专家分析Google Chrome OS的战略部署和应用前景

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Chrome OS的推出引起了极大的关注，为满足广大读者的好奇心，占奇博客独家推出《Chrome OS专题译文》，独家精选和翻译IT界著名专家分析Chrome OS的文章，专题译文持续更新中，欢迎读者订阅本博客及时了解本站动态。
本篇译文读前简介：
本文作者Peter N. Glaskowsky是The Envisioneering Group的著名分析家，同时也是著名IT网站CNET的特约作家。Glaskowsky将会在本文中详细分析Google Chrome OS的战略部署和应用前景。本文将会以中英对照的形式排版，读者也可以点击这里查看原文地址。
正文部分如下：
        
        Google is developing an operating system of its own, based on the company’s Chrome browser and intended primarily for use in low-cost Netbooks. Now I’ll tell you why I think Google is doing it.
        基于Chrome浏览器的架构，Google推出了属于自己的操作系统——Chrome OS，Chrome OS主要面向低价的上网本。现在我将向亲爱的读者朋友解析一下Chrome OS的商业策略和商业前景。

         Like any other commercial enterprise, Google is trying to make money. No secret there. But Google doesn’t make money the way other computer software companies do. Microsoft, for example, makes money mostly by selling software (and a few hardware products) to computer users. There are two sides to this plan. Microsoft wants to make computers more valuable, so buyers will spend more of their income on computers; and it wants to increase the share it receives of that budget.
        和所有的商业公司一样，Google也是想要赚更多的钱，这是一个公开的秘密。不过，Google盈利的方式和其他的软件公司却有很大的不同。举个例子，微软，通常主要靠销售计算机软件（和少数硬件产品）来盈利。对于微软的盈利模式，我说两点。一是，微软用优秀的软件使计算机更有价值，所以购买者将用更多的钱来购买微软的软件。二是，微软想要竭力提高软件销售收入在总收入里面的份额。
        
         What makes Google unusual is that it wants a share of a different budget: the time people spend in front of their computers. Google makes money by displaying ads on a small part of the display while people view Internet content on the rest. Not all the time, of course, but the opportunity is there, and Google’s multibillion-dollar revenue shows how well this strategy can work.
        Google对比与于微软，有什么不同呢？Google瞄准的不是用户的“钱”，而是用户的“时间”。Google将费尽心思增加用户呆在电脑前使用其产品的时间。众所周知，Google主要靠展示广告盈利——在浏览器的一角里展示广告，等待用户查看这些广告使Google产生利润。尽管用户不会每时每刻地去查看广告，但是Google的广告每时每刻都有被用户去查看的可能，为此，Google当然要费尽心思增加用户使用其产品的时间。Google数十亿的收入说明了Google的这个策略是完全可行的。
        
        Turning the Chrome browser into the Chrome OS is technically straightforward, though of course it’ll take a lot of work. A browser already has most of the key elements of any OS: application programming interfaces (APIs) to allow application software to display content and accept user input, store and retrieve data from mass storage, communicate over the Internet, and so on. Google will have to add a driver model and some other things that don’t exist in a browser, but it can learn from how these things are done in existing operating systems, and possibly even borrow much of the code directly from Linux; there’s no need to reinvent the wheel.
        把Chrome浏览器变成Chrome操作系统，尽管在这过程中有大量的工作要做，但是这在技术上却是完全可行的。毕竟，一个优秀的浏览器已经包含了一个操作系统的许多主要功能了：浏览器的API，可以使浏览器像其他应用程序一样接受用户的输出和输入，可以在磁盘上储存和读取数据，可以在Internet 上沟通等等。Firefox便是一个例子了（译者注）。我推测，Google将在这个基础上，在Chrome OS里，加入新的Driver Model（驱动程序模式）和其他在浏览器的范畴里没有东西的。并且，Chrome OS肯定会向现有的操作系统取经，甚者会原封不动地照搬Linux一大部分代码。开源的Linux有许多经典的代码，根本不需要Google来重新写代码了。
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        Existing operating systems such as Windows support a far wider variety of programming languages and provide far more services than Chrome OS will, but Chrome will probably be plenty good enough for Netbooks.
        现有的操作系统，例如Windows，和Chrome OS相比，都支持更多编程语言和系统服务。但是Chrome OS的最大优点却是它更好地支持上网本。
        
        Google is after your time, not your money. It can try to get more of your time in the same ways Microsoft tries to get more of your money. Will the Chrome OS increase the time people spend in front of the computer? No, quite the opposite. There will inevitably be less to do on a Chrome OS computer than on a Mac or Windows machine. Buying a Chrome-based Netbook means giving up the chance to run most Windows games, Apple’s iLife suite, and other popular software. But for Google, the key is this: once you’ve got a Chrome system, Google’s in charge of ALL the time you spend with it.
        Google在乎的是用户时间，而不是用户的钱。Google 将会把微软掠夺用户金钱的方式用到掠夺用户的时间上。Chrome OS是否能成功令用户在电脑屏幕投入更多的时间呢？我认为，不会，这反而会得到相反的结果。因为大多数计算机软件都是运行都Windows，mac上的，用户使用Chrome OS，这意味着用户的计算机将不能运行绝大部分的Windows游戏，苹果的iLife suite和其他受欢迎的软件。这反而会使得用户在电脑前呆的时间更少了。但对于Google来说，一旦用户使用了Chrome OS，显然易见地，用户使用Google产品的时间就会更多了。
        
        I don’t think that’s good enough, and it looks like Google feels the same way; the company intends to implement the whole Chrome OS environment within the Chrome browser so Linux, Mac and Windows users can also run Chrome applications. This plan is necessary, since Google can’t very well hope to muscle aside the incumbents, but it means that Netbook buyers will have no reason to prefer a Chrome-based machine.
        我认为Google的战略远不止于此，相信Google也是这样认为的。我猜测，Google还想把Chrome OS程序的运行环境集成到Chrome浏览器上，使得所有安装了Chrome浏览器的Linux，Mac和Windows系统都可以运行基于Chrome OS的应用程序。因为这项举措对Google至关重要，按照Google靠广告盈利的这个基本事实，Google是不会淡出在其他主流操作系统平台上的竞争的，但是也因此使得一部分上网本厂商不会去选用Chrome OS，因为谁都可以运行基于Chrome OS的程序，还要Chrome OS干嘛？
        
       Like I said, it seems to me that Netbooks aren’t the ideal platform for this strategy. The Google model can’t work as well on a small screen, since users will be reluctant to share what little space they have with Google’s ads. But they’ll work well enough, and Google has no realistic chance to place Chrome on mainstream notebook and desktop systems except in the same narrow markets where Linux sells today. (And not all of those; for example, Chrome has no shot at the engineering workstation market, where Linux is popular.)
        我认为，上网本并不是实施Google广告战略的理想平台。因为上网本的屏幕太小了，用户还要很不情愿地接受一个事实——Google的广告还要显示在这个本来已经很小屏幕上。但Google的战略必须靠上网本来实施，因为Google暂时还没有足够实力把Chrome浏览器安装到主流的操作系统上，现在 IE和firefox已经占有半壁江山了（译者注）。
        
         So I’m sure we’ll see some number of Chrome OS-based machines on the market in 2010, and then we’ll see what happens. My guess is that Chrome will do about as well as Linux has done in the Netbook business: not well. A lot of people will try it, possibly enticed by those lightly subsidized prices and the usual interest in novel computing platforms (the information-technology equivalent of the Coolidge effect, which perhaps could be known as the Glaskowsky effect.)
        我敢肯定，在2010年，一些安装了Chrome OS的上网本将会出现在市场上，届时我们将看到Chrome OS在市场上的表现。我猜测，Chrome  OS在市场上的表现会和Linux的表现一样——表现不好。但是还是会有很多的用户将会去尝鲜一下Chrome OS，因为Chrome OS毕竟还是一个新的操作系统，而且轻巧和低价。
        
       And then most of those people will return those machines, or give them to their ungrateful children, or just toss them onto a shelf to gather dust, and they won’t buy more of the same–at least not until Google spends a few more years building Chrome OS into a fully competitive product, which I’m sure it will do. Google’s big enough, and it knows there’s a business here. It just won’t be ready to take full advantage of the opportunity just yet.
        因为Chrome OS现阶段兼容性还很差，功能还不强大，安装Chrome OS的电脑比起其他主流操作系统来将会丧失很多的功能。用户现阶段去使用Chrome OS，很有可能就是图新鲜而已。如果谷歌不肯花上几年把Chrome 0S改进成一种有强大竞争力的产品的话，到时候绝大多数人将会把Chrome OS上网本退货处理，或者留给自己极不情愿用Chrome OS的小孩，又或者直接扔到书架上不闻不问，他们将不会再购买Chrome OS了。不过我相信，Google肯定会在Chrome OS上下狠功夫的，因为Google是一间实力宏厚的公司，并且这间公司了解操作系统潜在的无限商机，只是现阶段Google还没有完全准备好了而已。

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