It was only a matter of time before Google took on Microsoft at the operating system level and now it has confirmed it has plans to create the Chrome OS.
The company said that later this year it will release open source code for the Chrome OS and said that next year it will be available on netbooks for people to buy.
The aim is to produce a fast, simple and secure operating system with a minimal user interface with what it describes as the “user experience” taking place on the web. “We are going back to the bascs 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.”
The Chrome OS will work with both X86 and ARM chips and Google said it is already in discussion with a number of original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) to produce netbooks for the OS next year.
Google Chrome, it said, will run inside a new interface on top of a Linux kernel. “For application developers, the web is the platform. “All web based applications will automatically work,” said Google. The project is separate from Google Android and although there are overlapping areas between Android and the Chrome OS.
The company said it has surveyed users and computers “need to get better” with fast boot, fast access to applications. In a sideswipe against Microsoft, the company said people “don’t want to spend hours configuring their computers to work with every new piece of hardware, or have to worry about constant software updates.”
The move will have implications for Intel as well as Microsoft. The chip giant has been putting a lot of energy into a Linux based OS called Moblin. It’s unclear how or whether Google will cooperate with Intel, but the chip giant will take very seriously the statement that Chrome OS will work with ARM as well as X86 chips.
