Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer is likely downing a ton of aspirin this morning, as Google has announced that it is developing a PC operating system based on its Chrome browser. Unlike Microsoft's current OS (Vista) and upcoming one (7), it will be all shiny and new (like Chrome!), not full of legacy code.
Snarky comments about aside, many have tried to loosen Microsoft's hold on PC operating systems, and failed. Of course, this is Google, and if anyone can do it, it's Google. The new OS: the Google Chrome Operating System.
Interestingly, Google has already released the Android operating system, which although it has found a place on smartphones, is also being targeting by netbook manufacturers for those lightweight computers. With this announcement, however, Google is pretty clear that it wants the OS of choice for netbooks to be Chrome.
Google released the Chrome browser last year. Since then, it's continually added capabilities to the browser, but to be honest, it's still buggy and doesn't have many of the capabilities of Firefox, Opera and Internet Explorer. Considering that Gmail just exited beta after five years, one has to wonder how long it would take for this operating system to exit beta.
In their blog post announcing the Google Chrome Operating System, the company said:
Google Chrome OS is an open source, lightweight operating system that will initially be targeted at netbooks. Later this year we will open-source its code, and netbooks running Google Chrome OS will be available for consumers in the second half of 2010. Because we're already talking to partners about the project, and we'll soon be working with the open source community, we wanted to share our vision now so everyone understands what we are trying to achieve.
Speed, simplicity and security are the key aspects of Google Chrome OS. 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 and we are working with multiple OEMs to bring a number of netbooks to market 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.
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. While there are areas where Google Chrome OS and Android overlap, we believe choice will drive innovation for the benefit of everyone, including Google.
The blog post goes on to say there will be updates in the fall. Google is targeting the initial release of this operating system for netbooks, which has been one of the few bright spots among PC sales in this global recession. Microsoft has promised that Windows 7 will run well on netbooks (unlike Vista), so don't expect them to give up this segment easily.
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