When Google officials released Chrome operating system to open source last November, there were a lot of unanswered questions and uncertainty around the project.

One thing Google seemed sure about was that netbooks bearing Google's emerging Web operating system wouldn't appear before November or December of 2010, timed for the holiday season.

Now VentureBeat is reporting that Acer could launch Chrome OS devices at the Computex Taipei show, which kicks off June 1.

Notice VB said "devices," so we don't know whether these will be netbooks, which Chrome OS was originally designed for, or tablet computers. That's an important distinction, which I'll discuss later.

Can this be true? The only reason I'm not calling complete BS on this is that Chrome OS is open source.

If a computer maker deemed Chrome OS suitable enough to put on its machines, then who are we to argue?

Either Chrome OS is farther along than Google led us to believe last fall, or Acer is taking a risk in trying to be first to market.

Speaking of which, what sort of device will it push first to market?

Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google, expects netbooks running the upcoming Google Chrome OS to be competitively priced between $300 to $400 dollars. In a YouTube video found by Tech Rader, Schmidt says:

“Those prices are completely determined by the costs of the glass, the costs of the processor and things like that.. but in our case Chrome OS and Android are free so there is no software tax associated with all of this.”

This really shouldn’t come as a surprise to most of you but the latest rumor on the Google Chrome browser/OS front is the notion that Google will bundle Adobe Flash with the system. Ah yes – a nice little poke at systems without support for Flash (ahem .. iPad?).

Of course Flash on a netbook is already a very painful experience – at least in the high definition video arena. Sure 10.1 will fix this for systems running NVIDIA and ATI graphics but the vast majority of Intel-integrated graphics systems will still perform rather poorly with Flash video.

[Check it out]

While the primary focus of the upcoming Google Chromium OS is the netbook form factor, this doesn’t mean Google isn’t considering other form factors for the browser-based OS. If you head on over to http://dev.chromium.org/chromium-os/user-experience/form-factors, you’ll find a variety of possible form factors for the Chromium OS – everything from tablets to laptops to desktop systems to large-screen displays. For each form factor, Google outlines the changes to the user interface one might expect with the Chromium OS.

On the netbook front, one would expect:

Fresh pictures of Google's Chrome Operating System running on a tablet computer are dominating high-tech talk today. Here's a glimpse:

People are anxious to see what Chrome OS can do. Sundar Pichai, vice president of product management at Google, said Chrome OS is slated to appear on netbooks first in the November-December 2010 timeframe.

There's already talk of an integrated media player running in the Chrome Web browser and OS.

Technologies that do in the browser what Microsoft has done with an on-premise download look attractive to a lot of people these days. Call it cloud envy.

Here is what one can do on a Chrome OS tablet:

So let's step back and consider the early, early airing of a Chrome OS user interface, on the Chromium developer Web site here by Google Chrome User Interface Lead Glen Larson.

First things first you will need to download Google Chrome OS Beta and Virtual Box.

Once you have downloaded the .ISO file and unzipped it you can create your virtual disk.

Step 1 – Name the Virtual Machine and set OS and type to other.

Step 2 – Set the base memory size(RAM) I used 1000MB NOTE: Go easy on this at first you can always bump it up later if need be

It’s only been a few days, but it feels like weeks since Google announced Google Chrome OS and stirred up the blogosphere and the imagination of techies and Microsoft haters everywhere. The response, the analysis, and the debate has been constant ever since. Can it beat Windows? Can it even run Photoshop?

Two days ago, we profiled the ongoing battle between Microsoft and Google, focusing on areas where the two companies compete. Almost everyone has framed Google Chrome OS as a direct competitor to Microsoft Windows. But I am about to argue that this is the wrong way to view Chrome OS.

Google’s goal isn’t to have the majority market share. The goal is to force you on the web more and for longer. Why? It’s all part of Google’s simple equation to monetize the world.

There’s a ton of buzz today about Google’s entry into the world of operating systems with the announcement of Google Chrome OS. While the OS itself won’t debut until next year, one forward thinking cartoonist essentially predicted that Chrome was Google’s “Windows killer” back in November ‘08, shortly after the Chrome Web browser first debuted.

The Italian cartoonist, Federico Fieni, cleverly portrays how Google first pondered how to challenge Windows, put its heads together, and ultimately devised Chrome. Who knew this cartoon would be so much more relevant just a few months later? Check it out:

Google dropped a major bombshell earlier this evening: they’re launching their own operating system, known as Google Chrome OS. The new operating system will be lightweight, is based of its Chrome browser, and is clearly Google’s challenge to Microsoft’s longstanding domination of the OS market.

While we’re still trying to catch our breath over the announcement, we can’t say we’re particularly surprised – the rumors have been bubbling for a long time now and projects like Android show Google has had an interest in this arena. But the Google OS leaves a lot of questions to be answered. How will it differ from Windows? How will it work? And most of all, can Google actually do what many consider impossible: beat Microsoft on its home turf?

Google’s Strengths

This paragraph from Google’s announcement helps clarify what Google is building into this operating system: