The rumours surrounding a Google OS just will not die, fuelled by so called ‘leaked’ screenshots of GooOS that are, in fact, nothing more than a mocked up version of Gnome with some custom wallpaper. The chances of Google actually developing some kind of custom operating system for anything but internal use are, it seems to me, extremely low.
An online experience is one thing, but moving this offline into the very different world of computing platforms is something else. Who would be the target market for a start? What business would see the value in switching to a Google based OS over and above any number of Linux options or Mac OS X if considering switching at all? The same argument does not apply to the more easily impressed consumer of course, and the brand attraction of Google coupled to the availability and ease of use of the growing number of Google apps could be a compelling one. Some kind of WinCE-alike mobile device pre-loaded with the Google stable running under a Google branded OS could feasibly have quite a ready made market.