BlackBerry parent RIM bought QNX Software Systems, a maker of embedded real-time operating systems, this past April.

Oracle continues to demonstrate its uncanny resemblance to the "Star Trek" universe's Borg, the massive, unfeeling entity that doesn't merely capture and feed on prey so much

Oracle has sketched out a five-year road map for Sun's Sparc-based servers, hoping to reassure customers about the future of the platform and reverse a pattern of declining sales.

John Fowler, the former Sun executive who runs Oracle's systems business, laid out the plans in a webcast from Oracle's headquarters Tuesday morning. In an interview beforehand, he also confirmed reports that Oracle has stopped designing x86-based servers with chips from AMD and has standardized on Intel processors.

Tuesday saw the launch of the Illumos Project, heralded last week in a message on the OpenSolaris mailing lists. The announcement caused much excitement, with many assuming it was a fork of OpenSolaris or another OpenSolaris distribution.

Although a niche offering today, the open source Chrome OS is likely to follow Android's success -- so IT decision makers should plan on evaluating Chrome OS-based devices for at least some portion of their user base in the next 12 to 18 months.

Talks are under way between Google and Dell to bring Chrome OS, the search giant's cloud-centric operating system, to Dell's computer lineup, according to a Dell executive.

Google plans to release its Chrome operating system late this year, initially targeting laptop users, the head of the project said Wednesday.

The Chrome OS "will be offered to users in the fourth quarter," said Sundar Pichai, Google's vice president of product management, during a speech at the Computex electronics exhibition in Taipei.

Google is unveiling early-stage designs, software code, and documentation of a project whose goal is to let users of the company's Chrome OS print documents to any printer from any application.

IBM is beefing up its server lineup with the first blades based on its Power7 processor, the company announced Tuesday. It is also introducing a new, low-end edition of its AIX operating system for smaller businesses and enterprises doing consolidation projects.

Dek: 

Android has become a popular OS choice for Internet entertainment devices and more

Source: 

Network World

No

Oracle presented an overview today of its ambitions for its newly acquired Sun products, focusing on integrated systems offering everything from the application to the database, servers and storage. "The Sun deal closed yesterday. We're all pumped and excited," said Oracle president Charles Phillips at Oracle headquarters in Redwood Shores, Calif.

The already intense Google-Microsoft rivalry heated up considerably last month with the long-expected release of Google's Chrome operating system to the open-source community.

No one loves a deathmatch more than the tech press. It's great fun to handicap the opponents, talk knowingly about strategy, and trot out the quotes from Sun Tzu and the "Art of War." We're seeing that again as Google gives us a glimpse of the Chrome OS and drops hints about the shape of a future Chromebook.

Thin is in again. At least that's the message I'm taking away from the full-frontal media orgy surrounding last week's Chrome OS demo. Virtually everyone who's anyone is now singing the praises of the smaller, lighter, Web-centric desktop model at the heart of Google's still unreleased "Windows killer." And that includes Microsoft.

Dek: 

Expected in late 2010, this first look at the new OS for Web appliances exemplifies Google's simple cloud approach

Source: 

InfoWorld

No

Misconceptions and misinformation have surrounded the Chrome OS almost since the day it was announced. This week's press conference at Google's Mountain View, Calif., campus helped to clear the air, but uncertainty about what the search giant's new OS has to offer still remains.

As with anything Google does, opinion ranges from revolutionary to lackluster. Personally, I think it's too early to tell. More importantly, I think the success of Chrome OS won't be based on the success of version 1.0. Google has the uncanny ability to generate and maintain interest even in the face of negative initial reviews.

The Chrome OS is here -- sort of. This week, Google was kind of enough to give the world a sneak peek at its nascent desktop operating system. And after months of speculation (and more than a few bogus screenshot galleries), I can finally say that I've seen the future ... and it's not Chrome OS.

Google unveiled more details about its much-anticipated Chrome OS at a press event at its Mountain View, Calif., campus today, but those who were hoping for a beta release of the OS were in for a disappointment. "We aren't launching the product today. There is no beta today," said Sundar Pichai, vice president of product management. "Our target is the end of next year. We want to be there for the holiday season."

Remember the original "Star Wars," where the Jawas would roam the deserts of Tatooine in their Sandcrawler, rounding up whatever odd droid models they could find to sell to their human customers? It seems the market for Google Android handsets follows pretty much the same principles.