Chromium OS is Out, and it is Based on Ubuntu Linux
A branch called chromiumos was just added to the official Chromium git repository, and the contents of the index files there indicate that Chromium OS, and in effect Google Chrome OS, is based on Ubuntu Linux. From chromiumos.git/src/package_repo/repo_list_image.txt:
71 fontconfig 2.6.0-1ubuntu12 optional utils pool/main/f/fontconfig/fontconfig_2.6.0-1ubuntu12_i386.deb 72 fontconfig-config 2.6.0-1ubuntu12 optional libs pool/main/f/fontconfig/fontconfig-config_2.6.0-1ubuntu12_all.deb 73 gcc-4.4-base 4.4.1-1ubuntu3 required libs pool/main/g/gcc-4.4/gcc-4.4-base_4.4.1-1ubuntu3_i386.deb
Here are some videos from the Chromium OS website that just went live:
What is Google Chrome OS?
Chromium OS Security
Chromium OS & Open Source
Chromium Fast Boot
There’s a live transcript of the Google Chrome OS event speech by Google VP of Product Management, Sundar Pichai, over at TechCrunch. They have also just posted a video demo of Google Chrome OS recorded at the announcement event in Mountain View, showing off the interface, bootup times, and more.
Update: Ars Technica has just published an excellent analysis of Chrome OS.