Google came out with a beta of a new browser yesterday. They call it “chrome”. I guess that means it’s new and shiny. They changed the look of the browser a bit, moved the tabs to the top, blah blah blah. At the end of the day, the look of the browser means jack squat. In a few months, assuming it maintains a modicum of popularity, there will be a bijillion different skins for the thing.
Of significantly more importance is the architecture of the browser. I’m not a programmer of any real merit, so I won’t attempt to go into specifics. However, if you are to believe google’s explanation of the inner-workings, it is a whole new level of technology running in the background. To simplify it for the sake of my own laziness, they are putting desktop technology into the browser. Tabs run their own processes and their own threads. Processing is designed around dealing with applications, specifically javascript. The browser has its own task manager, allowing you to troubleshoot specific threads and processes within the browser.
Some may say this is an attack on Internet Explorer and Firefox. The real target, however, is Windows and MS Office. Google has been spending years pushing out web app after web app. Now they put out a browser made specifically to run web apps. If you can do everything Office can do from Google’s FREE web applications, why are you going to spring for Office? If all your programs are run from a browser - a FREE browser - why would you care about the operating system that runs the browser?
Granted, the browser is so far only available for Windows, but I have no doubt linux and Mac versions can’t be far behind.
And yes people have already been complaining about glitches here and there, exploits capable of maiming and decapitating anyone daring enough to try this new gizmo because of its borrowed core engine. But, please remember BETA means “not done yet”. Every beta program you will ever see states very clearly “do not use on production equipment”. I know thousands, if not millions, of people do not heed such warnings. I love those types of people. They are job security for us IT people.
And oh yeah - it came out friggin’ YESTERDAY. Give them a few days to work out the glitches.
If it’s still got bugs in it when it’s past beta and has been officially released, I’ll be right there with you smacking another nuisance app around.
Until then, I hope the MS people are shaking in their boots. Just a tiny little bit. This one app alone might not be their death incarnate, but it’s a significant step in that direction. Gates always played hardball because he knew his company was forever one innovative idea away from obsolescence.
Chrome isn’t that innovative an idea. It’s a natural progression.
If that doesn’t make the MS folks at least stop and take notice, they deserve to be obsolete.
Adapt or perish.