Google confirms Chrome OS will be free, reveals OEM partners

Yesterday, Google announced that they plan to release a Chrome based OS.

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

In a blog posting today, Sundar Pichai, VP Product Management at Google, confirmed that Chrome OS "will be available to use at no cost".

Google also revealed the list of companies it is working with:

• Acer
• Adobe
• ASUS
• Freescale
• Hewlett-Packard
• Lenovo
• Qualcomm
• Texas Instruments
• Toshiba

Although Sony and Dell are both absent from the list Google did say "among others" before the list above so it's entirely possible the company is still in negotiation with other OEMs.

Company officials confirmed that Google Chrome OS will run on both x86 as well as ARM chips. Google is currently working with multiple OEMs to bring a number of netbooks to market next year bundled with the new Chrome OS.