Chrome is not going to replace Windows. A computer requires an operating system such as Windows, Apple’s OS X or Linux to make the machine work. It does, however, have the potential to do what Mr. Gates feared: make the choice of operating system less important.

So writes John Gapper, the fine columnist for The Financial Times in today’s paper. Chrome, of course, is Google’s new browser, which is pretty explicitly designed to be a Windows killer. As Mr. Gapper notes, that precise fear–that an Internet browser could become such a powerful platform for applications software that it would effectively take over the function of the operating system–is what caused Microsoft to start the browser wars in the 1990s, effectively putting Netscape out of business.

Read the rest of this post

Ever since Sony lost the battle between its Walkman music player and Apple’s iPod, it has been trying to strike back. This week, it paid $900 million to take full control of Sony-BMG, its music joint venture with Bertelsmann. Sir Howard Stringer, Sony’s chief executive, wants to make it as easy as possible to download or stream music and films to all of Sony’s electronics devices, from Bravia televisions to PlayStation 3 consoles.

Read the rest of this post