Launched nine months ago, more than 30 million years already use the Google Chrome browser regularly. Today, Google announced a new project which they describe as "the natural extension of Google Chrome" : the Google Chrome Operating System.
Google Chrome OS is an open source, lightweight operating system that will initially be targeted at netbooks. 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," Sundar Pichai, VP Product Management and Linus Upson, Engineering Director wrote on the official Google blog. "We're 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, 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 new operating is based on Linux kernel. For application developers, the web is the platform. All web-based applications will automatically work and new applications can be written using most web technologies. 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.
Google Chrome OS is a new project, separate from Android. Android was designed from the beginning to work across a variety of devices from phones to set-top boxes to netbooks. Google Chrome OS is being created for people who spend most of their time on the web, and is being designed to power computers ranging from small netbooks to full-size desktop systems.