Is Google working on it’s own Linux?
Would you be surprised if they were? I’m not going to go seriously in-depth here. I simply want to throw out the idea.
Google, with the brains they have in stock now and the cash they’re about to have to back up whatever venture they feel worthy of their time, could invest in their own distribution of Linux. My assumptions are that it would initially be geared for consumer desktop installations (as opposed to servers or workplace desktops) and have a UI designed to make it an OS primarily geared for using web-based applications, with of course Google applications used at every turn. Google Search for general information, Gmail for email, Google News for news, Froogle for shopping, Orkut for contact management, Blogger for online publishing. What’s missing? An online equivalent to Microsoft Office, but that’s only a matter of time.
A lightweight version of Linux, with a modern web-browser, and intelligent ties to Google’s various applications could make for some interesting results.
Permanent Link
Looks like you’re not the only one thinking this:
http://www.kottke.org/04/04/google-operating-system
The very first version of Unix I used (way back in 1986) was Xenix produced by a little company out of Redmond, Washington named Microsoft. I still expect them to come out with their own Linux distro someday.
But when does it become it’s own operating system? It is not so impressing if it is just another Linux distribution. They have to do some considerable programming or modifications to impress me.