It’s hard to believe it has been almost a year since Google launched it’s much-anticipated web browser, Google Chrome. With an estimated 35 million users already making it their browser of choice, it’s not hard to understand why Google wants to capitalize on that and has now announced their own Operating System, Chrome OS.

Chrome OS will be open source, much like Microsoft’s other major competetion in the industry, Linux. Google plans on having netbooks manufactured with it’s OS by the second half of 2010, having already begun the process of making deals with OEMs.

“Speed, simplicity and security are the key aspects of Google Chrome OS,” says Sundar Pichai, VP of Product Management. “We’re designing the OS to be fast and lightweight, to start up and get you onto the web in a few seconds. The user interface is minimal to stay out of your way, and most of the user experience takes place on the web.”

Google states Chrome will run on both x86 as well as ARM chips.

The software programming is straightforward — Chrome will run as a windowing system on a Linux kernel with the web as the platform. All web-based apps work automatically and you can even write your own.

For those wondering, these apps will be cross-compatible with other OS browser such as Windows, Linux and Mac.

Google Chrome OS is a completely seperate software stack by Google for mobile devices that includes an operating system, middleware and key applications.

“We hear a lot from our users and their message is clear — computers need to get better. People want to get to their email instantly, without wasting time waiting for their computers to boot and browsers to start up,” says Pichai. “They want their computers to always run as fast as when they first bought them. They want their data to be accessible to them wherever they are and not have to worry about losing their computer or forgetting to back up files. Even more importantly, they don’t want to spend hours configuring their computers to work with every new piece of hardware, or have to worry about constant software updates. And any time our users have a better computing experience, Google benefits as well by having happier users who are more likely to spend time on the Internet.”

A VMWARE copy of Google Chrome has been released, free of charge. To check it out, click here.