I did foresee some company coming up with a new operating system and this was not on hindsight. It does make sense as the operating system has been dominated by Microsoft for more than 20 years. Well, although most would argue, why not Apple? Well, we do know that Steve Jobs and Bill Gates have an intense yet friendly rivalry between them. The two companies (Microsoft and Apple) have never been closer with various collaborations over the recent years which include - dual boot (Boot Camp) and cross-platform applications (for Ipods and Microsoft devices). While the 2 companies may be involved in patent disputes regarding the touch wheel, no industry-watchers would deny an informal alliance between these 2 tech-behemoths.
Then why not linux, you may argue. Certainly, linux is great. Do not forget that most users of linux are highly experienced users (or rather techies/geeks). Most computer users just want a simple and no-frills operating system with little to no learning curve. When something goes wrong, all these people are likely to reach for the phone and dial tech support. And these are the people who make up the majority of PC users. Until the day when 20% of the population knows how to use the command line and easily configure Linux , I can safely say that we can forget about Linux kicking Microsoft off the throne.
And thus the most logical company to launch such a big project would be Google. With their wealth of knowledge (which includes a multitude of web applications/technologies, the people at Google) and of course wealth itself, Google may be the only tech-corp that Microsoft is unable to devour without choking to death. Well and who can forget Vint Cerf who now works at Google?
From Wikipedia:
"Vinton Gray "Vint" Cerf[1] (pronounced /ˈsɜrf/; born June 23, 1943) is an Americancomputer scientist who is the "person most often called 'the father of the Internet'."[2][4][5] His contributions have been recognized repeatedly, with honorary degrees and awards that include the National Medal of Technology,[1] the Turing Award,[6] and the Presidential Medal of Freedom.[7]
Cerf has worked for Google as its Vice President and Chief Internet Evangelist since September 2005.[3] In this role he has become well known for his predictions on how technology will affect future society, encompassing such areas as artificial intelligence, environmentalism, the advent of IPv6 and the transformation of the television industry and its delivery model.[8]"
The OS business is lucrative. Well, why not? With 1 billion computers worldwide currently and the figure being set to double in another 6 years. There is definitely ample market for tech corps to want to launch a different, exotic flavour of OS for detractors of Microsoft.
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