@Yen: I agree. When MAC OSX was born (Mach kernel is based on BSD), The idea was to create a "sellable" linux. Now, google is trying to do the same thing. And before anybody says "But the OS is free", I would take a long hard look at the potential revenue streams that google will have. For one thing, they'll have the same monopoly on user personal data that MS already has. I.e. they can take what they want, because it's done at the OS level. -and- because you'll have to agree to their license agreement, you'll have no choice. Just like Windows 10. When this new OS is released, I see a huge reverse engineering push to mitigate adware and spyware. Just like Windows 10. No thank you google...I just want my computer to do the work I tell it to. Not try to figure out what I want for lunch, or what kind of clothes I wear. As I said in another thread. Take a good look at the Google license agreement and compare it to the MS agreement. I bet that the MS one was the prototype for all things to come, including this one. (MJ waits patiently for the "tinkerers" to remove any nasties...)
It really comes down to ....Would or could you trust a company (Google) that has a business model of selling your info from the day it started? I mean that is Google's business model, It's an Advertising company! And they want to be in your pc. Google has made a gazillion dollars figuring out (algorithms) what you want to point advertisers to you. Let's use their O.S. now! I would tend to think that Microsoft is following Google's business model by making profits on personal data over profits on the o.s. (which is always hacked and can be used for free anyway)
@Joe C: I totally agree. And that's always been the mantra of google. "Information is gold, so let's find out how to mine as much as we can." There's the double-edged sword. On one hand, certain search queries show better, more accurate results when done in google, as opposed to duckduckgo or many others. On the other hand, there's the level of infringement required to acquire that edge of search result quality. But I don't think that an OS that may limit search providers would allow you to switch search engines. At least, not easily. Of course I'm just speaking from a position of conjecture, because I haven't seen the OS yet. Going by past example, it was shown that Windows 10 (used to?) ignore the HOSTS file. I think that, in certain instances it still does. Not sure...correct me if I'm wrong.
So its gonna impact windows and linux as well Microsoft already working on lean os with standalone features to be able to be tiny as well Google wanted to change policy in linux but couldnt so now they replacing it