Google is to launch its own
operating system which it claims will go ‘back to basics’.
Google Chrome OS is currently being developed with a view to going on sale by the summer of 2010, and aims to offer ‘speed, simplicity and security’. The Google Chrome
internet browser has already impressed many of its users, and is lauded by experts as the safest of the browsers, and the
internet is expected to be at the crux of Google’s operating system.
Google’s Engineering Director, Linus Upson, said the operating system is designed to be fast and lightweight, and would enable users to get online within seconds of starting up. It is Google’s belief that rival
operating systems are outdated, having been designed before the
broadband era. The Google Chrome OS, therefore, provides an ‘attempt to rethink what operating systems should be’.
Google Chrome OS will run on an open source license, and offers a direct challenge to
Microsoft Windows 7. Google’s operating system will initially target small, low-cost
netbooks, but will eventually be used on
laptop and
desktop PCs as well. With Microsoft currently enjoying a 90 per cent market share, it remains to be seen what impact Google Chrome OS can have.