Google announces operating system
Chrome OS targeting netbooks in 2010.
Google has announced its intention to launch a full-blown operating system next year.
The Google Chrome OS is designed to be fast, simple and secure, getting you online within a few seconds and leaving most of the user experience up to the internet.
There are no immediate implications for PC gaming, but the company has said that all web applications will work out of the gate, and new apps can be written in traditional web languages, ensuring compatibility with Windows, Mac and Linux alongside Chrome OS.
"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," the announcement blog post explained.
"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 said it will open-source the OS, which will run on x86 or ARM-based chips, later this year. It will initially target netbooks, several of which will launch with Chrome OS installed in the second half of 2010.