Yippee! Google's Going Into the OS Business

In a dramatic announcement — underplayed as usual on its own blog — Google is making one of the most startling moves in the PC industry. It's going to make its own Google operating system.

This is incredible news for the Microsoft haters, the Apple lovers and even the open-source community, given Google's penchant for being open and loyal to its overall premise: making the Web more accessible, friendlier and easier for everyone.

Here's the company's blog entry on the work:

It's our attempt to re-think what operating systems should be.

And as we did for the Google Chrome browser, we are going back to the basics 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.

People want to get to their email instantly, without wasting time waiting for their computers to boot and browsers to start up. 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.

In typical Google fashion, Sundar Pichai, who leads product management, and Linus Upson, engineering director, are inviting the Web community to participate.

We have a lot of work to do, and we're definitely going to need a lot of help from the open source community to accomplish this vision. We're excited for what's to come and we hope you are too.

Yes, Sundar and Linus, we are excited. After all Google's proven that it's all about being good and doing good, and "doing no evil." What isn't there to be excited about?

Just consider how it has advanced its Chrome browser with community input since launching the beta in September of 2008.

Google kinda of leaked it was heading toward an OS platform at the time if you read through the blog lines:

What we really needed was not just a browser, but also a modern platform for web pages and applications, and that's what we set out to build.

Well, maybe over in Windows World there isn't a lot to be excited about. I mean Microsoft's already got a heck of a lot on its plate in battling competition, bugs and a consumer base that wants more, more and more.

But competition drives innovation, and that's great news for PC users and Web lovers. Even Steve Ballmer and company can't deny that.