Google Announces New Chrome Operating System for PCs

It’s almost comical how Microsoft was the powerhouse of the 90s, displacing other tech giants, and now in the 21st century, Google is doing the same thing to Microsoft. And the next step in Google’s plan to completely marginalize Microsoft has been revealed today: Google is building their own operating system.

Today, on the official company blog, Google explained their plans for the Google Chrome OS, which is a “natural extension of Google Chrome,” the browser Google released to much fanfare nine months ago. The Chrome browser didn’t make too much of a dent (possibly because most of the people using IE aren’t aware that there’s actually another way to access the internet, but that’s a rant for a different time), but things might be different for Chrome OS.

Google Chrome OS is a lightweight operating system aimed at the booming netbook market, which is in dire need of a new OS that’s not as heavy as Vista. Microsoft has high hopes of filling that gap with Windows 7, but if Google can release something useful enough and free (the code will be open source), then it might be a serious contender. Linux has long tried to overtake the netbook market, but hasn’t been enough of a household name to compete with Microsoft. Google, on the other hand, is a name known ‘round the world. Perhaps people will be willing to try a different OS just based on their experience with Gmail, Google Docs and other apps.

The OS will run on x86 and ARM chips and will run “within a new windowing system on top of a Linux kernel.” Google says there is a small amount of overlap between Android and Chrome OS, but they are still separate projects.

“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.”

This raises questions about software compatibility and Google doesn’t bother to elaborate on them; instead, they focus on how the OS will be compatible with all web apps and be fully customizable for developers. This isn’t actually a problem since we’ll all be migrating into the cloud in the next few years (you can already find web versions of almost every program you use already). But I’m just not sure if most people are ready to make the leap from software on their computers to web apps, at least not completely.
Google plans to release the code later this year and expects it to be showing up in netbooks by the second half of 2010. By then, Windows 7 will have had plenty of time to get entrenched in the netbook market. This battle of the titans should be a fun fight to watch.

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