Google unveils Chrome OS for notebooks

The huge question is whether Chrome OS will challenge Windows on low-end machines, particularly netbooks. Nevertheless with the netbook market shrinking as buyers shift towards tablets, there are questions too about whether Chrome OS is too little, too late: Android is doing remarkably so then on mobile phones and tablets, during Microsoft has managed to persuade netbook makers to use a low-end version of Windows 7.

"We think cloud computing will define computing as we know it," said Eric Schmidt, Google's chief operating officer, at the announcement - which falls notably short of a launch. "When all is said and done there is a viable third choice for an operating system."

Some Linux, and particularly Ubuntu fans, might wonder which three he's talking about, given that Windows and Mac OS X are the two OSs you can buy in the shops. Is Schmidt saying Ubuntu isn't viable, or just that you can't get it in the shops?

Then again, Chrome OS is a Linux-based OS, so Linux fans might have cause to like it - the way that Google took Android, another Linux build, from zero to hero in the smartphone market could be seen as a good sign.

Image gallery of the Cr-48 - whose black casing

Google has put up an image gallery of the Cr-48 - whose black casing and keyboard make it look specifically like one of Apple's "BlackBook" models from three years ago, although with barely any connectors - I spot a power lead, USB connector, display connector, now no Ethernet jack.

Windows 7 blows past 10%, during Google Chrome as well rises

Tania Branigan canvasses opinion from internet experts and bloggers on Google's announcement that it is no longer willing to censor its Chinese search service