ReadWriteWeb

Dell has just released a customized version of Chromium OS, the open source code behind Google's new operating system called Chrome, in a build designed specifically for Dell Mini computers. According to a blog post on the Dell Community site, several company employees were inspired create this custom version after seeing Engadget's video showing Chrome OS running on a Vostro A860 netbook. After tinkering around with the code, they were able to create their own version of Chromium OS, complete with functional Wi-Fi drivers, and have made the build available for download as a USB key image file from the Direct2Dell blog.

It's the morning after the big Chrome OS event where Google executives and engineers revealed a myriad of details about the company's first attempt at creating their own operating system. The highly anticipated news conference was tracked all over the web, liveblogged by technology sites, and Twittered so much that it's still listed as a "trending topic" as of this morning.

But now that the news is out, has Chrome OS lost its shine? People had high expectations for Google's new operating system but the end result doesn't look like the revolutionary, "change the world" product many had hoped for.

Google has scheduled a press event for 10:00 am PST this morning where the company plans to announce more details about its Linux-based Chrome OS. According to the information we received from Google, the company plans to launch Chrome OS next year. We don't expect Google to release an early build of Chrome OS today, but we would be more than happy to be wrong. We do, however, expect to hear more details about the OS and to see a demo of Chrome OS's functionality.

Read on for our live updates from the event, which will start at 10:00 am PST.

Since the announcement of Google Chrome OS, the upcoming web-based operating system from search giant Google, a number of smaller web OS startups have hoped to capitalize on the renewed interest in the cloud desktop. One of those startups, eyeos, today announced their plans to release the next major upgrade to their web OS product, eyeos 2.0, on January 1st, 2010. To differentiate themselves from the herd, eyeos offers a couple of unique features including automatic sync with the local desktop and a host-your-own option. But is this what users really want in a cloud os?

...but What About the Other Web Browsers?

We don't know much about the upcoming OS from Google, Chrome OS, so most of the news we read about it involves speculation or, sometimes, rather terrible attempts at faking some supposedly official screenshots. However, we recently stumbled on a tidbit of actual news that proves how tightly integrated the Google Chrome web browser will be with the operating system. Of course that makes sense - it is called "Chrome OS" - but it makes us wonder if Google will be required to support other web browsers on their new platform? After all, it's one thing to integrate your own browser with your OS (as Microsoft does with IE) but it's another thing to not even offer a choice. What will Google do? Will they go the "evil" route?

Within the next two weeks, Google will release a new development version of Google Chrome that will include the ability to sync bookmarks between different computers. As Tim Steele, a software engineer on the Chrome team explained in a message to the Chrome developer group, the synchronization will be managed through a Google account. Changes in one install will be reflected in another Chrome instance in real time thanks to the Chrome team's use of the Google Talk servers as the messaging backend for this service.

Last week, Google announced some interface changes to their Google Docs service that are designed to make finding your files easier. The changes are relatively minor - the "shared with" list has gone away, there's a new "Sharing" menu, and you now have the ability to save your searches - but that hasn't stopped some bloggers from theorizing that the shiny new UI is bringing us one step closer to the often theorized, yet never realized, "Google Drive" service, aka "your hard drive in the cloud."

Although we know this service exists in some form as an internal tool, Google has yet to release a version for public use. But with the latest announcements about the new Chrome operating system, we wonder: will Google Drive finally become a reality thanks to Chrome OS?

As founding editor of ReadWriteWeb, every weekend I'll pick out 2-3 posts from the past week which I thought were particularly good and worth highlighting. The biggest news last week was probably the announcement of Google Chrome OS (excellently covered by Frederic Lardinois), which many people saw as the much-anticipated 'Google OS.' On further analysis though, there were a number of unanswered questions about this new product. Sarah Perez, one of RWW's feature writers, wrote an insightful post outlining 10 things that people are dying to know about Google Chrome OS. You can click here to read the whole post, which I encourage you to do. I've also pasted a couple of highlights below...

Just after we heard a number of rumors about the possible arrival of the rumored Google OS tonight, Google actually went ahead and announced that it will indeed release its own operating system - the Google Chrome Operating System. For now, Google plans to aim this OS at the netbook market. The OS will only become available for consumers in the second half of 2010, but Google promises that it will open-source the code later this year. According the the announcement on the Google blog, the OS will run on standard x86 chips as well as ARM chips, and Google is already working with a number of OEMs to bring devices that run the Google Chrome OS to the market.