Google to launch new operating system for PCs

Google Inc. has announced that it is working on a new operating system for personal computers, which is seen as the Internet company's latest attempt to challenge Microsoft Corp.'s dominance on the computer software market.

The new system would be based on Google's Chrome web browser and will initially be targeted at low-cost laptops called netbooks, Google's vice president of product management Sundar Pichai and the company's engineering director Linus Upson wrote in a posting on the company's blog late Tuesday night.

Netbooks running the new Google Chrome Operating System will be available for consumers in the second half of 2010 and Google is already talking to partners about the project, they said.

The system is being created for people who spend most of their time on the web, and is being designed to power small netbooks as well as full-size desktop computers, they noted.

Google said speed, simplicity and security will be key aspects of its new operating system, which will be open-source.

The system is Google's attempt to "re-think what operating systems should be," Pichai and Upson wrote in the blog posting.

They also pointed out that the new system is a separate project from Android, an operating system launched earlier by Google that was designed for devices such as mobile phones, set-top boxes and netbooks.