (see Kim’s post of where to grab a copy) it isn’t going to be the real thing because the real thing is only going to be installed on the netbooks of those hardware companies that meet Google’s standards.

But just as you can predict the positive spin that comes with just about every Google release you can predict just as well the next day’s rapid back-peddling as the early rush of kool-aid begins to leave everyone’s system. In this regard we definitely weren’t let down in the slightest even though there were a few that seem to have grabbed themselves a whole new serving.

Those still thinking that this is the game changer, or at least close to it, that we’ve been waiting for:

Google Chrome (or something like it) Will Take Over…Bet On It! – TomsTechBlog

Chrome isn’t about next year or even the year after that.  No one in their right mind would bet on netbooks as the future of humanity.  But it is about Google showing the world a new way of computing and earning the world’s trust.

The Chrome OS Release Is Not About Now, It’s About Next. – Louis Gray

Google’s preview of the Chrome OS was more than a product release. It was a milestone in a vision of a Web-centric world, one in which we are increasingly living. For the vast majority of my own activity, I am online, not using software. I intentionally use some applications, like Microsoft’s Office suite or Adobe Photoshop, quickly, and then close them just as quickly, as to not slow down my computer’s performance. Google’s Chrome OS is the latest development in a vision that says our activity will be online, our data will be stored in the cloud, and applications that have traditionally been desktop software will make their way online.

Why Google Chrome OS has already won – Robert Scoble

Today InfoWorld’s Randall Kennedy says that Google’s Chrome OS will fail.

What he is missing is he’s looking at the wrong field.

Google is playing a different game. Google Chrome OS is NOT about killing Microsoft or Apple.

What is it about? Developers, developers, developers, developers, developers.

See, what happens if the world goes to Microsoft’s Silverlight, the way that Seesmic did this week? Google is locked out of such a world.

Google is in a war over developers with Microsoft. Google wants developers to build for the open web. Microsoft wants developers to build for Silverlight. Those messages are VERY clear coming out of both camps now.

Chrome OS, Google Intends to Destroy the Desktop and Microsoft – Mashable

Here’s the thing: Microsoft is well aware of the Google Revenue Equation. It also knows that Chrome OS and its price point (free) aren’t in its best interests. Thus, Microsoft won’t play to Google’s game, leaving Google with only option: to destroy or fundamentally alter Windows. This is equivalent to gutting Microsoft and leaving it to wither away into oblivion.

Google is setting the stage for is biggest battle with Microsoft yet. The result of its Chrome OS bet will directly affect the fate of computing, the operating system, and the web.

Those that are either back-peddling or are busy writing epitaphs of failure

Why Chrome OS will fail — big time – InfoWorld / Cloud Computing

The Chrome OS is here — sort of. This week, Google was kind of enough to give the world a sneak peek at its nascent desktop operating system. And after months of speculation (and more than a few bogus screenshot galleries), I can finally say that I’ve seen the future … and it’s not Chrome OS.

Google Chrome OS: I Don’t Get It – webomatica

And we had to make do with web apps. I wouldn’t buy such a thing, not after getting used to the Swiss-army wonderment of the iPhone.

As far as I’m concerned, the Google Chrome OS seems limiting at best, and at worst, pointless. I don’t get it.

Was Chrome OS a Disappointment? – ReadWriteWeb

At the end of the day, Chrome OS is an exciting, but not fully realized, vision. Although it has potential, the world may not be ready for a web-based netbook right now. Also, the technology needed to make the Wi-Fi only netbook useful without an internet connection isn’t up to full speed either. At the end of the day, the netbook will be marginally more useful than an iPod Touch – when connected, it’s amazing. Offline, not so much.

A short post on the conceit at the heart of Google ChromeOS – Technovia

That’s why Google ChromeOS, which says “do everything in the web”, is so weak. Of course, there’s good reasons why Google wants you to use web interfaces for everything (MOAR EYEBALLS! MOAR ADS!) but there aren’t really good reasons for customers to want to do it.

ChromeOS Will Fail, Unless Its Purpose Is Not To Succeed – Regular Geek

The second reason, which many blogs have not stated, is that everyone knows this will fail.

ChromeOS will fail because the timing is not right. If mobile phones were still those nasty little devices that made even checking email a chore, it would have a chance.

Those who see the glimmer or at least honest enough to sit on the fence

As much as I might yank Scoble’s chain on this over his blanket statement he also sees where the real play for ChromeOS is.

Why Google Chrome OS has already won – Robert Scoble

Well, it’s a new field altogether. I’m hearing a raft of new, low-cost, devices are coming that you will only need to have on the Web. For instance, I want a cookbook on my kitchen counter that just brings me cool recipes. Right now I use my big Windows 7 computer for that, or my big MacBookPro.

But what if there were a new device that costs less than $100 that JUST does cookbooks and other things I need in the kitchen? I would buy one. A Chrome OS is all that’s needed for such a specialized device.

4 Big Gambles Google Is Taking With Chrome OS – GigaOM

There are quite a few misconceptions going around about the new operating system, among them that it’s aimed squarely at Microsoft’s operating system hegemony. It’s not. Chrome OS is targeting netbooks, not desktop and server systems.

158,616,176 Reasons Why Google Chrome OS Won’t Fail – SiliconAngle

That leaves 158,616,176 potential users for a Google product that could effectively be the cheapest computer ever mass produced.

Cheap.  We’re talking theoretically $150, which incidentally is cheaper than what you can buy the famed “$100 Laptop” for.

You’re telling me that Google and their partner vendors don’t have an incentive to move 158,616,176 $150 machines? In case you’re really bad at math, that could theoretically be a $23 billion market.  And that wouldn’t include one single Microsoft or Apple customer, nor does it touch the dollar figure that Google makes from selling ads against those people’s time online.

End game

As Mark ‘Rizzn’ Hopkins and I went back an forth on this in a podcast last night the thought came to me that as he points out in his post ChromeOS + Netbooks + Broadband = the cheapest possible computers we have ever seen. Take that one step further and given Google’s penchant for giving things away it is entirely possible that they could partner with all the broadband providers and give away ChromeOS equipped netbooks and just in time for the 2010 holiday season.

That could possibly result in the largest influx of people to the Internet we have even seen in the Web’s short history.

Google Chrome OS – the morning after still has people not getting it is a post from: The Inquisitr

Anyone who has been on Twitter for the past couple of hours will have notice the over abundance of messages about Google’s Chrome OS announcement today. Then the deluge of posts started showing up letting us know all about the details on how in Google’s words “a new model of computing” was happening; or at least would be happening in a year from now when they actually ship web-browser operating system.

Interestingly enough much of the shot across the bow’s of Microsoft and Apple rhetoric has subsided as the ocean of Google kool-aid recedes from the minds of many tech bloggers. I guess that happens though when you suddenly find your fodder for future pageview inducing posts over a war that will never happen go poof in the night. That said the big news out of today’s announcement was that the ChromeOS is that you have no control over your computer other than to browse, write a few documents, play web-based games and even then it has to pass through the Chrome OS guardhouse to get approval to play.

I just finished a discussion with my good friend Mark ‘Rizzn’ Hopkins who seems to think that this is a play for the low-income bracket who can’t afford fancy things like laptops or desktops.

Here’s the Whoop-Dee-Doo: There are 30% of north americans unable to get online because they can’t afford a full fledged computing device.
This is a play for them.
This could, potentially, replace the need for a mobile phone and a desktop device for them.
Potentially.
At the very least replace the need for a full fledged system.

All well and nice but if you are that low income that you have to hook yourself up with a sub-par netbook for under $200 as Mark suggests what makes you think these same people are going to be able to afford the ever increasing broadband access fees that are being charged.

As idyllic and Utopian as this idea of free operating system … err browsing experience for everyone might be I find it interesting that at a time when the iPhone is the big news and the average price of a smartphone – not counting the cost of the data plans needed – is around the $200 – $300 Google decides to go this route. After all combine a netbook and Google Voice with a bluetooth headset and viola you have a smartphone, and then some.

You have to give Google credit though – it’s a hell of a way to increase their advertising network which is how they make the largest portion of t heir money. But as a great leap forward for our computer experience – or a new model as they call it well I only have this to say

Chrome OS Round-up

Here’s a bunch of the posts that I followed today in trying to keep up with the Google hype machine.

ReadWriteWeb: Live Blog: The Google Chrome OS Press Event
Google Blog: Releasing the Chromium OS open source project
DownloadSquad: Google ChromeOS: It’s basically a modified browser that runs web apps
DVICE: Google Chrome OS revealed, won’t be ready for a year
SiliconAngle: Chrome OS Isn’t an Anti-Microsoft, Anti-Apple Play [Gratuitous Backpatting]
The Next Web: Chrome OS Still A Year Away – Screenshots and First Information
VentureBeat: Google aims to release Chrome OS for netbooks by holiday season 2010
GigaOM: Chrome OS Unveiled, Focused on Netbooks, the Cloud

Google Chrome OS – so is it worth all the fuss? (Round-up) is a post from: The Inquisitr

When I got up this morning and started going through my morning reading as the coffee was slowly returning my caffeine levels to normal I saw the first few posts about this thing Opera is trying to foist on us as something new. Then I saw Duncan’s post and thought maybe I should send him some coffee because his exuberance over Opera’s whiz-bang called Unite surprised me.

After all I am pretty sure that Duncan has been around the web as long as I have so the idea of a desktop application also including a web server shouldn’t have really been that much of a revelation. While Chris Messina does a fantastic job of tearing apart the whole idea of a web browser hosting a web server in the first place I’m more fascinated in how everyone thinks that this is something new.

Being able to serve up files through your own computer is nothing new, whether it be from the not so complex local FTP server through to IRC file server plugins for just about any of the available IRC clients. Heck I remember setting up a local FTP server that would also serve up HTML pages of the file lists (or if you were anywhere near competent display photographs). Note I did spend about half an hour trying to hunt it up but with no luck but as for the IRC file servers just do a quick search and you’ll find plenty.

There is absolutely nothing new other than the fact that Opera is doing it from within a browser and spinning a whole bunch of silly ass hype about how social this all is. Opera get over yourself – all you’ve done is copy an idea that existed, and still used, long before you tried to slough it off on us as some world changing event.

It’s not. Period.

But then this a re-occurring theme with most things Web 2.0. Take an idea that has been done before, slap a bunch of nice pale color schemes around it and tell the world you’ve just created the next great social media tool. Nice try folks but not everyone is falling for this.

Sorry Duncan but there isn’t anything new or wonderful here

Oh Duncan, if Opera Unite is the future then we’re going back in time is a post from: The Inquisitr