As far as the release date goes cant say much, but with Google Pushing out Google wave and a few other products i think MS and Google are goona be one of the most competitors in the market in the coming few years
Heh, While i agree with the fact that it's built on the Linux core, when it comes to Google i think we'll all be surprised with what they've got cooking It should be pretty interesting, Google's Android is very successful as far as i can tell and it's going to do wonders in no time flat, the same can be said for the Chrome OS as soon as it comes out =]
Though i have the funny feeling that whenever we mention Google or the Chrome OS a tiny little crawler bot from google reports back to big daddy at Google HQ Google is pretty darn smart not only is it one of the most popular search engines in the entire world it also has the opportunity to quickly capitalize on a dwindling OS market left to burn by Microsoft, Unless MS does something REALLY HUGE with Windows 7 i don't think it has much of a chance standing against Google