Introducing the Google Chrome OS

BAM!

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.

Okay, so this is very exciting at first glance, since rumors of a Google OS have been popping up for the better part of this decade. And it will be nice to have another lightweight, fast-booting Web-centered OS backed by a major company (like Intel’s Moblin) - always good to have some competition in the market.

Google’s very good at waiting for years until its products catch on - they have more than enough money and manpower to comfortably do so. Android, Google’s mobile OS, was announced in 2007 - but the first phone that actually ran the software didn’t come out until a year later. Even today, there still only two Android phones on the market - but there’s an estimated 20 Android devices currently being developed by various manufacturers, and many are rumored to have a Christmas release date. The wording of this announcement feels tentative yet optimistic - again, they’re looking for long-term success instead of immediate adoption.

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.

I would argue that the success of Chrome OS over the next few years depends on the long-term viability of netbooks as a platform. I don’t really think they’re viable at all, but a browser-based operating system has many uses: perhaps you could slap it inside a TV or have it pre-installed on laptops as an instant-on OS that appears before booting into Windows (if you want to do some quick Web browsing without waiting for the computer to fully start up). I wouldn’t be surprised if there were a phalanx of bloggers 18 months from now proclaiming Chrome OS as a failure… but I think we might need to wait a little longer before we can really judge Google’s level of success.