More answers about Google’s Chrome OS: Yes, it’s free

Google didn’t have a lot of details behind its just-announced Chrome browser operating system last night. But some new details are flowing out about just how the search giant is approaching the project.

Google released a FAQ today that gave some more details. First, the company says the new operating system will be free.

Its allies include Acer, Adobe, ASUS, Freescale, Hewlett-Packard, Lenovo, Qualcomm, and Texas Instruments. Google will release the project as open source code later this year. And it said it is hiring software engineers in 10 different locations for Chrome OS work.

We’ve also heard the following details from background sources.

If you’re wondering exactly what a browser operating system is, it’s one that is slimmed down for the sole purpose of running web applications. It is built around the core of a Linux kernel, meaning it uses Linux to handle all of the cooperation that has to take place between software and hardware when you want to make images appear on the screen or print a document.

All of the interaction takes place within the browser. But the exact balance between the computing that happens on the client machine and the computing that happens on the server isn’t strictly known. That is, different applications will make different use of computing resources, wherever they are. And different types of computers will also vary in terms of how much they tap the Internet cloud for resources or how much they need a solid hardware client to do the processing tasks.

One of the big questions is whether games will be able to run on Chrome OS machines. Right now, running a game on a Linux netbook requires that the game be modified by the game publisher to run on Linux. That’s no trivial task, and game companies will do that only if there is hope of large sales. The Chrome OS can tap Native Client, a Google technology that gives apps running in the browser the power to tap the “native” resources, or the client hardware. O3D, meanwhile, is an applications programming interface (API — meaning a software layer that lets technologies talk to each other) that lets complex 3-D graphics run in a browser. The question is really whether Google is going to do the work required to motivate game companies to adapt their applications for the Chrome OS.

Because the Chrome OS project is open source, others will be able to tailor it to their needs. That’s why there isn’t a 100 percent-clear demarcation between where Chrome OS ends and Google’s smartphone-focused Android begins. Customers are going to have a choice when it comes to operating systems from Google. Android will run on many devices. The Chrome OS is browser-focused and is targeted at netbooks. Android and Chrome were born from two different sets of code. There is overlap between the two, but Google thinks customers will sort it out.

The project is relatively fresh. In other words, it would be wrong to suggest (as we did in our earlier story) that Google chief executive Eric Schmidt got started on this the day he became CEO in 2001. Rather, the team for the Chrome OS is the same team that worked on the Chrome browser, which debuted in September. It is not a giant team that has been toiling for years and years in an attempt to drop a nuclear bomb on Microsoft.

There are some big questions. Intel’s Moblin is a version of Linux with a user interface layer that makes netbooks more user friendly. It isn’t clear whether the Chrome OS and Moblin will be complementary or competitive.

We’ll try to squeeze more details out of the Google speakers at our MobileBeat 2009 event next week.