Google’s Chrome OS new operating system

Google offered a glimpse of simplified computing
for consumers with the launch of its new operating system.

The Chrome OS, which should be available on smaller laptops in time for Christmas next year, is a direct challenge to the dominance of Microsoft’s Windows franchise.

Google is aiming to rewrite the rules of operating systems with a web-based OS that does little more than act as a browser to enable users to get to all the internet applications they use daily, such as search, Facebook and webmail, as quickly as possible.

At a media event at the Googleplex HQ, in Mountain View, California, Sergey Brin, the co-founder of Google, said: “We believe that the web platform is a much simpler way. There is a very important need in the market place now — and that is what we are trying to fulfil.”

Sundar Pichai, the vice-president of Product Management at Google, showed off the free cloud-based software, describing it as a “better model of computing”. He said that the Chrome OS would be easier and more secure to use. It would also be faster to start up.
Other operating systems can take up to 45 seconds to launch, but the Chrome OS takes only 7 seconds, he said.