Google Inc. Chief Executive Eric Schmidt can't wait for the Internet search leader's free operating system to debut next year.
But he admits his excitement is a relatively recent phenomenon, having spent his first six years as Google's CEO trying to convince company co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin that developing an operating system to compete against Microsoft Corp.'s dominant Windows franchise would be a terrible idea.
Schmidt didn't think the timing was right and, worse, he didn't want Google to get into a potentially bruising battle with the world's largest software maker. His change of heart shows how far Google has come since Page and Brin started the Mountain View, Calif.-based ...