Google: Chrome OS will launch late autumn

Google expects to release its Chrome operating system in the “late autumn” of 2010, as it looks to compete with rival Microsoft’s Windows.

Speaking at the Computex trade show, Sundar Pichai, Google’s vice-president for product management, did not give a specific month, referring only to the autumn.

He reiterated that Chrome will be designed initially to work on laptop PCs.

Acer was reported to be launching a netbook based on Google Chrome at this week’s show, but the company scotched the rumours a couple of weeks ago, although stated that it believes Chrome to be “an exciting product announcement” that “deserves full attention”.

Yesterday, reports claimed that Google had decided to ban Windows PCs internally, following the security attacks on the company that took place last year. Google is instead urging employees to run Mac or Linux machines, as well as the company’s own Chrome OS.

Chrome OS is little more than a web browser that’s designed to take advantage of cloud computing services such as Google’s own Gmail and Docs.