Google releases Chrome OS

Google has released its Chrome operating system to developers and expects a final version to be available for consumers in a year's time.

The operating system is based on Google's web browser, Google Chrome, and is targeted at netbooks.

Rumours that Google was planning to unveil the Chrome OS emerged on the web last week. Google made the official announcement of the code's availability on Thursday during an event at its Mountain View headquarters.

According to Google, Chrome OS is designed to be lightweight and fast so that people can boot up their computers and get online within seconds. It also aims for the OS to be so secure that it will "make life much harder (and less profitable) for the bad guys".

Watch Google's video guide: What is Google Chrome OS?

Sundar Pichai, vice president of product management at Google, said: "Over the past few years, people have been spending more and more of their time online doing more and more powerful things, and we wanted to build a fundamentally different computing experience built for the way we use the web today."

"With Google Chrome OS, we've made computing faster, easier and safer than ever before. While we still have a long way to go, we are excited by the progress we have made so far and look forward to developing the technology in the open with the help of the open source community," Pichai added.

Google expects the first devices running Google Chrome OS to be available in the fourth quarter of 2010.