Microsoft's rivalry with Google heated up considerably this past year when rumors surfaced that Google might release its own operating system to compete with Windows. Has Google finally jumped into the fray with its own OS?

Google has been slowly, but surely, displacing Microsoft as the number one PC technology company. Google has done it by misdirection. Instead of taking Microsoft head-on in desktops, Google first consolidated their hold on Web search and only then started moving into Web-based desktop applications.

A glimpse at what Google's advancement in the market is doing to Microsoft, the company that attacks Free software more than any other company (or all of them combined)

Google has confirmed that its upcoming lightweight, browser-centric Chrome OS operating system will include a built-in media player. In an interview with ArsTechnica, Matthew Papakipos, the engineering director for the Chrome OS project, says that the developers are currently working on "integrating a whole media player into Chrome and into Chrome OS".

Considering its market share in search and advertising, how and why Google is able to avoid more severe antitrust scrutiny, considering IBM's and Microsoft's run-ins with anti-monopoly commissions around the world, is unknown.

Google's protests over the way desktop search is handled in Microsoft's Vista OS have so far fallen on deaf ears. A U.S. district judge denied Google's request to extend Microsoft's antitrust agreement with federal and state governments, essentially saying the matter was none of Google's business. The judge suggested that Google appeal to DoJ, which has shown no sympathy for the search giant.

Microsoft fails to slow Google down; Google harms Microsoft's profits; Windows-only Microsoft Web rationalises temporary support of Google

The hype over this operating system has been so heavy that failure would be a heavy blow. Google introduced Chrome OS July 7, promising a lightweight, Linux-based operating system for netbooks that will enable speedy Web applications. The move was a major shot at Microsoft, whose Windows desktop operating system Google intimated was antiquated.

While the open-source crowd gets (rightly) excited by Linux's growing market share, three companies are pulling the rug out from under the feet of traditional operating systems.