In a totally unexpected move, Google has just announced its own operating system, to be called Google Chrome OS, specifically targeted at netbooks.
The announcement, which places it in a position to contend with Microsoft and its upcoming Windows 7 release touted as being great for netbooks, was totally unexpected and came via a
post on the Google Blog today.
"So today, we're announcing a new project that's a natural extension of Google Chrome — the Google Chrome Operating System. It's our attempt to re-think what operating systems should be," Sundar Pichai, VP Product Management and Linus Upson, Engineering Director said.
The blog post also says, "Google Chrome OS will run on both x86 as well as ARM chips and we are working with multiple OEMs to bring a number of netbooks to market next year."
The OS will work by running Google's own web browser, Chrome, on top of a Linux kernel. Applications will run off the Internet (web applications only), and Google are believed to be rebuilding the security architecture of the OS so that viruses, malware and security won't be a problem.
Google are hoping that the new OS will be fast, lightweight and simple, with the hope of almost creating an instant on operating system, so that users can fire up their netbook and within seconds have their emails, files etc. open.
According to Google:
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.
Google will later this year release the code to the open-source community, and say we should expect to see it begin appearing on devices such as netbooks in the second half on 2010.
The announcement has already sparked excitement, with the term becoming a top trending topic on Twitter in just over half an hour after it was made.
