Within this year Google wants to release the operating system Chrome OS. At first the new product will be used on netbooks. Currently Chrome OS is described as open source and light weight. The source code of Chrome OS is supposed to be released in the coming months.

Now the first pictures of the Alpha build of Chrome OS have been unveiled. The shots have been posted at downloadsquad.com without any comment or explanation.

Background Chrome OS
Google plans to ship Chrome OS on netbooks in the second half of 2010. Talks with potential partners are said to be running already. Furthermore cooperation with the open source community is one of the primary targets. Chrome Os is supposed to be a secure and easy to handle operating system that convinces with high speed - even on slow systems. The minimalistic interface and fast boot up sequences are supposed to make the Google OS successful.

The base for Chrome OS is supposed to be Linux, but it will be heavily modified. It is still not determined how Google's operating system is financed. Using money from other company branches, like done for Android, could be an option.

Google also named the first hardware partners. Acer, Adobe, Asus, Freescale, Hewlett-Packard, Lenovo, Qualcomm, Texas Instruments and other companies are said to be involved in the development of Chrome OS. Furthermore it has been noted again that Chrome OS will - as expected - be free. More details have not been revealed yet.