Google Chrome OS revealed
Google has revealed it plans to release an operating system for personal computers. Google Chrome OS will initially be available for netbooks in 2010. The new software was revealed in an announcement on the company’s official blog.
“Google Chrome OS is an open source, lightweight operating system that will initially be targeted at netbooks,” a statement said. “It’s our attempt to re-think what operating systems should be.”
The post continued: “Speed, simplicity and security are the key aspects of Google Chrome OS. We're designing the OS to be fast and lightweight, to start up and get you onto the web in a few seconds.”
The announcement went on to say that the Google Chrome OS would be resistant to viruses and malware.
“It should just work,” the blog entry summarised.
Competition with Microsoft
Many industry commentators have speculated that the release of Google Chrome OS puts the company in direct competition with technology giant Microsoft. Currently, the Microsoft Windows operating system runs on 90 per cent of computers worldwide.
One SEO blogger commented:
“It definitely puts Google directly against Microsoft’s other major area of revenue (operating systems). Google’s already been attacking on the application front. In terms of search, Microsoft has been trying to fight against Google’s dominance with a renewed push from the Bing.com rollout.”
Google launched its Chrome web browser application in 2008. Recent statistics show that the browser has a three per cent share of global users. Internet Explorer, the Microsoft web browser, accounts for 60 per cent of web use.
