http://slyoyster.com

You can download the free virtual appliance of Chrome OS here. The tarball is containing vmdk and vmx files, so you’ll need a free VMware Player or VirtualBox in order to run this appliance. 

Not sure if this is on the up and up but Google did hold a press conference today with details of their much bally-whooed OS and it sounds impressive. 

It won’t be officially launched until first or second quarter 2010 and it really will be a browser-based interface.

Many people theorized that when Google rolled out the Chrome browser a year ago, that it would only be a matter of time before they announced some sort of operating system.  It made sense given their forays into office documents, email programs, etc.

Officially, the company has announced plans for Chrome OS.

Speed, simplicity and security are the key aspects of Google Chrome OS. We’re designing the OS to be fast and lightweight, to start up and get you onto the web in a few seconds. The user interface is minimal to stay out of your way, and most of the user experience takes place on the web. And as we did for the Google Chrome browser, we are going back to the basics and completely redesigning the underlying security architecture of the OS so that users don’t have to deal with viruses, malware and security updates. It should just work.

Which is all well and good, but Google also has a history of launching products and then letting them die on the vine, so to speak.  Even Chrome, which was launched to much fanfare has made little headway in browser share.  I don’t think I’m alone in saying that Microsoft’s bloatware has got to go, especially when they are still charging an arm and a leg for it.  Chrome OS is going to be an open-source platform, in the vein of Linux.

The announcement is intriguing, but it’s still just an announcement.  [via]

I’ve never fallen in love with Chrome, to the point where I thought ditching Firefox was a good idea.  But I will admit that it has some great features and design ideas that I think Firefox would be unwise not to implement.  Regardless, this commercial makes me want to love Chrome more than I actually do.  [via Waxy]

Jason Kottke has rounded up a nice little history behind Google’s supposedly new browser Chrome dating back to 2001.  There aren’t any working demonstrations of it yet and there is no indication that it will conflict with the new three year deal they just signed with Mozilla to essentially fund Firefox, however Google has created a browser.  It’s called Chrome and supposedly it rethinks the way that you use a browser.  This is better than an operating system since most of the work people do on computers is through a browser and most of computing will be in server clouds within a few years.  It also means there is little reason to use Internet Explorer, right?[Kottke]