Google Chrome OS is now open source
A few weeks ago Google started a marketing effort to raise awareness about Google Chrome browser, employing YouTube videos and a website that would explain what a web browser is. A browser is not an operative system they said, but in a year from now Google will try to make us think that well, in the end we were right, an operative system is a browser.
Last Thursday Google launched the open source project Chromium OS, releasing the code to developers one year before Chrome OS powered netbooks will be available to the public.
Chrome OS is a fast, secure, lightweight PC operating system that will appear in late 2010 inexpensive netbooks (or smartbooks), that will rely only on web applications for the most common operations users perform on a computer.
Chrome OS is an operative system built around Google Chrome, that will boot the browser just seven seconds after the system is turned on and give most users exactly what they need on a secondary computer: internet web surfing to check mail, watch videos, listen to music, play games and shop online.
All you need is Chrome
Google considers the web browser the most important program on a computer. From Google’s point of view, a computer that doesn’t need locally installed software and can do online everything you would do on a pc, is a great way to keep users on the web and expose them to ads.
Productivity based on web apps is possible too, many businesses are “going Google”, meaning that Microsoft Office can be replaced by Google Apps.
Web apps will make life easier for non techy people that wouldn’t need to worry anymore about installing and updating programs, or viruses corrupting files that will be safely hosted online.
Google is planning to introduce Chrome OS to netbooks that will have larger screens and keyboards compared to the ones we see in stores today. Hardware manufacturers are discussing specs with Google and if these ChromeBooks will be priced cheaper than what netbooks currently are, then people could be convinced that, after all, a web browser is all they need in a computer.
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