Netbook vendors jump on Google Chrome OS

Google has already won support from a handful of key players in the netbook and mobile computing spaces for its newly announced operating system.

The web giant said that Acer, Adobe, ASUS, Freescale, Hewlett-Packard, Lenovo, Qualcomm, Texas Instruments, and Toshiba had all signed up to get involved in the Chrome OS either on a hardware or software level.

Google announced plans to launch a full fledged operating system in 2010 earlier this week. Bringing its efforts in the web browser and small footprint operating system spaces together, the Chrome OS marks a further encroachment on Microsoft’s territory and reinforces speculation on the firm’s plans for world domination.

The company kick-started the Android project in November 2007, carving itself a niche in the mobile and portable devices space as well as set top boxes and other consumer electronics. Then in September 2008, the web giant launched the Chrome browser, which neatly integrates with Google’s online services and is targeted at online users.

Essentially, the platform will be Google Chrome running within a new windowing system on top of a Linux kernel. The OS will run on both x86 as well as ARM chips pitching it at the mobile and desktop markets, and for application developers, the web is the platform, using standard technologies that run on Chrome, Windows, MacOS and Linux.

As with Android, Google is tapping the open source community to drive Chrome forward. Later this year the firm will open source the code base, and netbooks running Google Chrome OS will be available for consumers in the second half of 2010.