Google shows off Chrome OS

Published: Friday 20th November, 2009 | Author: Sylvie Barak
Companies: Google (All Google content)

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Google shows its metal

Last week's rumour mill got it partially right when it said Google would be launching its Chrome OS this week. The firm did indeed host an event in its Mountain View campus, but make no mistake; this was no launch, with Google execs predicting the official launch to be about a year away. Heck, even the public beta is months and months away.

What the event did offer, however, was more of an official sneak peek at Google's revolutionary browser based OS, showing the world what it was, what it could do and why people might want - nay, crave - it.

Sundar Pichai, Google's vice president of product management, described the upcoming OS as an open source, lightweight operating system initially aimed at netbook type devices where "most of the user experience takes place on the web."

This means the OS doesn't actually sit on a user's computer; instead, it runs straight out of the (Google Chrome) Browser and runs web applications only, to save users those pesky installations and annoying updates.

As Pichai described it, the OS is "Google Chrome running within a new windowing system on top of a Linux kernel" with the web basically acting as the platform. Think that sounds risky? Well Google says it has put a lot of effort into the underlying security architecture to make it virtually virus proof and super secure. Well, as secure as any web based platform can be.

Next page: Security paramount