Today at an event at held at their Mountain View, CA headquarters, Google finally dished out the details on their upcoming operating system.

Dubbed Chrome OS, the open source OS is specifically meant to be a lightweight system for those who spend most of their time online. Google has stripped away what it considers to be unnecessary features to focus on getting users booted and online quickly.

Chrome OS is unique in that it’s an entirely web-based operating system: All of the applications are web-based, and all actions are taken inside of a browser. Google’s new OS does not support conventional desktop applications or programs, nor are there any pre-loaded programs that users will have to install or manage.

And because users cannot download or install binaries or process tasks in the local desktop environment, the operating system’s risk profile is quite small (to say nothing of its Linux heart). Chrome OS is also designed to automatically check the integrity of its codebase on reboot, and to repair any hash discrepancies detected during the boot sequence.

Chrome OS won’t be ready for an entire year, but Google wanted to open up the project and code so as to connect with the open source community and developers. For more information, Google has provided a brief informational video which we’ve plugged in below.