Google to launch its own operating system.

It's on. From Raw Story:

Google has plans for its own personal computer operating system, it announced on its blog, setting up another clash between the Internet search giant and PC software supremo Microsoft.

“We’re announcing a new project,” said the Mountain View, California-based company, revealing the system would be based on its nine-month-old Chrome browser and would be an open source operating system initially targeted at netbooks.

The move is “our attempt to re-think what operating systems should be,” Google said in a statement posted late Tuesday.

The search engine giant said it would open-source the code for “Chrome OS” for user input and that netbooks running the system would be available by the middle of next year.

“Speed, simplicity and security are the key aspects of Google Chrome OS. We’re designing the OS to be fast and lightweight, to start up and get you onto the web in a few seconds,” the company said.