Search engine giant Google has elected to open source its Google Chrome OS project, which it has entitled Chromium OS.
Caesar Sengupta and Matt Papakipos revealed in the company's official blog that the product will be developed in this manner from now until its official release in one year's time, with lots still to be done before it is ready.
"We're excited to work with the open source community," they commented. "We have benefited hugely from projects like GNU, the Linux Kernel, Moblin, Ubuntu, WebKit and many more."
Google has turned to open sourcing in the past for the development of the Google Chrome browser, but Mr Sengupta and Mr Papakipos suggested the Chromium project could be more important, claiming that it will be a "fundamentally different model of computing".
It is expected to aid consumers in terms of speed, security and ease of use, with users no longer having to worry about installing programmes and updating them due to all applications being based on the internet.
The Chromium launch is one of a number of major announcements made by Google this month, with the company recently revealing the acquisition of display advertiser AdMob.