Google 與Microsoft 的下一戰場

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The real battle between Microsoft and Google - now in conflict over Microsoft's $44.6 billion bid for Yahoo - ultimately isn't over search. Search is the source of Google's revenue and its growth. But it's pouring that money into things that scare Microsoft even more.

The Android cell phone operating system is one of those. It represents a threat to Microsoft's Windows Mobile operating system. But a bigger threat is Google's push toward "cloud computing," which could dislodge Microsoft's position on the desktop computer.

Cloud computing is computation done not in the desktop but in the Internet-connected "cloud," or the heavy-duty computers known as servers in a big company's data center. Also referred to as the "cloud operating system," it has been talked about for years and is often dismissed as a minor sideshow. But it is a very real possibility today, and Microsoft should worry about a cloud OS in the hands of Google.

A primitive version of cloud computing already exists through Xcerion, a Swedish company that has created what it calls a "cloud OS." After six years of stealth design, it put its beta version out in September. Xcerion has done exactly what Google has reportedly been thinking about doing to undermine the Microsoft Windows monopoly.

The Xcerion OS is based on the XML software standard and runs in a browser. To call it an OS is debatable. To call it "cloud-based" is also up for discussion. When you install the OS, it runs in a hybrid mode. First, the OS has only about 1.5 megabytes of code that downloads to your computer in four seconds. It sits on top of an operating system, like an application, but it extends the OS and creates a platform for running XML-based applications. Hence, it can run on top of a Linux, Macintosh or Windows computer.

The screen looks very Windows-like. And when Xcerion finishes the final version of the OS in the latter part of the year, there will be 20 or more applications on it that duplicate the functions of Windows and applications such as Microsoft Office. It has applications such as notepad, calendar, e-mail, presentation and others ready to go. The good thing is that the XML code takes very little time to program, said Daniel Arthursson, chief executive of Xcerion, who has been thinking about the product since 1996. He has made some applications in as little as 45 minutes, a lot less time than it takes to make a Linux application.

The OS is free to use, like Linux, though the code itself belongs to the company. Xcerion's business model is to take a 10 percent cut of advertising or subscription fees generated with its OS.
The cloud OS can execute on the desktop computer without making any round trips to the server. That means you can work on your files without an Internet connection. Since the data storage is cloud-based, you also can log off and then pick up where you left off on any other computer that is connected to the Internet.

Xcerion has just 30 employees and has raised $12 million. It is looking for partners and has talked to Google, Arthursson said. If you think it's just little companies interested in cloud computing, IBM launched a major cloud-computing initiative with Google in November.
This whole cloud-computer effort makes sense for Google to pursue, if it hasn't already grown its own cloud OS in secret. Google already has server-based versions of Google Docs, which duplicate the functions of Microsoft's Office software. But the Google Apps aren't always as full-featured or heavy-duty as Microsoft's software.

Asked about this issue, Microsoft officials have said you always need processing power and client software on the desktop computer, especially for computation-intensive programs such as 3-D graphics interfaces or games. You can't wait for the computing to happen in the cloud, they say. But Xcerion has shown there are some advantages to exploiting the cloud.


Google has the cash cow in search that can fund a venture that could do a lot of harm to Microsoft's desktop monopoly. Microsoft, in turn, is using that desktop monopoly to fund its acquisition of Yahoo.

Does Yahoo have a plan for a cloud OS? I don't know. But if Google skewers Microsoft's desktop monopoly, then the Yahoo properties would position Microsoft well for the cloud world. It's a kind of nice backup plan.

I'm not sure what is holding back Google. It should get on with the ground war. Xcerion has shown Google the path.
Contact Dean Takahashi at dtakahashi@mercurynews .com or (408) 920-5739. See his previous columns and blog at www.mercurynews.com/deantakahashi