Google Chrome OS for Netbooks Announced

Google announced Chrome OS late last night. The new operating system is open source and will be available for use on netbooks in the second half of 2010.

Google Chrome OS is designed to run on netbooks equipped with both x86 and ARM processors. Microsoft Windows requires x86 processors, which Intel, AMD and others produce. ARM processors are relatively new to the netbook market and are less powerful, but enable amazing battery life.

From Google’s blog:

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 user interface is minimal to stay out of your way, and most of the user experience takes place on the web. And 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 Chrome OS will offer quick boot times and will be tightly integrated with Google’s web services.

We hear a lot from our users and their message is clear — computers need to get better. 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.