This thursday the Google Chrome OS operating system will come out with a first version. CEO Eric Schmidt would have confirmed that rumor.
He said that to Schmidt Matt Yorke CEO of IDG, publisher of many technology magazines and websites. For about a week now there where rumors that Chrome OS would soon appear. Among others, technology blog TechCrunch wrote about it. Google itself said earlier this year that they expected the first version of Chrome OS around autumn.
Microsoft
Chrome OS is a Linux based operating system and will initially focus on so-called netbooks - small, portable computers that are especially suited for web applications.
With this Google will become a direct competitor in the field of operating systems of Microsoft. The latest version of its operating system, Windows 7, is also made suitable for such computers.
Web Browser
Last year Google launched its own web browser, also called Chrome. That would be especially suitable for all kinds of interactive web applications. Google, with GMail, Google Docs and the new Google experimental Wave, is very active in that market.
It is believed that the first version of Chrome OS will only be suiteable for a limited number of netbooks because for a lot of devices there are no drivers available yet.