Google Chrome OS is on the Way!

At the end of last week, security reports informed computer users about an upcoming Google Chrome operating system.

It was notified on the Internet that Google's much-anticipated operating system, Chrome OS, is going to come for download even this week! Is it rumors or is it truth? We'll see.

What we could do is only to wait. When Google reported its early version of new OS last fall, the company said they would open source the code for Chrome OS 'later this year'. Google also told that netbooks running Chrome OS wouldn't be accessible for end users until the second half of 2010.

Four months have passed from Google's disclosure that it is getting into the PC operating system game which would put them in a direct paths against Microsoft and Apple. Michael Arrington from TechCrunch says that a version of the Chrome OS will come with a limited collection of hardware drivers 'within a week'. TechCrunch also said that Google has PC manufacturers working on hardware driver support, and mentions that at first, the software may only run on a limited set of PCs. This is the second rumor saying an early release of Chrome OS was forthcoming.

At that time, Google also said that the Chrome OS code would be 'open sourced' later this year. So the supposed Google's Chrome OS release would clash with the original timeline. According to PC World, open source code is not the same as a ready-for-prime-time product. Google's OS hardware partners on the project involve Acer, Adobe, ASUS, Freescale, Hewlett-Packard, Lenovo, Qualcomm, Texas Instruments, and Toshiba. Although it's still not clear what PCs are going to be supported when the OS is maybe made available this week. TechCrunch speculates that the first public version of the OS would run on EEE PC netbooks.

What's going to happen this week is that Google would make good on its promise and release the Chrome OS source code to developers. However, that doesn't certainly imply the average person could download these files and get the OS up and running. Source code is just a collection of text files intended for software developers to tinker with. To get the source code to work as a computer program, a user needs a compiler that brings all the source code together and turns it into something a user's computer can, in fact, start up.

On a netbook, Chrome OS may be satisfying for offering mobile functionality. On a desktop, Chrome OS may turn a PC into a glorified terminal, dependent on the Internet for almost everything the user does on it. Google has said earlier Chrome is intended to be lightweight and get users connected to cloud applications quickly. The company pretends to think that cloud apps will become prevalent and will not need a very powerful PC to run them. Therefore, Google is building a very lightweight browser that is Chrome, to run up on what amounts to an inserted operating system that is Chrome OS, running on netbooks to be issued in 2010.

Google Chrome OS represents a new computing model and may even change users' perception of operating systems and security. Its importance depend upon how widely and quickly cloud applications get to the center stage, what trade-offs customers are ready to make, and most essentially, what Chrome OS actually proves out to be. Google's Chrome operating system could mark a turning point in the computer world. Still, there are many questions left. Rumors are the OS will be issued to developers this week. Most likely that will answer some questions but probably they will raise even more.

If Google will only release source code and not actual builds of the Chrome OS, getting it to work would probably make it unavailable for most users. It is good to know that Google has already released a developer build that users can just download and install the easy way. Developers may soon get a new Google's Chrome OS, while other users may have to wait for a while.