Gates on Chrome OS: Nothing to See Here. Move Along…

July 15, 2009 at 8:54 am PT

gates_chrome Microsoft (MSFT) chairman Bill Gates is finally having his say on Google’s (GOOG) wonderfully overblown Chrome OS announcement.

His take: It’s just another Linux distro.

“There’s many, many forms of Linux operating systems out there and packaged in different ways and booted in different ways,” Gates told News.com’s Ina Fried. “In some ways, I am surprised people are acting like there’s something new. I mean, you’ve got Android running on Netbooks. It’s got a browser in it.”

And, you know, the man’s got a point. The emperor has no clothes. Or if it does, it’s an old “Linux: Live Free or Die” t-shirt.

Gates’s remarks follow similar comments from Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, who yesterday said he’s not quite sure what the big deal about Chrome is either.

“Who knows what that thing is,” he said.

Tagged with: Android, Bill Gates, browser, Chrome OS, digital, GOOG, Google, Ina Fried, Internet, John Paczkowski, Linux, Microsoft, MSFT, netbooks, News.com, operating system, software, Steve Ballmer

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Uwe Rueckeshaeuser

Not sure he has a point… Google was late to the search engine business and took it, Gmail is a huge success and Android is already outselling Windows Mobile in a lot of markets… Also: most of Gates’ predictions have been wrong. Consistently.

Yes, it will be just another Linux distribution. But the first one with a really big and relevant name behind it. It will likely not have the mess of inconsistent, ill-documented and unsupported applications that scare average users away from Linux, as most/all things will be Web based. The average mom might get a decent answer when asking a dumb question on a Google board, while she only gets a RTFM or “check the manpage” on a Linux board.

I have no idea how successful it will be, but knowing Google, I would not rule it out that light-handedly either.