Google Announces Chrome OS

Their search engine is still top of the charts, their email service isn’t doing so shabbily either, their maps make sure we always know where we’re going, their mobile OS is a new phenomenon and their browser, well, it’s not my particular favorite but it’s got plenty of good points. I kept thinking what is it that they haven’t done yet? And lo and behold, today Google’s Blog has an announcement of what the company is calling – ‘a natural extension of Google Chrome - the Google Chrome Operating System.’ An attempt to re-think what operating systems should be.

According to the blog the Google Chrome OS, which is an open source, lightweight operating system, will initially be targeted at netbooks. The company intends to open-source its code later this year for netbooks to commence running Google Chrome OS. It’s estimated that the OS will be available for consumers in the second half of 2010. Google is also talking to partners about the project and they'll also be working closely with the open source community.

They’ve stated in their blog that speed, simplicity and security are the key aspects of the Google Chrome OS. The user interface is minimal to stay out of your way, and most of the user experience takes place on the web. They’ve also said that they intend to get back to basics and completely redesigning the underlying security architecture of the OS so that users don't have to deal with viruses, malware and security updates.

Google Chrome OS will run on both x86 as well as ARM chips. They also mention that they are working with multiple OEMs to bring a number of netbooks to market by next year. The software architecture is simple — Google Chrome running within a new windowing system on top of a Linux kernel.

For application developers, the web is the platform. All web-based applications will automatically work and new applications can be written using your favorite web technologies. And of course, these apps will run not only on Google Chrome OS, but on any standards-based browser on Windows, Mac and Linux thereby giving developers the largest user base of any platform.

For those wondering about Android’s move to the netbook segment, the company has said that Google Chrome OS is a new project, separate from Android.