Google presented a demo of  its unique operating system, dubbed Chrome OS on Friday.  The concept was introduced back in July of 2009.  They also released all the source code for the OS to the open source community.  How does this affect me you may ask.  Well, right now, not so much.  In a year, that may be a different story.

Operating systems are a necessary part of your computer experience.  It’s the king of all programs running on your system allowing you to access all the internal and external devices and programs you use daily.

The problem is, as our computers get more complex operating systems become more complex.  This complexity leads to a slow startup and multiple background programs running  and well, what many call “system rot”.  User frustration with their computers running slow, being infected with a virus, or a multitude of other issues is a growing problem.

Google attacked this problem in its unique out of the box way and presents us now with a revolutionary solution, the tenets of which include simplicity, security, and speed.   Sergey Brin (co-founder) says that all along, the driving force behind this effort has been to improve the user experience.  It should be noted that improved user experience means that users will be online more, see more online ads(a majority of which are managed by Google)  and purchase more of the advertisers’ goods and services.

To optimize this new OS, Google has defined a reference hardware specification.  Solid state drives (no moving parts) is a major component of the design, along with a full sized keyboard.   More details will be forthcoming in the months ahead as they work closely with PC hardware vendors.  Google hopes to be ready for a full roll-out in time for the 2010 holiday season.

The Chrome OS demo employed the use of an off the shelf netbook equipped with a solid-state drive.  Speed was impressively demonstrated with the push of the on button to the login screen taking only 7 seconds.   Repeated emphasis to the audience was that most people spend a majority of their time online; answering and sending email, browsing the web and using other online applications like YouTube to view video and listening to music with online application like Pandora.

Boot-time and security were also discussed as being compelling reasons to totally revamp what is essentially a piece of technology that’s getting a little long in the tooth.  Sure,  initially this will not replace your current desktop computer.  Not all applications that most need currently exist in the “cloud”.  Google hopes, however, that this will be the starting point and envisions this Chrome OS computer as complimentary  for now.

Enough of me trying to describe what Chrome OS is or its benefits to the user community.  Below are some videos that will do a much better job.

Let us know your thoughts, we’d love to hear your take.

Chrome OS Descritption

Chrome OS Demo

And a look at the Chrome OS UI which will evolve