Google this afternoon announced the creation of the Google Chrome Operating System project, with the goal to build a Linux-based OS available for purchase on netbooks in the second half of 2010.

The big news of the week: Google Chrome OS is out in the wild. Sort of. If you're willing to roll up your sleeves a bit and do some work, you can get your hands on Google Chrome OS, but it's not quite ready for everybody just yet.

First released in 2008, Google Chrome is the third most widely used web browser, coming after Internet Explorer and Firefox with a 7% market share. However, until the recently, the GNU/Linux version lagged behind the Windows version.

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. Speed, simplicity and security are the key aspects of Google Chrome OS.

...the tech world is rocked with the latest announcement made by Google: "...today, we're announcing a new project that's a natural extension of Google Chrome — the Google Chrome Operating System. It's our attempt to re-think what operating systems should be."Google Chrome OS is aimed at people who spend most of their time on the web and will initially be targeted at netbooks.

Will Chrome OS be GNU/Linux as we know it, or just the Chrome browser on top of a Linux kernel?

The Chromium Daily Builds PPA has been keeping me up to date with the latest version of Chromium, the open source browser behind Google Chrome. Google recently released the first official Google Chrome for Linux beta. When I did a fresh install of Ubuntu 9.10, I switched from Chromium to the Chrome beta.

When Google first announced its Chrome OS project, many commentators assumed that the Internet giant was challenging the dominance of Microsoft Windows. The truth is, Chrome is not a threat to Windows, OS X, or any distribution of Linux--nor is it meant to be.

Android 2.2, AKA "Froyo," was announced amid wild phone-nerd scenes a couple of months back, although we're yet to see much of it in the wild.