CORP TALK: Google launched its Google Chrome browser some nine months ago and currently has over 30 million users. According to a blog run by the Google team, Sundar Pichai, the VP for Product Management and Linus Upson, Engineering Director for Google Chrome browser have announced a new project called the Google Chrome Operating System.

Planned as an open source, lightweight operating system, the team envisions the Chrome OS to run well on netbooks, with the idea of making it available to consumers in the second half of 2010. The OS will run on both x86 and ARM chips, using Web-based applications as the software tools of choice.

The blog also emphasized that the Google Chrome OS and Android are two separate initiatives. While Android is designed to work on devices like phones to netbooks, Chrome OS is for heavy Web users and targets netbooks to full-size desktop systems. (Editor opinions: 1)

Navin Danapal, Technical Editor, HWM Malaysia

Navin (HWM MY): This was long time coming and expected. After Google’s Android OS for the mobile space, there were experiments with Android on a netbook. Then Intel showcased Moblin (Mobile Linux) 2.0 OS to power netbooks, as how ASUS used Linux OS for their Eee PC.

From this it’s clear netbook makers want a compact OS that augurs well between the mobile and notebook/desktop platform, and that’s something that Microsoft doesn’t seem to deliver with the bloated Windows Vista and the improved Windows 7 (but still not as lean as Windows XP). (more…)