Google has announced (http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2009/07/introducing-google-chrome-os.html) that it will be creating an Operating System specifically built for netbooks. It's not hard to see, though, Google expanding upon this over time to drive the OS onto the more traditionally bloated area of laptops and desktops. I'd be interested, for example, in putting it on (at least in a virtual machine) on my desktop for a look-see.
Some points of interest:
- It will be built around the linux kernel - I bolded that for a reason. They're not building it around a linux distribution (eg. gOS or ubuntu etc).
- From what I can gather, it will be a new windowed version of Chrome (the browser) running on top of that kernel - nice sandboxing of apps, just like in Chrome
- It will be aimed 100% at web-apps only. This is obviously good for google - master of the web app domain
- It will be open source. This means more security (read all about that here)
- They've already got some hardware support (link)
- Being made by google, and being based on chrome, you can bet that there will be a host of privacy concerns. Hmmmm. Better start watching for black 4WDs and people wearing sunglasses on cloudy days. :)
Obviously, there's a lot more points to note, but you can read about it in the google blog, or by doing a google search.
For those of you who are conspiracy freaks (like me), you could be forgiven for thinking that this is just one more step to google taking over the world!
But I love it.
