Via CNN:

Google is jumping into Microsoft Windows territory -- and threatening to change the way personal computers work -- with its own version of a computer operating system.

The company says the forthcoming Google Chrome OS will revolutionize how computers operate, putting more emphasis on Web functionality, making computers faster and opening them up to helpful tinkering by outside program developers.

"The operating systems that browsers run on were designed in an era where there was no web," Google said late Tuesday on its official blog. "It's our attempt to re-think what operating systems should be."

Chrome OS will be available this coming fall or winter, Google says.

But the big tech boon here is that the OS will be built to support "cloud" computing -- a fancy tech term that basically means the computing power running the applications on your computer will be housed somewhere else, with data transmitted via the Internet. Think of Goggle Apps built into Windows, where you just click Start>Programs>Google Apps. Some people are unable to run heavy duty applications (like graphics or video editing programs) on their computer because their hardware sucks, but in a "cloud" computing scheme, the heavy legwork would be outsourced to computers elsewhere.

It's slated to be open-source, which I have to admit is pretty cool. No word on the price, but obvious speculation is that it may well be free. Early versions will target netbooks, while later versions will be aimed at laptops and desktops.