To transform Chrome and Gears into a lightweight operating system, Google will have replaced the rest of Linux with a slimmed down windowing and application manager that integrates with Chrome and Gears for running applications on the web and with the Linux kernel for running the computer hardware.

ECONOMIST: Google goes in search of an instant operating system

Mr Torvalds released the first version of the Linux kernel in 1991, when he was a 21-year-old computer-science student at the University of Helsinki, Finland.

ECONOMIST: MONITORS: And the winners are... | The