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Having already helped create Android, an open-source mobile operating system designed to take on the likes of Nokia’s dominant Symbian platform, search titan Google is now turning its sights towards Microsoft and the similarly dominant Windows OS.
Google ramping up its Chrome brand with new operating system. Image: Google.
Officially revealed on Tuesday (July 07), Google’s upcoming operating system is being created with contributing support from the open-source community and will be initially aimed at ultra-portable Netbook computer hardware.
Interestingly, Google has said the OS will arrive as a “natural extension” of its nine-month-old Chrome Web browser.
According to Google, the decision to build its Chrome-based operating system is a result of customers repeatedly calling for improved computer quality, while it also believes the marketplace could certainly use a little extra competition.
“We hear a lot from our users and their message is clear – computers need to get better,” wrote Sundar Pichai, vice president of product management at Google in an official blog post. “We believe choice will drive innovation for the benefit of everyone, including Google,”
“We’re designing the OS to be fast and lightweight, to start up and get you onto the web in a few seconds,” he added. “The user interface is minimal to stay out of your way, and most of the user experience takes place on the web.”
In terms of the competition Google faces in the Netbook arena, Microsoft’s stalwart Windows XP platform is its core rival, while Linux-based systems also account for a modest degree of market share.
Compatible with x86 and ARM chips and set to run within a new windowing system atop a Linux kernel, Google is already “working with multiple OEMs” in order to bring the Chrome OS to recession-friendly Netbook computers before the close of 2010.
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