Google's Chrome OS has been a rather interesting project for many people as of late; it was said to be an operating system that was based in the "cloud", stored mostly online, though nobody knew any exact details. Today, Google has explained more about the OS, clearing things up.
As posted on the official Google blog, Chrome OS is "all about the web." As such, it is web-based, and as Google states, "The entire experience takes place within the browser and there are no conventional desktop applications. This means users do not have to deal with installing, managing and updating programs." Whilst this sounds handy, keep in mind that it won't run on any old hardware, but rather it will be given a specific hardware reference. This means, according to Engadget, that regular hard drives are out of the question; Chrome OS is an SSD only deal. It will also support both x86 and ARM hardware. While this sounds bad, keep in mind the project is open source as of this very moment, so it'll no doubt show up on a range of other computers.
Google understands that you'll be concerned about the security of the project as a general, so they posted an entirely separate YouTube video explaining how they're handling that, which we've included below. Another benefit to Chrome OS is the speed. Google has said that the current version boots in 7 seconds, which is pretty nippy compared to most operating systems out there.
Though there is still a lot of work to be done, the project will apparently become available to consumers at this time next year, so keep an eye for that when it happens. We've included videos of the Chrome OS introduction and the OS UI concepts straight from Google, in addition to the security information, which can be found below the screenshots from Mashable.
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