Yesterday, Google announced that they are working on a new project. A project much larger (and apparently more important) that Google Chrome. Yes, you guessed it. The Google Chrome Operating System.

What’s the OS all about?

Google has already confirmed that the new OS will be a distro of Linux saying, ‘The software architecture is simple — Google Chrome running within a new windowing system on top of a Linux kernel.’

The new operating system will be primarily designed for netbooks. ‘We’re designing the OS to be fast and lightweight, to start up and get you onto the web in a few seconds,’ says Google in their blog post about Google Chrome OS.

A distro to watch?

Alright, enough about the operating system itself. You’ve probably heard enough about it by now. Let’s talk about something else: How will this impact Linux as a whole?

It’s obviously that Linux is improving. More and more people are using it – but is this the jump that we need until the common person becomes a Tux lover?

We know that people trust Google and the applications that they provide. The common computer user, however, isn’t as fond of Linux. If Google masks the fact that their OS is based on Linux (and by that I mean masks from the people who are computer illiterate enough to be afraid of Linux) and then the OS becomes a hit, wouldn’t that put Linux in a better position to face Windows? Once people catch on that it’s really Linux, they may soften up and decide that Linux is, in fact, better than Windows.

We’ll just have to wait and see what happens. Google definitely has the resources to create an awesome operating system. And I don’t know of any Google applications that didn’t turn out well.