Today Google presented and demonstrated their Chrome OS at an event in Mountain View, CA. We were unfortunate not to attend but viewed this via a webcast… here are the key points as far as we see it.

Chrome OS for Dummies

Launch Date

Chrome OS is not launching today… but the source code as it stands is available now to download as Chrome is completely open source. Google expect the launch to be late 2010, before the holiday season.

Chrome Browser

• The Chrome Browser is essentially the OS. It is the only application that is really running.
• The browser is focused on the three S’s… speed, security and simplicity.
• Extensions for Chrome are very close to being available soon. These will be written in HTML and Javascript and Google manage the updating of these.
• Chrome is built to take advantage of multi-core systems and have communication with media peripherals such as cameras.

Overview of The Chrome OS

As with the Chrome browser the OS is also focused on speed, simplicity and security.

Speed

• Boot time should be real fast… comparable to turning on a TV. During the demo boot time is about 7 seconds
• The Chrome browser is already fast… Chrome running on Chrome OS will be even faster than it is on other platforms

Simplicity

• All applications are WebApps… Chrome OS will only run web applications
• Because of this there will be no need to install/maintain your software
• All applicaton and OS data (wallpaper etc) is held in the cloud.
• When you insert a USB drive this opens a new tab in Chrome… you can view files including media and office files. If you click on an Excel file this can open a new tab with a web app that supports that file type

Security

• Because all applications are WebApps with Google Chrome OS there is a fundamental change to how security can be implemented
• When system is booted the system checks it’s applications cryptographic signatures. If it doesn’t like what it sees it re-downloads the OS, re-installs and reboots. Because your data is held in the cloud your settings are saved. The locally cached data is also saved.
• All locally stored data is encrypted.

Other details

• Chrome OS is open source… Google appreciate all the  hard work and help that they’ve had from many open source projects such as Linux and want to pay them back.
• Google are targeting the larger netbook space… clam-shell type devices with full size keyboards and touchpads.
• Hardware… users cannot just install on any device. Google are looking to give amazing experiences and as such are specifying the hardware components that are needed to support Chrome OS… though if you have certain netbooks which are available today and a screwdriver then you might be able to get it running
• Prices… similar to today’s prices. There is no target price.
• What netbook was on the demo… off the shelf Eee PC
• How do hardware chaps get involved… documentation is available to say which components are supported/needed
• What about an app store… Goggle will be looking at solving discovery of these app but wouldn’t go into detail
• Some apps are not available on the web, what about these…  Google looking to deliver a companion device, they expect folks to have a secondary device at home.
• HTML5 video and audio codecs + flash shall all be supported
• Further hardware details to be expected in middle of 2010
• What about offline access… primarily designed for use with connectivity but will be able to cache data. Also apps that use html5 offline capabilities will of course be able to do so.
• Can Chrome OS be run in a VM… Yes, Google’s developers do this and users today could build code and run within VM
• What about anodroid apps… these will not run on chrome
• other hardware… 2010 will be only notebook focused
• business models… Google are working with partners but Chrome OS is completely free.
• printing… Google say they will have an innovative approach to printing, more to be said later about this.

With Google’s Chrome OS event due to take off any minute now (webcast available here) The googlesystem blog have posted a blog post which links to the source code.

We’ll be watching intently.

It appears that an event in California hosted by Google tomorrow will see the 1st demonstration of their much hyped operating system Google Chrome OS.

According to reports the technology giant will not only be giving a demonstration of the OS but also a “complete overview” of the product. Reports do not seem to confirm the earlier story we saw of a public launch this week but they do show that at least a fair amount of progress has already been made.

The event will include talks by Sundar Pichai, Google’s VP of Product Management and Matthew Papakipos, Google Engineering Director for Google Chrome OS and thankfully a “question and answer” session which should hopefully mean we have a lot more information about the OS.

It will also be interesting to see what notebook or laptop is used during the demonstrations, hopefully we’ll get an insight into what hardware support will be like or at least who has been making headway into support the new operating system.

Well that’s what TechCrunch are saying in a post that went up this morning. They say that information from a reliable source says that Google’s Chrome OS “will become available to download within a week”.

This is indeed exciting news and as we have previously mentioned we expected to see a developer version late this year… but is this really going to be it? If so then we can only assume that hardware support may be a little thin on the ground to begin with but regardless I’m looking forward to trying this out on my Eee 901.

According to Xconomy – a US based technology news/information supplier – and based on an “on-the-record” roundtable discussion with Google CEO Eric Schmidt there will be public release of Chrome OS before the end of 2009.

In a piece on the discussions here we can pull the following nugget;

The first public version of Chrome OS will be coming out by the end of 2009, Schmidt said. But the operating system won’t be a serious competitor for Windows, Mac OS, Linux, or other operating systems untilmanufacturers build cost-competitive machines that run Chrome OS and developers write applications that run on it.

Now maybe I’m just reading that wrong but to me it seems like he’s not talking about a developer release here. What do you guys make of it?