DESPITE SEVERAL RUMOURS suggesting that Acer was set to launch a Google Chrome OS netbook at Computex next month, the company has issued a press release stating that it has no intention of doing so. That doesn’t rule out the possibility of such a device in the future, but Acer doesn’t have any “short-term plans for such a product”.
Google’s Chrome OS has been hailed by some as the ultimate OS for netbooks, as it would allow for much more affordable netbooks due to the fact that you wouldn’t have to pay the “Windows tax”. There are already other options of course, such as Linpus’ QuickOS, Ubuntu and even Intel’s Moblin. However, it’s believed that Google’s Chrome OS would have a much bigger impact than any of the other Linux derivatives simply due to the fact that it’s another Google product.
According to the press release “Acer believes that Google Chrome OS is without doubt an exciting product announcement and deserves it’s full attention as well as an in-depth study of its potential from a consumers perspective.” Acer isn’t the first company to be associated with a potential Chrome OS netbook, as first out was Dell, which has a much closer relationship with Linux, as Dell is already shipping many of its products with Linux. However, Dell hasn’t committed to Chrome OS either and posted a blog post back in July last year which sounded very similar to what Acer is saying now “Dell plans to evaluate the Chrome OS and other alternative operating environments”.
Acer has of course already dabbled with some Linux netbooks (running Linpus Linux Lite), but they weren’t all that popular and got axed. At last year’s Computex Acer was even showing of a netbook running Android, the Aspire One D250 which dual boots Windows XP. This model became available for a short period of time, but doesn’t appear to be available anymore. The press release goes on to state “Acer is naturally interested in any product or service that enhances the overall experience of its products and will of course be following the development and progress of Google Chrome [OS]”.
We might be seeing Chrome OS based netbooks from Acer in the future, but at least the company has made it clear that is has no intention of launching such a product at Computex. Chrome OS is still a big unknown factor, especially compared to more established netbook operating systems. The biggest problem, as always, when it comes to alternative operating systems on a computer, is that most people are familiar with Windows and they want to stick with what they know rather than taking a jump into the unknown.S|A
Lars-Göran Nilsson
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