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Jolicloud, one of the original standouts in the field of cloud-based operating systems, has just released their new Chrome-based web application platform as promised earlier this month. The company's operating system now features 600+ web apps, a faster browsing experience and HTML5 support, notes a company blog post. The switch in back-end platforms from Mozilla prism to Chrome is an interesting one, too, especially considering that Google's upcoming Google Chrome OS for netbooks will soon launch, supposedly with manufacturer partnerships in tow. Will Jolicloud's open source efforts at delivering an alternative end up being just as successful? Or will they become the also-ran of the forthcoming cloud computing landscape?

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.