Hello HTML 5, Goodbye Gears

It seems that Google isn't ready to drop Gears quite yet, but it definitely appears to be moving that way, as HTML 5 is obviously the future of programming. It would actually make more sense to drop the software, especially since it's not compatible with some of the most current software.

For example, it isn't compatible with Snow Leopard, which is the most recent version of the Mac operating system. According to Google representatives, however, the incompatibility comes from "a problem with the new system, not with lazy development."

The development of the Snow Leopard OS basically forced Google to focus on HTML 5 and include it in their Chrome OS. Everything's a competition, and there was no way that Google was going to make it any easier for Apple.

Gears wouldn't have worked on new Apple computers, but HTML 5 will obviously be ready to go in Mac browsers before the final draft of the programming language is even completed. Thus, it makes sense to use HTML 5 for the new Chrome OS and not Gears, which is barely three years old and apparently already behind the times.

Whether or not Google's Chrome operating system will be successful greatly depends on just how useful the average user finds the OS to be, not forgetting that the OS won't be using a majority of the software that's commonly used now. Just to help things along, Google recently announced that they're already making the operating system's computer code public so that outside developers can begin making apps for it.

No matter how strange it seems at first, though, chances are users will be drawn in by Chrome's biggest advantage: its speed. At a recent demonstration of the new OS by Google's product manager Sundar Pichai, the entire online system was capable of showing up on a computer screen less than 10 seconds after the computer rebooted.