Google plans Chrome operating system

— -- Until now, most consumer PCs have run on software from one of two companies: Microsoft or Apple.

Google gave notice that it's developing its own PC operating system initially targeted at netbooks, those pint-size, inexpensive PCs currently selling like hot cakes. Google is meeting with hardware manufacturers and hopes to have it on computers by the second half of 2010.

Google's goal is to be the opposite of today's operating systems — especially Windows, which commands 90% of the market. The ubiquitous software has a reputation as virus-prone and complicated. Google says its Google Chrome Operating System will be faster, smoother and lightweight.

An outgrowth of Google's Chrome Internet browser, the OS is designed "to start up and get you onto the Web in a few seconds," Google said in its official blog post announcing the product. Google says it can achieve that by building a system from the ground up, one that isn't constrained by working with a legacy system initially built in the 1980s.

Now, all it must to do is execute.

Unlike Windows, Chrome is an open-source project like the Linux operating system that's popular with techies, which means outside software developers are welcome to work on it. And Google believes developers who have a stake in the project will find a way to bring Chrome to a wide variety of PCs quickly, says a person with direct knowledge of Google's intentions, who isn't authorized to speak on behalf of the company.