I was just about ready to fall asleep when Google had to drop a bomb on the industry. The search giant will be launching a full-fledged operating system for netbooks in the second half of 2010. Yes, this is a big deal.Ars Technica first got wind that Google was planning to launch an OS that will be called Google Chrome OS. This probably made Google go ahead and officially announce it.

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.

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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.

Google Chrome OS will run on both x86 as well as ARM chips and we are working with multiple OEMs to bring a number of netbooks to market next year. The software architecture is simple - Google Chrome running within a new windowing system on top of a Linux kernel. For application developers, the web is the platform. All Web-based applications will automatically work and new applications can be written using your favorite web technologies. And of course, these apps will run not only on Google Chrome OS, but on any standards-based browser on Windows, Mac and Linux thereby giving developers the largest user base of any platform.

This move has been kicking around the rumor mill for years, and it looks like it finally came true. Google said this is a separate project from Android, but there will inevitably be some overlap as we've already seen some manufacturers throw Android on netbooks.

With Google's cash and brand name, the Chrome OS is probably the best chance Linux has ever seen of gaining widespread adoption. There are still tons of questions to be sorted out though, and I'll be very interested in the privacy policies, or lack thereof. Keep coming back to InformationWeek over the coming days, months, and years, and we'll break down the ramifications of this move.

I'm going to head to bed.

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