Rumors of Google building an operating system has been nothing new, but confirmation that they are building an operating system is something new. Google confirmed that a Google OS named Google Chrome OS, is coming in the second half of 2010.
The OS will be first a light weight OS designed for Netbooks, not it is not Android. You can read about it at the Google Blog and all the billions of news items at Techmeme.
One thing I will highlight from the blog post:
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. ... and completely redesigning the underlying security architecture of the OS so that users don't have to deal with viruses, malware and security updates. It should just work.
As you can imagine, this has people talking about things like Google going after Microsoft directly, Google owning not only our web lives but our desktop lives as well and Google getting into a business they should stay out of. Yes, there are tons of opinions on this news and the best place to discuss them and share your own opinions is in the forums.
Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld and DigitalPoint Forums.