When Google launched Android, its mobile operating system, most of us knew it was a matter of time that they came up with a version for computers - one which would strike up a serious rivalry against Microsoft's dominant Windows operating system.

Therefore, the announcement yesterday that Google will launch their Google Chrome OS (OS = operating system) in the latter part of 2010 came as little surprise.

So far, we are on a need-to-know basis.

We know that Google Chrome OS will be open source, meaning developed by potentially thousands of developers both inside and outside Google circles.

We know that Google Chrome OS will be "lightweight", unlike the more modern Windows operating systems, which are so heavy, they refuse to run efficiently.

We know that Google Chrome OS will be initially designed for release on netbooks (small notebooks / laptops).

We know that among the Google Chrome OS partners already signed up are the number 1 and 2 netbook manufacturers, Acer and Asus. Other partners include Adobe, Freescale, Hewlett-Packard, Lenovo, Qualcomm and Texas Instruments.

And we know that Google Chrome OS will be web-centric.

In fact, according to Google: "Google Chrome OS is being created for people who spend most of their time on the web..."

And finally... we know one other other thing...

Microsoft, which hasn't come up with a decent operating system since 2000 (even that is debatable), will be crapping their pants as Google is using its successful open source techniques to target another piece of the MS pie.

Recently, Google went after Internet Explorer with the Chrome internet browser. On most computers, Chrome loads and works at least 10 times faster than IE.

Even more recently, Google announced the pending launch of Google Wave - a communications tool that will revolutionise email and internet communication, moving people away from Microsoft's Outlook and other Office products which are duplicated in more innovative and faster ways via Wave.

Moreover, Wave was announced in the same week Microsoft announced the launch of their next new search engine to take market share from Google - Bing. Using Twitter Trending Topics as just one judge, Wave was the far more exciting announcement that week.

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