The two popular Microsoft faces, Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer when questioned about Google’s Chrome OS announcement, answered in their own predictable ways.

Ballmer as always, downplayed the new Windows competitor, Google Chrome OS, criticizing not one but many of Google’s strategies. First, he criticized Google’s strategy of building two operating systems for serving kind of similar purposes(Netbook industry), with a huge overlap amongst each other. He quoted..

“The last time I checked you don’t need two client operating systems. We tried it before. Windows 95 and Windows NT. It’s good to have one. So I can’t — I don’t really know what’s up at Google.”

He went further, indirectly criticizing Google’s point to making Web as the main operating platform by making web browser(chrome) at the heart of their Web oriented OS(Chrome OS). He argued that most people spend half their time on computer, not using a web browser. He quoted..

“There’s good data that says 50 percent of the time that someone’s on their PC, they’re not doing something with the Web browser”

He ignored any future possibility of Microsoft taking Windows, the Google way and expressed his intentions of staying conventional in near future. He quoted..

Let me comment, though, about our own situation. What we really do understand is that the model for the future brings together the best of today’s rich client Windows-style applications and some of the things that people consider the best of the web. … So as we talk about where we’re going, we don’t need a new operating system. What we need to do is evolve Windows, Windows applications, IE, the way IE works in totality with Windows, and how we build applications like Office, like the stuff we showed here, and we need to make sure we can bring our customers and partners with us.”

Bill Gates commented on ‘Google Chrome OS’ in his pet way, by simply ignoring to even considering Chrome OS as something new. He quoted…

“There’s many, many forms of Linux operating systems out there and packaged in different ways and booted in different ways. In some ways I am surprised people are acting like there’s something new. I mean, you’ve got Android running on Netbooks. It’s got a browser in it.”

Gates further quoted…

“It just shows the word “browser” has become a meaningless word. “Tell me What’s a browser? What’s not a browser? If you’re playing a movie, would you call it a browser or not ? If you’re making notes, would you call that a browser? If you’re editing text, is that a browser or not ? In large part, it’s more an abuse of terminology than a real change.”

In the end, Ballmer highlighted that there’s barely anything disclosed about Chrome OS by Google and it’s tough to really judge at the moment how threatening and realistic it can be for MS. He quoted …

“Microsoft really doesn’t know what Chrome OS will look like. Who knows what this thing is ?”

While we have already clarified that there may be an overlap between the two Google Operating systems, still Chrome OS and Android have hardly any conflict of interests.

It has been an old bad habit of Microsoft: Ignoring the underdogs and staying away from thinking Out-of-the-box. The difference here is that this time, the underdog is Google Chrome OS and this makes things more serious than usual.

Anyways, everyone would agree that this underdog(Chrome OS) has the killer jaws to tear off Windows like no other.

I soon expect some Google exec. to clarify the floating rumors and talk-in-depth about Chrome OS, shedding more light on their future strategy and prospects.