Ozzie prefers Chrome
In a public discussion with Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, the company’s Chief Technical Office and futurist, Ray Ozzie, declared he preferred Google’s Chrome operating system (OS) to its Android OS.
Leaving behind Microsoft’s tangled history with operating systems, especially out-and-out failures, like ME and the recent Windows Vista, Ozzie praised Chrome as “a bet on the future”.
Google’s mobile OS Android is “a bet on the past.” Which makes one speculate on his opinion of MS’s new Windows 7.
While Chrome is built to work “in the cloud”, i.e. where applications are stored and accessed on the web rather than in desktop hard drives, Android looks backwards to desktop applications, Microsoft’s speciality.
Ozzie cannot understand why Google doesn’t just use Chrome across all devices.
Maybe Google calculates that the public is not ready to embrace cloud-based apps viewed on simpler computers just yet. If so, it will give Microsoft a short stay of execution. It is widely perceived to be lagging Google in futuristic cloud technology.
Ozzie certainly deserves to be given his head at Redmond.
