Android, Google’s open source mobile phone operating system is now available for you Netbook.

Because Android is originally designed to run on smartphones its speed and size makes it an ideal candidate for Netbooks as well and that is just what the guys over at Android x86 project has done.

The Android x86 project is merely a few month old but already it runs stable on the Asus EEE PC Netbook range and includes a range of Desktop Applications and even access to the Android Market where you can download other Android applications.

The desktop applications include email, address book, web browser, photo gallery, calendar and clocks and a selection of games. On certain models Wifi connection is made automatically allowing for instant access to the Internet.

I would have thought that the Chrome OS would have been available by now but looks like the open source developers at Android x86 Project beat Google to the punch with their own open source platform. I see great potential for Android x86 and are looking forward to what the OS has in store for the future.

If you are interested in testing out Android x86 head over to the Android x86 Project web page and download the 50 mb ISO, there is also a bootable flash image available. Also check out the screenshots.

First Google took on the browser arena with their Chrome Browser and now they are ready to take on the Operating System arena with their new OS called Google Chrome OS.

Google Chrome OS is an open source, lightweight operating system that will initially be targeted at netbooks. Later this year Google will open-source its code, and netbooks running Google Chrome OS will be available for consumers in the second half of 2010. Because Google is already talking to partners about the project, and they’ll soon be working with the open source community, Google wanted to share their vision now so everyone understands what they are trying to achieve.

Speed, simplicity and security are the key aspects of Google Chrome OS. Google is designing the OS to be fast and lightweight, to start up and get you onto the web in a few seconds. As Google did for the Google Chrome browser, they are going back to the basics and completely redesigning the underlying security architecture of the OS so that users don’t have to deal with viruses, malware and security updates. It should just work.

Google Chrome OS will run on both x86 as well as ARM chips and we are working with multiple OEMs to bring a number of netbooks to market next year.

Google Chrome OS is a new project, separate from Android. Android was designed from the beginning to work across a variety of devices from phones to set-top boxes to netbooks. Google Chrome OS is being created for people who spend most of their time on the web, and is being designed to power computers ranging from small netbooks to full-size desktop systems.

Google still have a lot of work to do, and they’re definitely going to need a lot of help from the open source community to accomplish this vision.

Google Chrome OS seems to me like another entrant specificly for the netbook arena and I for one would like to see a better lightweight operating system than the current popular Limpus Lite. Not only do I think it will perform well but with a name like Chrome it should probably have the nice look of the Chrome browser.