In its most direct assault on Microsoft yet, Google on Tuesday (July 7, 2009) evening announced the forthcoming release of the Google Chrome Operating System, a new open-source operating system designed primarily for netbooks but also for desktop computers.
Chrome OS is Google's second operating system, after Android, the mobile device operating system that the company introduced in late 2008. That's also about the time when Google introduced its Chrome Web browser. Chrome OS is an extension of Google's browser code. Google Chrome OS is an open source, lightweight operating system that will initially be targeted at netbooks. Google said that, Later this year the code will be made available as open-source, and netbooks running Google Chrome OS will be available for consumers in the second half of 2010.
Speed, simplicity and security are the key aspects of Google Chrome OS. Google is designing the OS to be fast and lightweight, to start up and get you onto the web in a few seconds. The user interface is minimal to stay out of your way (perfectly the Google way), and most of the user experience takes place on the web. And as we did for the Google Chrome browser, we are going back to the 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. It should just work.
Google Chrome OS will run on both x86 as well as ARM chips. 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.
In April, Vic Gundotra, VP of engineering at Google, declared "the Web has won." Now the fight has moved to the desktop.
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