Google Adds OS to Its Repertoire

ByMike Moffit

It’s shaping up to be a Google news-filled week, as Google announced this morning that they will expand their offerings to include an operating system—Google Chrome.

Nine months ago, they released the Google Chrome browser, which was designed to give the (Windows) user a truly integrated Google Apps experience, along with fast and virus-free web surfing. (Chrome browser is not available for the Mac.) They have taken these features to their operating system, in what Google calls a “natural extension” of the Google Chrome browser.

Based on Linux, Chrome OS is an open source operating system initially created for netbooks. (Seems like a natural fit, no?) It’s been described as very simple and lightweight, with “most of the user experience tak[ing] place on the web.” Google also uses a line that has been uttered by many a Mac user: “It just works.”

Hey, any OS that shows PC users that operating systems don’t have to be clunky is OK in my book!

Incidentally, a PCWorld article included a survey where (at the time of this writing) its readers voted overwhelmingly at a 4:1 margin (roughly 400 to 100 people) “Yes” instead of “No” to the title question: Google Chrome OS: Does the World Need Another Operating System?

Google will make the Chrome OS open source code available later this year, with netbooks running the OS available for consumers in the second half of 2010.

Read Google’s press release here.

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