Google's new operating system (OS) Chrome OS, will be available for commercial release in the second half of next year.
The Internet giant says it is already in discussions with several technology partners to help build the OS and devices that will run it. “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 company says it will work with Acer, Adobe, Asus, Freescale, Hewlett-Packard, Lenovo, Qualcomm, Texas Instruments and Toshiba, among others, to bring the OS to market.
Google announced its OS yesterday, saying it will initially be targeted at the netbook market. It has yet to say whether it will scale to laptop or PC, or whether it is looking into an enterprise version of Chrome OS.
According to the company's official statement, the software architecture will essentially be the company's browser, Chrome, running over a Linux kernel. “All Web-based applications will automatically work and new applications can be written using your favourite Web technologies.”
One of the primary development focuses will be on the security of the OS, says Google. “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's announcement has the global ICT community talking, and represents what looks like the first cloud-based consumer OS. Some call it a possible Microsoft competitor.
However, there is a long way for Google to go before it will be able to compete with Microsoft's Windows. Companies like IBM and Sun Microsystems have spent years trying and have not managed to nudge Microsoft out of its dominant market share.
While Google's new software will be free, other free products have also not met the mark to take Microsoft off its top spot. Ubuntu Linux seemed a promising option in the South African market, but still only really holds true sway for hi-end technology specialists.
Google's opportunity lies more in the instant Internet OS vision. The globe is moving more aggressively over to cloud services, and companies like Microsoft are playing catch up with Google in this sphere.
The search giant says it will play off that strength. “The operating systems that browsers run on were designed in an era where there was no Web. It [Chrome] is our attempt to re-think what operating systems should be.”
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