Google announced the launch of Chrome OS

Google announced in the last few days what was a secret for some time now, the launch of its own operative system, Chrome OS, which will be release on Q2 2010. According to representatives of the internet´s giant, Chrome OS is fast, simple, secure and oriented to users who spend most of their time surfing the web.

Google Chrome OS is an open source, lightweight operating system that will initially be target=”_blank”>Chrome OSeted 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.

Google Chrome OS will run on both x86 as well as ARM chips and we are working with multiple OEMs to bring a number of netbooks to market next year. 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. All web-based applications will automatically work and new applications can be written using your favorite web technologies. And of course, these apps will run not only on Google Chrome OS, but on any standards-based browser on Windows, Mac and Linux thereby giving developers the largest user base of any platform.

Google Chrome OS is a new project, separate from Android. 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. While there are areas where Google Chrome OS and Android overlap, we believe choice will drive innovation for the benefit of everyone, including Google.

Representatives from Google state that “People want to get to their email instantly, without wasting time waiting for their computers to boot and browsers to start up. They want their computers to always run as fast as when they first bought them. They want their data to be accessible to them wherever they are and not have to worry about losing their computer or forgetting to back up files. Even more importantly, they 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. And any time our users have a better computing experience, Google benefits as well by having happier users who are more likely to spend time on the Internet.”

However, some users are skeptical as regards the new OS from Google. Some of them state that it all sounds very familiar to dumb terminals connected to mainframe – simple replace “mainframe” with “internet” and “dumb terminal” with “desktop”. Nevertheless, other assure that It’s an OS for online operations and turns an internet capable device into a screen and keyboard dumb terminal linking directly into Google as the mainframe. The concept relates to the evolution of modern computer use with many people only using their computers for browsing.