It has been announced on ‘The Official Google Blog’ that Google is to release new lightweight operating system.  This new OS will initially be targeted at netbooks with the first of them being made available to end consumer “in the second half of 2010”.

The Google Chrome OS is to be open source and they are actively working with the open source community on this new offering to ensure the community are sharing Google’s “vision”.

Chrome OS will apparently be focusing on “speed, simplicity and security” enabling fast load times for users and a secure environment in which to work.   It will run on both x86 and ARM chips and will operate within a “new windowing system” which will run on top of a Linux Kernel.  They (Google) are keen to point out that this new Chrome OS is a separate product from Android which is designed to “work across a variety of devices from phones to set-top boxes to netbooks”

This announcement has fired a shot well and truly across Microsoft’s bow and has the potential of seriously impacting the adoption of new platforms such as the netbook OS,  Jolicloud. 

This news shouldn’t have come as too much of a shock as Google have always made it clear that the Chrome browser was just the start in the development of OS type platform.  Though whether anyone actually saw the timing of this announcement coming is another thing.

For more information on Google’s new Chrome OS check out one of these sites:

The Official Google Blog

New York Times – Google Plans a PC Operating System