Article updated please see updates below
It didn"t take long after Google announced its entrance into the operating system wars that the first photos have leaked onto the net. What you are able to see below are shots of the Chrome desktop with one application installed, Google Talk. It"s not yet clear whether these screen shots are 100% legit.
The author cites that it took approximately ten minutes to install the OS on a Acer Extensa 4620Z laptop and it required only 1 restart. Approximate reboot cycle time from desktop to desktop took about 25 seconds and was described as "amazingly fast" but this was a stripped down beta to show off to developers. The Chrome button on the bottom left of the "Chrome Bar" acts like a start button that most are familiar with in Windows. Digging through system files can be done in two modes, "exploration" which is like windows file system or "browser" which is search based.
There is a long time between now and when the final production version of Chrome will be ready for public consumption. The target time frame is the second half of 2010 which gives Google plenty of time to fine tune and develop the OS into a full fledged competitor to Windows and OS X.
Chrome OS has been stated to be targeted for Netbooks and other low spec laptops. It wouldn"t be too hard to image that this OS will eventually be ported to all main stream products and could one day be used on desktops.
Update: This is now confirmed fake by the admission from the author.