Surprise, Surprise (Not): A Google OS

Last night, I was thinking about some of the products I’d like to see Google develop (e.g. a blog publishing tool and iPhone apps for Google Reader and GMail).

In mentally considering other possibilities, one thing that I didn’t thing about was an operating system. So, it was interesting to wake up this morning to discover Google has unveiled plans to launch a new (and free) operating system, Google Chrome OS, next year.

My thoughts:

1. If the battle between Google and Microsoft was heated before, it’s even more intense now. Instead of politely jabbing at Microsoft, Google has taken off the gloves and intent on punching Microsoft where it hurts.

2. It was really only a matter of time before Google launched an OS given it’s been moving into Microsoft’s turf with a Web browser, e-mail service and productivity tools.

3. For consumers, another OS is only a good thing to encourage Microsoft and Apple to continue to innovate. Given Google Chrome OS is an open-source project, it should be good news for Linux by validating the viability of an open-source OS.

Here’s what Google had to say about Google Chrome OS:

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.

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.

So, would you abandon Windows or Mac to use Google Chrome OS?

More: Here’s what TechCrunch has to say about Google Chrome OS.