Google And VMware Just Joined Forces To Gang Up On Microsoft

This holiday season, Chromebooks were the best-selling laptops on Amazon, beating both Windows PCs and Macs.

This year, every major PC manufacturer will have a Chromebook on the market.

Now, Google has a partner in its battle against Microsoft for the enterprise market. VMWare, the company that makes software for running multiple operating systems on the same computer, is bringing Windows to the Chromebook via the cloud.

Chromebook users will be able to access a Windows desktop and all of their old legacy applications in VMWare's Horizon, a "desktop as a service," as long as they have access to the Web.

Google thinks that running Windows software on Google's operating system will save businesses money. In a press release, Google Enterprise President Amit Singh says:

Google Chromebooks can save businesses about $5,000 per computer when compared to traditional PCs. Chromebooks are designed for the way people use computers today and are a secure, easy and cost-effective solution to help organizations embrace a new way of doing business. Through our partnership with VMware, businesses can now capitalize on these advantages with access to legacy applications, data and desktops they need to keep employees productive.

Making it easier for businesses to run the Windows applications they need is the best thing Google can do to make the Chromebook viable in the workplace. Citrix makes an app for Google's laptops called "Citrix Receiver" that works similarly, but the feedback isn't great: 343 reviews on the Chrome Web App Store currently average at 1.5 stars. It'll be interesting to see how VMWare's solution fares.