GOOGLE had boldly announced plans to release their CHROME Operating System by next year Fall based on their hugely successfull  web browser of the same name.

The success of this new innovation can actually put Microsoft's fortunes in the reverse gear as they plan to increasingly pursue cloud computing and shift away from desktop installations.

So, no more installation CDs? No more heavy investment in servers for small companies? 

I believe MS had read the writing on the wall earlier by subtly announcing the release of Windows 7 by October as Vista is set to go the way of Win Me.

Microsoft may have  brought us beautiful Graphics User Interface but their defiance in looking ahead may be their greatest undoing.

Michael Arrington, co-editor at TechCrunch, says that's a big threat to Microsoft's business, but it may help consumers.

"Don't worry about those desktop apps you think you need. Office? Meh. You've got Zoho and Google Apps," he writes. "You won't miss Office."

Finally, Google says in its blog post that it's "going back to basics" with this operating system.

"Even more importantly, they don't want to spend hours configuring their computers to work with every new piece of hardware, or have to worry about constant software updates. And any time our users have a better computing experience, Google benefits as well by having happier users who are more likely to spend time on the Internet."

http://edition.cnn.com/2009/TECH/07/08/google.chrome.os/index.html