Today at an event at held at their Mountain View, CA headquarters, Google finally dished out the details on their upcoming operating system.

Dubbed Chrome OS, the open source OS is specifically meant to be a lightweight system for those who spend most of their time online. Google has stripped away what it considers to be unnecessary features to focus on getting users booted and online quickly.

Chrome OS is unique in that it’s an entirely web-based operating system: All of the applications are web-based, and all actions are taken inside of a browser. Google’s new OS does not support conventional desktop applications or programs, nor are there any pre-loaded programs that users will have to install or manage.

And because users cannot download or install binaries or process tasks in the local desktop environment, the operating system’s risk profile is quite small  (to say nothing of its Linux heart). Chrome OS is also designed to automatically check the integrity of its codebase on reboot, and to repair any hash discrepancies detected during the boot sequence.

Chrome OS won’t be ready for an entire year, but Google wanted to open up the project and code so as to connect with the open source community and developers. For more information, Google has provided a brief informational video which we’ve plugged in below.

Computerworld is reporting that Microsoft has an unlikely ally in the form of Mozilla which yesterday blasted Google for releasing a plugin which replaces Internet Explorer’s renderer with that of Chrome’s.

The former CEO of Mozilla and current Mozilla Foundation chair Mitchell Baker expressed her disagreement in a personal blog update.

“The overall effects of Chrome Frame are undesirable,” she said. “I predict positive results will not be enduring and — and to the extent it is adopted — Chrome Frame will end in growing fragmentation and loss of control for most of us, including Web developers.”

Baker claims that slipping Chrome into Internet Explorer will confuse users by giving them conflicting destinations for browser control.

“Once your browser has fragmented into multiple rendering engines, it’s very hard to manage information across Web sites. Some information will be manageable from the browser you use and some information from Chrome Frame. This defeats one of the most important ways in which a browser can help people manage their [Web] experience.”

Microsoft, meanwhile, complained that adding Chrome to IE would pose an increased security risk. The Redmond firm said that users would now have to patch vulnerabilities for two browsers instead of one. Microsoft also pointed out that the plugin also disabled Internet Explorer features like the private browsing mode which blocks history and cookies from being recorded.

The Mozilla Foundation’s VP of Engineering Mike Shaver also echoed security concerns. “The user’s understanding of the Web’s security model and the behavior of their browser is seriously hindered by delegating the choice of software to the developers of individual sites they visit,” he said.

Google has not yet responded to Mozilla’s criticisms. Users interested in replacing the Internet Explorer rendering engine with the safer, faster, and newer Chrome engine can do so for free.

Google announced on Tuesday the beta release of a plugin which makes major changes to Microsoft’s competing Internet Explorer browser.

Titled Google Frame, it completely replaces IE’s web rendering engine with that of Chrome’s. The result is a faster, more standards-compliant experience even in the antique Internet Explorer 6.

Many web developers are loathe to require that users upgrade their browser (because most simply can’t), but Google theorizes that the low barrier to entry of a plugin might spur IT departments to adopt it as they have with Adobe’s Flash.

Meanwhile, MSNBC Editorial Concepts Producer Jim Ray has written a glowing review which documents the technical details of Google’s work:

The irony here, as I see it, is that an old, insecure feature Microsoft built to try to beat Netscape is now being used by Microsoft’s biggest current rival to patch IE. The upside for developers is that Microsoft is going to have a hard time killing Chrome Frame because it actually does the right thing — it’s not hacking IE via undocumented APIs or unscrupulous haxie-like code injection. They used Microsoft’s own well-documented and fully supported platform to do this. Bravo indeed, Google.

We can’t deny that this news fills us with a bit of smug satisfaction, but we question the utility of requiring all IE users (or merely IE6 users) to install a plugin before using your site. While Flash has made significant inroads in this area over the years, we wonder if there is enough incentive before larger websites pave the way.

Chrome 4 vs. Opera 10 vs. Firefox 3.5. FINISH HIM.

Chromium has a head, er, I mean a bug.

Today’s announcement that Google CEO Eric Schmidt has resigned from Apple’s board of directors may change the very face of competition in a race long alleged to be between Google and Microsoft.

The mutual decision–so far as the friendly PR tells us–to step down from Apple’s board comes just days after the FCC was prompted to investigate Apple’s app store practices after the firm rejected Google’s Voice application.

The timing of the announcement carries the air of conspicuousness, but cannot be construed as definitively damning. The more interesting case to be made from Schmidt’s resignation is the cementing of a rivalry few–if anyone–saw coming amidst the Microsoft v. Google punditry: Apple may just be Google’s biggest rival, not Microsoft.

Consider the market overlap between the trio of tech elites: While Microsoft and Google compete in search, advertising, cloud computing and soon operating systems, Google and Apple compete in phones, browsers, cloud computing and soon operating systems. Google may share the same number of conflicts with both firms, but the numbers tell a vastly more interesting story.

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In a rather unsurprising turn of events, CNN Money reports that Google CEO Eric Schmidt has resigned from Apple’s board of directors.

“Eric has been an excellent board member for Apple, investing his valuable time, talent, passion and wisdom to help make Apple successful,” said Apple CEO Steve Jobs in a statement. “Unfortunately, as Google enters more of Apple’s core businesses, with Android and now Chrome OS, Eric’s effectiveness as an Apple board member will be significantly diminished.”

As board members are expected to abstain from participating in business matters that would represent a conflict of interest, Google’s new interest in phones, operating systems and browsers puts Schmidt at odds with the majority of Apple’s core businesses.

Putting What Little We Actually Know About Chrome OS Into Context.

If you read the comments from an old Yahoo story, you will see that a “Google OS” has been expected for years. Yesterday the big G announced their Chrome OS initiative. Any internet denizen worth their salt should completely fail to be shocked at this news.

Chrome OS will run as a layer of lightweight services over a presumably slim Linux kernel. Being that they are aiming at netbooks, we can expect Chrome OS to be as lightweight as possible. Builds for x86 and ARM are planned.

Their stated goal is to “be fast and lightweight, to start up and get you onto the web in a few seconds.”

Google has been slowly inching their way into the web-as-a-platform space since Gmail started to take off. The suite of services collectively known as Google Apps has become firmly entrenched as a set of indispensible tools to both consumers, casual users, and enterprise admins alike.

Pundits are shouting from the rooftops that this is Microsoft’s death knell, but it is an immature viewpoint at best to assume that a platform that is essentially a beefed up mobile platform can become a threat on the desktop. A lightweight OS will never be a powerhouse for applications such as video and photo editing, or the continually growing market of video gaming.

Of course one could argue that the trend towards centralized everything means all signs point to computing in the cloud as the panacea of our connected lifestyle; while services like OnLive (which have so far failed to actually demonstrate a working product), and Adobe’s Photoshop.com are certainly going to have a place in our future computing experience, the paradox is that the ever-increasing ubiquitousness of connectivity is driving the need for even more horsepower on the desktop. People want to make and (more importantly) edit their own YouTube videos. They want to create their own music. They want to edit and share photos from their increasingly higher-res digital cameras. Does a desktop with little to no horsepower, that relies merely on a fat internet pipe to receive what amount to screenshots played off of some massive datacenter supercomputer somwhere, really fill the role of a content creation and hi-def entertainment workstation? Not for a long, long time.

It’s true that Microsoft should definitely sit up and take notice; the winds of change and the hearts and whims of each coming generation are fickle. Windows 7 is a step in the right direction, as it seems that they are starting to take their reputation for bloatware seriously. Even to this old cynic, Windows 7 feels lighter than anything that has come before it. Is it capable of being a truly mobile OS? Sure. My netbook runs great with Windows 7. Is it the perfect platform for a completely web-based workflow? No, but that’s not what I want. I need to do real work while I’m on the road, not just “check my email and blog.”

For those who do need a device that is optimized for a web-based workflow, Chrome OS seems like it should be pretty cool. Will it connect to your corporate network, or work with the Mac workstations in your graphic design department? Probably not for a long time, if ever. Will we start to see 10-15 hour battery life on netbooks due to a super light OS that barely does any processing of its own? It’s possible.

Google is on a continuous upswing as far as announcing new products and services. But Google isn’t an untouchable paladin either. They’ve definitely had flops and bad ideas. Time will tell what place Chrome OS will claim in the history books.

Now you can use Chrome to view the web in 3D.

Microsoft has come out to defend against criticisms leveled at the new Internet Explorer 8 for failing to pass the Acid3 test. Microsoft asserts that they did not bake support for the test into IE8 because the standards in the Acid3 test are not yet finalized by the W3C.

Nick Hodge of Microsoft Australia explains Microsoft’s decision was based on experiences with IE6.

“The concern Microsoft has is that if we burnt [draft standards] into Internet Explorer 8 and passed Acid3 with 120 percent and then deploy it on so many machines, especially in the enterprise, [we have made draft standards de-facto standards] when the W3C will then want to innovate on the [evolving] standards,” he said. “Our learning comes from IE6. With IE6 we adopted some non-recommended standards and interpreted them in a certain way. The end result of that has been painful web development.”

Stephen Collins of Acid Labs, the firm behind the Acid tests, doesn’t buy Microsoft’s explanation. “Other browsers pass Acid3. [Microsoft has] had more than enough time with IE8, so it should pass too,” Collins said.

IE8’s 21/100 score weighs in against that of Chrome and Safari with 100/100, and Firefox 3.0 with 71/100.

Chrome only browser left standing after day one of Pwn2Own.