After introducing Google Chrome web browser 9 months ago and with around 30 million users, Google has announced that it would be launching an Operating System called Google Chrome Operating System.
Google in its official blog 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.Google Chrome OS will run on both x86 as well as ARM chips.
As people use more and more web applications, the operating system becomes less important and it makes no sense to pay for it. The desktop mail client could be replaced by Gmail, the calendaring application could be replaced by Google Calendar, the office suite has lightweight alternatives: Google Docs and Zoho, it makes more sense to use an online feed reader like Google Reader, your scientific calculator is less powerful than Wolfram Alpha and you’ll rarely need a video player when you have YouTube, Hulu and other video sites.
This idea is not new and there are already operating systems optimized for the browser. For example, Good OS announced last year , an operating system that “integrates a web browser with a compressed Linux operating system kernel for immediate access to Internet, integration of browser and rich client applications, and full control of the computer from inside the browser”. If Google manages to create a great user interface, the new operating system could be very successful.
I have been waiting for an operation system that does not takes ages to boot up and which is optimized for browser. Lets wait and see whether Google will be able to redefine OS the way they redefined Search Engine.Google is working with multiple OEMs to bring a number of netbooks to market next year. I am waiting to see whether Google Chrome OS can pose any threat to Microsoft or Apple.
You can read more about Google Chrome OS in Google’s official blog here
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