Google Enters the OS Wars

Not content with Chrome browser for desktop platforms and the Android OS on mobile devices, Google is planning to release Chrome OS later this year. Beyond that, it has plans to partner with hardware manufacturers to include the new OS as a standard install on netbooks.

According to the news posting on their blog, "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."

Read Google's blog here, or read some additional thoughts about Google's Chrome OS after the break.

Optimized for Netbook Computing

It looks like Google is banking on a growing netbook market in order to appeal to consumers. A netbook is essentially the same as a laptop but smaller and with many features removed to provide ultra-portability. Netbooks typically have a slower processor, no optical media drives, have smaller solid state drives instead of hard drives, and use basic word processing and web applications for on-the-go computing. Google already has a step in this direction with their Google Docs apps, which allow you to edit and save documents online so you're not using up space on your own machine. This looks to be a great opportunity to unite a lot of their free online services with an end user's day to day computing experience.

Is it Bad Business?

For some interesting counterpoint, read Slate Magazine's Farhad Manjoo's opinion of five reasons that the new Google OS will fail. His biggest reason? It doesn't make a whole lot of business sense for Google, other than that creating this OS is really just another chance for Google to take aim at Microsoft. In the end, it will be interesting to see how this plays out, particularly since Microsoft's operating systems have not been particularly netbook-centric, giving Google almost a niche opportunity to succeed in new territory. What do you think of the news from Google? Leave a comment with your thoughts below.