Tired of Windows, don't like fine-tuning Ubuntu, can't afford buying into the Apple ecosystem? Google has just announced they're releasing an open source computer operating system called Chrome OS next year.

As you can guess by the name, it's going to rely heavily on the browser as the starting point for most functionality. It'll be about a year before netbooks with the OS are available, but hopefully the cheap (free?) cost of adding it to netbooks will mean lower prices, or possibly better specs, when it comes out.

"Google Announces PC Operating System to Compete with Windows" [Wired]
"Introducing Google Chrome OS" [Google Blog]
(Photo: EverJean)