We reported earlier that Acer is going to be the first computing hardware manufacturer to deliver Chrome OS powered Netbooks. That’s indeed going to be a reality in no more than two weeks, if latest report from Venturebeat is to be believed.

According to folks at Venturebeat, they have confirmation from multiple reliable sources that Acer, the Taiwanese computer manufacturer will launch Chrome OS powered netbook(s) at the Computex Taipei show, which is scheduled to be held from June 1 to June 5.

As per very early reports, Chrome OS netbooks were supposed to be delivered by late 2010 so this particular news sounds tough to be believed as the first half of this year is yet to get over but then, we can understand why Google and Acer would want Chrome OS powered netbooks to hit market earliest possible. It’s the iPad that might be causing the worry.

With the advent of Apple iPad and growing interest of other hardware manufacturers in newly explored tablet computing industry, Netbook sales have already started to decline. Every advantage offered by Netbooks over laptops is well compensated by a tablet device such as iPad and the possibilities are much brighter in touch enabled tablet devices.

So, that could be the reason why Acer is on its way to unveil Chrome OS powered Netbooks in the first week of June. Anyways, June isn’t too far so the truth will soon come out.

Finally, the day for Google to open up its cards in front of mainstream media has come. Google is to announce much hyped Chrome OS and let all of us know the expectations we should keep from them. As promised earlier, this event will be kind of a tech preview of the operating system and will detail further plans of its launch.

According to rumor mill, Google would release Beta version of Google Chrome OS today but our guess is that the beta launch will take some more time to happen. Lets see what’s in Google store today.

We’re going to LIVE BLOG the event scheduled for today, 10 am at Google HQ so come back right here for Chrome OS event details.

• Sorry folks but there is going to be no beta today. The actual Google Chrome OS is still 12 months away from its mainstream launch.
• Sundar Pichai is now talking about Google Chrome’s achievements in terms of radical growth(over 40 million users within an year), high browsing speed and regular bug fixes. Chrome for Mac and Linux are in the pipeline, he says.
• Google Chrome OS team is figuring out a secure way for Web based applications to take advantage of the desktop OS in the same way that desktop applications do, says Sundar Pichai.
• As expected, every application on Chrome OS will be a web application(NO DESKTOP APPS). The emphasis will remain on providing high level of security, lightening speed and 100% fidelity. By fidelity, he refers to an instance that If someone loses his Chrome machine, he should go buy a new chrome machine and that’s it ! My computing experience would remain exactly the same it was earlier.”
• Chrome OS is basically Chrome browser with everything else on the cloud. All applications open in tabs and there are ‘panels’(described as persistent light windows) as well.
• Quick demo of Chrome OS UI is shown to us..It seems just fine…cool and lightweight.
• Speed, simplicity and security are the three main points Chrome OS will be based on.
• Sundar Pichai is done with his introductory speech and handing over the next part to Matt Papakipos
• Chrome OS eliminates the need of booting up. The browser gets auto-launched the moment we switch on the machine. The OS will self-update itself to stay aware of any security patches available and does the job by itself.
• From firmware to the OS kernel, things remain protected with a cryptographic signature ensuring a secure bootup. Malware detection and removal are automated.
• The existing system allows same level of system privileges to apps as given to users. This is entirely different when we talk about web based OS. The apps are web based and hence the privileges to web apps are never system based, which makes everything much secure and controlled in web based OS environment.

• Chrome OS’s file system is pretty much locked as it’s a read-only root file system. All user data is encrypted and synced to the cloud. PC would be utilized for caching your data but the ultimate stuff remains cloud based.
• It won’t be that easy to download and install Chrome OS on just about any machine. The hardware specs are an issue and Google is very much in talks with hardware manufacturers to settle down with a min. hardware requirements for Chrome OS. Chrome OS is expected to be ready by the fall of 2010.
• Q&A session starts..some interesting questions coming up….you catch the video embedded below :

The two popular Microsoft faces, Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer when questioned about Google’s Chrome OS announcement, answered in their own predictable ways.

Ballmer as always, downplayed the new Windows competitor, Google Chrome OS, criticizing not one but many of Google’s strategies. First, he criticized Google’s strategy of building two operating systems for serving kind of similar purposes(Netbook industry), with a huge overlap amongst each other. He quoted..

“The last time I checked you don’t need two client operating systems. We tried it before. Windows 95 and Windows NT. It’s good to have one. So I can’t — I don’t really know what’s up at Google.”

He went further, indirectly criticizing Google’s point to making Web as the main operating platform by making web browser(chrome) at the heart of their Web oriented OS(Chrome OS). He argued that most people spend half their time on computer, not using a web browser. He quoted..

“There’s good data that says 50 percent of the time that someone’s on their PC, they’re not doing something with the Web browser”

He ignored any future possibility of Microsoft taking Windows, the Google way and expressed his intentions of staying conventional in near future. He quoted..

Let me comment, though, about our own situation. What we really do understand is that the model for the future brings together the best of today’s rich client Windows-style applications and some of the things that people consider the best of the web. … So as we talk about where we’re going, we don’t need a new operating system. What we need to do is evolve Windows, Windows applications, IE, the way IE works in totality with Windows, and how we build applications like Office, like the stuff we showed here, and we need to make sure we can bring our customers and partners with us.”

Bill Gates commented on ‘Google Chrome OS’ in his pet way, by simply ignoring to even considering Chrome OS as something new. He quoted…

“There’s many, many forms of Linux operating systems out there and packaged in different ways and booted in different ways. In some ways I am surprised people are acting like there’s something new. I mean, you’ve got Android running on Netbooks. It’s got a browser in it.”

Gates further quoted…

“It just shows the word “browser” has become a meaningless word. “Tell me What’s a browser? What’s not a browser? If you’re playing a movie, would you call it a browser or not ? If you’re making notes, would you call that a browser? If you’re editing text, is that a browser or not ? In large part, it’s more an abuse of terminology than a real change.”

In the end, Ballmer highlighted that there’s barely anything disclosed about Chrome OS by Google and it’s tough to really judge at the moment how threatening and realistic it can be for MS. He quoted …

“Microsoft really doesn’t know what Chrome OS will look like. Who knows what this thing is ?”

While we have already clarified that there may be an overlap between the two Google Operating systems, still Chrome OS and Android have hardly any conflict of interests.

It has been an old bad habit of Microsoft: Ignoring the underdogs and staying away from thinking Out-of-the-box. The difference here is that this time, the underdog is Google Chrome OS and this makes things more serious than usual.

Anyways, everyone would agree that this underdog(Chrome OS) has the killer jaws to tear off Windows like no other.

I soon expect some Google exec. to clarify the floating rumors and talk-in-depth about Chrome OS, shedding more light on their future strategy and prospects.

Over the entire week that just passed by, the whole blogosphere appeared to be resonating an announcement on the Official Google blog : Introducing the Google Chrome OS

Finally, we will soon be witnessing an Operating System from Google built around Google Chrome, hence the name Google Chrome OS. It will be somewhere in 2010 when we all would actually have a preferrable alternative to Windows OS.

So far, there was absolutely no competiton for Microsoft in Operating system market(implying no options for the consumers). Apple’s Mac was busy serving a minority of computer users across the globe (around 4-5%) and may continue struggling, majorly due to its Hardware dependency issues. One shouldn’t even count Linux as a Windows competitor, as the open source OS never really managed to go beyond a certain usage level, mainly due to its poor User Interface, sophisticated functionality and non-familiarity with the masses.

There’s no witness required to conclude the fact that Windows Vista was a forced deal by Microsoft to its millions of religious userbase. In spite of Hardware incompatibility, poor performance, low efficiency and plenty of other ‘dark spots’, Windows Vista was heavily promoted as a preferrable upgrade but it didn’t take much time for the users to realize that Windows Vista wasn’t worth its cost.

Knowing the loop holes that Windows Vista had, the only reason why millions of users still upgraded their Operating systems from XP to Vista (or were simply sold Windows Vista by the hardware OEMs) was because of a lack of a better alternative to Windows Vista.

Many thanks to Google for providing all of us with an better alternative that we now can look upto. Welcome Google Chrome OS !

Is Google Chrome OS a Windows Killer ? Will it kick Microsoft Windows out of the OS market in 2-3 years from the day it officially releases ? Absolutely NOT.

Microsoft Windows is currently the De-facto standard in OS market. From hardware drivers to third party software applications, Windows has been a proven compatible Operating system for years now. The developer relations and overall OEM market is single handedly governed by this Software Godzilla. Windows 7, the much hyped operating system from Microsoft is set for release later this year. And building an Operating system, capable of  knocking out Microsoft Windows may even take generations of innovation.

And Google knows all this stuff quite well already. Still coming up with Google Chrome OS ?

Google is really not looking to challenge Microsoft all the way but want to capture the OS market stepwise, starting with an area where it can leave its impact the most, the Netbook Industry.

As Google Chrome OS will be built around Google Chrome, this would-be OS will rely mostly on Cloud services, Web apps and the concept of Webtop (think of Desktop) to make all things happen on the web, not on the desktop. It will primarily attract those, who live their life on internet and use their OS as just a medium to access the web browser, the actual door to the seemless world of internet.

As Netbooks have been the worst sufferers of Windows Vista due to Hardware incapability issues, the Google Chrome OS will address the urgent need of Netbook industry by providing a lighter, faster, more efficient and best of all FREE operating system to this upbeat industry.

Google is already busy working with major Netbook OEMs such as Acer, Adobe, ASUS, Freescale, Hewlett-Packard, Lenovo, Qualcomm, Texas Instruments, and Toshiba, to finally come up with an Operating system, capable of being a preferred alternative to Windows OS.

Google Chrome OS is an open source project and will therefore be opened to developers later this year, to help making Google Chrome OS, as compatible and driver-friendly as Windows OS.

In the end, we have to admit that Microsoft has certainly realized its Deadliest competitor possible.(just think of any company, capable of challenging Microsoft in its own homeground(OS Industry) and you would end up with nothing else but Google).