Good OS, who’s tight with Google and whose gOS Linux powered a $199 Everex PC that Wal-Mart sold last year, is wheeling out Cloud, a new browser operating system that reportedly boots up the Internet in seconds and can be used to toggle between Windows and a Linux OS on the same box.

Gigabyte Touch-Screen Netbooks are supposed to be preloaded with Cloud and Windows XP early next year. They should be on display at the Consumer Electronics Show in early January.

Cloud integrates a browser with a compressed Linux kernel to access the Internet immediately. It’s also supposed to integrate the browser and rich client applications and control the computer from inside the browser.

The Good-designed browser features an icon dock for shortcuts to favorite apps, tabs for multitasking between the web and rich client apps such as Skype and Media Player, and icons to switch to Windows, power off, and do other necessary system functions.

Users turn on their computers, boot into Cloud for Internet access and basic applications, and either power off or boot into Windows for more powerful desktop applications.

In the demo version of Cloud, English, Chinese, Japanese and Korean are supported. For OEM partners, Good OS says it will customize Cloud with whatever language packs are required and allow end users to select their language on first-time setup.

See http://www.thinkgos.com.