Google says Chrome OS will be out 'this time next year'

Posted on 23 Nov 2009 at 15:36

Google has said that Chrome OS, its lightweight internet-enabled operating system, will be finished by November 2010 for consumers. In the meantime it has released all the code written so far as Chromium OS, allowing developers to have a sneak preview of the OS.

Google demonstrated the work so far at a live event, and you can watch the video of Chrome OS in operation below. One of the key points of the demo was to show that the OS is quick to start, currently taking just seven seconds to boot, although Google wants to make this quicker in the future.

Key to the operating system is the fact that all applications and data are stored on and run from the internet, meaning that nothing has to be installed on your computer. For this reason, Chrome OS looks and feels exactly like the Chrome web browser.

"Hopefully this isn't a surprise to you, but [Chrome OS] looks like Chrome," said Kan Liu, product manager at Google. "Internally we joke around and say, 'Chrome is Chrome OS'."

This is clear from the demonstration, which shows that after the login screen Chrome OS's main interface is the Chrome web browser. There are some differences. For starters, web applications, such as Google Mail and Google Docs, can be pinned to the Toolbar as application tabs, giving quick access to commonly-used applications.

Another new feature is panels, which are persistent windows that can be made permanently visible. Uses include Google Talk, where a panel can pop up over an existing window with a new chat message.

Chrome OS will use your current Google username and password as a log on and an offline mode will make applications and data available when you don't have an internet connection.

The demonstration makes the OS look interesting and using web-based applications means that the OS should run quickly on all computers. We still think that there are a lot of questions to be answered and, on first impressions, it would appear that Chrome OS will be limited to running on netbooks aimed at users with low requirements.

In particular, while it's possible to move to web-only applications and data stored online, there's still a need for many standard desktop applications. For example, without iTunes, can Chrome OS synchronise music with your iPod? Then there's the question of how hardware will be dealt with. Currently, Google hasn't said what will happen if you plug in a digital camera or USB key.

As such, if Chrome OS is purely limited to online only applications and data, its appeal will be limited to entry-level netbooks. However, we can see it being popular as a secondary OS, giving people fast access to the internet without having to load Windows or Linux first.