Browser-obsessed netbooks running Google's Chrome operating system will be the freshest thing to hit computing in two decades, Eric Schmidt claims.

So rumor has it that Google's Chrome OS, which had been slated to arrive some time next year, is about to arrive as a beta release. As I pointed out this morning, netbooks based on it may help preserve open source influence on a hot hardware category, but is Chrome OS likely to be a smash hit?

Google CEO Eric Schmidt, speaking at a conference in Abu Dhabi this week, confirmed that the Chrome OS operating system is on track for delivery in the second half of this year. While we already know that it’s headed for netbooks, there are new reasons to believe that its brightest future may be as an adjunct OS on netbooks and tablets.

More than 65,000 smartphones running Google's Android OS are being shipped each day, Google CEO Eric Schmidt said during an annual shareholders meeting May 13. ...Later this year, the company plans to begin shipping a new hardware architecture from its hardware partners. The architecture will bring together the Chrome browser, a Chrome operating system and an open-source program called Chromium.

Google Chrome OS is an open source, lightweight operating system that will initially be targeted at netbooks. Later this year we will open-source its code, and netbooks running Google Chrome OS will be available for consumers in the second half of 2010. Speed, simplicity and security are the key aspects of Google Chrome OS.

Google has indicated it will offer native code browser applications from the Chrome web apps store that's due to launch later this year. The Chrome Web Store is designed for use with Google's Chrome browser and the company's upcoming Chrome OS, and it would appear that the store will make its debut when the OS hits netbooks in the fall.

Google CEO Eric Schmidt shed some light on the company's plans for Chrome OS in tablets and mobile devices at the Atmosphere Cloud Computing Summit. Cloud computing is the cornerstone of Chrome OS, as the platform runs entirely on cloud servers and all user data is automatically backed up to the same remote server network.

The software architecture is simple — Google Chrome running within a new windowing system on top of a Linux kernel.

Google Chrome OS will run on both x86 as well as ARM chips

Google Chrome OS is an open source, lightweight operating system that will initially be targeted at netbooks.

...the tech world is rocked with the latest announcement made by Google: "...today, we're announcing a new project that's a natural extension of Google Chrome — the Google Chrome Operating System. It's our attempt to re-think what operating systems should be."Google Chrome OS is aimed at people who spend most of their time on the web and will initially be targeted at netbooks.