Windows 7 - Google announces Chrome-based OS

Google has announced that they plan to release a Chrome based OS.

Google Chrome OS is an open source, lightweight operating system that will initially be targeted at netbooks. Google plans to open-source its code later this year and offer Google powered netbooks in 2010. Company officials confirmed that Google Chrome OS will run on both x86 as well as ARM chips. Google is currently working with multiple OEMs to bring a number of netbooks to market next year bundled with the new Chrome OS.

Google Chrome OS is a new project, separate from Android. Chrome OS is being created for people "who spend most of their time on the web" according to Sundar Pichai, VP Product Management at Google.

The move is ambitious and has wide spread implications not just to consumers but to dominant market leaders Microsoft and Apple. Google has managed to dominate the search market and internet advertising space and having an operating system it controls will certainly help keep them at number one in those markets.

It's not going to be an easy future for the Google OS, Microsoft officials claim that 96% of netbooks run Windows so penetrating that market share will be tough. Google is in an advantageous position to market its Google Apps to compete with Microsoft's Office products. Could this be the equivalent of Apple's AppStore for iPhone where Google provides a controlled and secure development environment for web developers?

Google has not confirmed official pricing and availability yet and the company didn't mention how exactly it plans to profit from Chrome OS.

Source: Neowin

hmm....will be interested in how that plays out...No offence to google (I love their projects) but it takes them so long to actually roll out a full product (look how long it took them to remove the beta label from gmail, if they have). Their long development times would hurt more than help the OSs adaptability

Funny that you mention Gmail, as the beta label came off yesterday. As for this...I could never get in to Chrome...the lack of add-ons, no menus etc.

I think this is a good idea for netbooks, but it will never make a significant mark on the desktop market.

(Although I would love to see it take out Apple )