Predictions that Google's aspirations include creating their own operating
system were accurate, as
Google has revealed plans to create an OS based on Linux. Here's a
bit:
So today, we're announcing a new project that's a natural extension
of Google Chrome — the Google Chrome Operating System. It's our attempt to
re-think what operating systems should be.
Google Chrome OS is an open source, lightweight operating system that will
initially be targeted at netbooks. 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. Because we're already talking to partners about the
project, and we'll soon be working with the open source community, we wanted to
share our vision now so everyone understands what we are trying to achieve.
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 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
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. And of course,
these apps will run not only on Google Chrome OS, but on any standards-based
browser on Windows, Mac and Linux thereby giving developers the largest user
base of any platform.