Google has announced in its blog that it will be launching a new operating system named Google Chrome OS (an extension of its Chrome browser) in second half of 2010. As per the blog:

The operating systems that browsers run on were designed in an era where there was no web. 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.

Seems like Microsoft has a newer and bigger challenge to face now. The funny thing is that Microsoft was able to shake-up Google’s core competency with the launch of “Bing” search engine (oops… should I say decision engine) and now Google is trying to hit Microsoft where its gonna hurt the most!

Funny: Just saw a nice cartoon by Federico Fieni in Mashable (see below)

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