Google OS:Now a reality

Today Google announced the launch of their own operating system called Google Chrome OS in the second half of 2010.This is not entirely surprising considering that the rumour has been there from a long time.What is surprising though is the timing of the announcement.The details are not known at this point but my guess is that it will be a minimalistic ,light weight OS just like the chrome browser and will offer great new experience to browse and use other google products.It will be targeted at the web and netbooks.
This is what Google has said in the announcement.
"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."

According to news reports the new OS will run on top of a Linux kernel .Google will certainly make it available free of cost to begin with.However it's not clear at this point whether the OS will support other desktop apps ,drivers and hardwares .It will be fair to assume that Google must have thought about this in the beginning.By announcing that the OS will be available in the second half of 2010 ,it has given enough time to product vendors ,application developers and hardware developers to think and prepare the road map for themselves.

The obvious next question:Will it be able to beat Windows?Knowing the way Google builds its products ,it will start with beta and go on adding new features.A new war will now be fought between Google and Microsoft and only time will tell who wins the race.