Google Launches Chrome Operating System

Google confirmed late Tuesday that it is launching a PC operating system based on its Chrome web browser. "Google Chrome OS is an open source, lightweight operating system that will initially be targeted at netbooks," Google's Sundar Pichai wrote on the Google blog. "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."

"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," Pichai added. "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."

The New York Times has early coverage in a story for Wednesday's paper, which aniticpated the browser being unveiled in a Google blog post Wednesday afternoon (makes me wonder if Google published early once the Times story was available online).