Issa's Dollar Earners

DANG! I was pretty surprised when Google Labs took the beta label off GMail and other popular Google products. But nothing compares to this bomb! After years of speculation, Google finally confirmed they are making their own operating system for computers (netbooks first though). And it's coming soon! Here's what the official Google Blog posted at 9:37pm today:

The operating systems that browsers run on were designed in an era where there was no web. So today, we're announcing a new project that's a natural extension of Google Chrome — the Google Chrome Operating System. It's our attempt to re-think what operating systems should be.

Google Chrome OS is an open source, lightweight operating system that will initially be targeted at netbooks. Later this year we will open-source its code, and netbooks running Google Chrome OS will be available for consumers in the second half of 2010.

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 user interface is minimal to stay out of your way, and most of the user experience takes place on the web.

I'm very, very, very excited about this (as most tech-loving people are) and I just can't wait for 2010! The big question is: will this be FREE (it's open source after all) or will they charge a nominal fee for it? And how will Microsoft react to this? Do I smell a Microsoft versus Google war brewing? YEEHA!!