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Google OS Rumours Abound In Vegas

January 4th, 2006

Larry Page, Google’s co-founder and president of products, is due to give a keynote address as CES 2006 in Las Vegas. The potential subject of that speech is currently exercising the minds of IT journalists around the world as many are predicting that Page will announce the entry of Google into the hardware market.

The rumour consensus is that we will see a low cost Google-branded PC. Putting aside the obvious problem of getting a decent specification of hardware for a price as low as $200, costs would be held down by avoiding Windows and instead pre-installing an OS based on Linux.

Sone retailers already sell such low-cost PCs. WalMart has previously sold Linux-based machines, but consumers are naturally wary of buying a device that won’t run the majority of the software with which they are familiar. The Google name could be just the incentive consumers need to get over that issue.

So is there any substance to these rumours? They are originating from some very well-connected sources, but the thought of Google risking a head-to-head battle with Microsoft in the OS arena is hard to believe at this stage of the search engine’s development. Our prediction? The Google Web Browser. It’s not a massive leap for the firm and is merely taking on Microsoft in an area where others are already making inroads.

We’ll bring you the real facts after Larry Page’s keynote on Friday.

Entry Filed under: Operating Systems, Misc / Humour