Plan9 - Google OS?

Google operating system

This strategy may account for some unusual hires by Google including Rob Pike from Bell labs, one of the development team members for an unusual distributed OS called Plan 9, named for the wacky Ed Wood cult film, "Plan 9 from Outer Space." While Pike may have been brought in to help the company deal with its internal software used to control tens of thousands of clusters, there is speculation that Google wants to push out onto the desktop. The company is already toying with distributed grid computing with its obscure Google Computer project: http://toolbar.google.com/dc/offerdc.html.

And what's to stop them at the operating system level? What about a Googlebox? An actual machine.

Since all the X86 computers are essentially generic machines made in China, why wouldn't Google leverage its brand name and roll out the Google X1 -- the "computer for the X-Generation!" It could probably get an Apple-like premium for such a machine and load it up with proprietary software too.

Meanwhile, I expect to see the gbrowser before year's end. We'll see where that goes.

Sounds a bit too much to speculate, but why not, of course there is room for a good OS here. And if Google is serious about this, and based on how they love moding established open source software to do new, better Googlewares (working on firefox for example), it is going to be a google flavour of some *nix, and of course, that sounds very exciting! :)