Chrome OS Revealed, But Hibernating for Winter

The media was invited to a debut of the Chrome OS yesterday, but it was clear that the OS will not really be ready for quite some time. Rather than speculating about the inadequacies of the ‘new’ operating system, people and the press can now be wondering aloud why Google chose to announce when the project was not yet ready.

from InformationWeek

Members of the media were invited to Google (NSDQ: GOOG)’s headquarters for the official unveiling of Chrome OS, the new operating system from Google. Details were few and far between, but don’t expect Chrome OS to become widely available until 2010.

Google has shared little information since first announcing Chrome OS just a few short months ago. The operating system, says Google, is designed for people who spend most of their time on the Web.

Rumors have been circulating the Interwebs for weeks now about when Chrome OS will arrive. In fact, a beta version of the operating system was expected to appear as early as this week. That may still be a possibility, but given the wording of the Google invitation, I wouldn’t get your hopes up.

Google is billing Thursday’s event as “an update on our progress with Google Chrome OS.” The event will include a demonstration of what Chrome OS is and how it works. Google also said it will detail its “launch plans for next year.”

That last quote makes it pretty clear that the operating system won’t be ready until some point in 2010. Hopefully it will be earlier in the year rather than later in the year.

Sundar Pichai, vice president of product management and Matthew Papakipos, engineering director for Google Chrome OS, will be leading the event.

So the way it was done, it effectively becomes a non-event, and gives breathing room for Google to get out the final bugs and spit polish the interface, all without so much pressure to release prematurely.

The longer Google waits, and polishes, the better the final results will be.

As it is fairly clear that Chrome OS is less a full operating system, and more of a browser launcher, I am wondering why there is so much baited breath. I look for this to become a feature of certain motherboards, in the same way that Asus offers a scaled down Linux as Express Gate on some of its current offerings.

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