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Following TechCrunch's recent post showing alleged photos of Google's upcoming Chrome OS, which don't seem to show much beyond the fact that the operating system may have very large icons, there are some new clues emerging about it. As Download Squad cites, based on notes in a post detailing changes to the Chrome browser's Chromium core, Chrome OS sounds a lot like a bootable browser running on Linux. There are reasons to believe that as soon as you start the operating system, you'll be in the Chrome browser, and reasons to believe that you won't have the choice to use other browsers. That could potentially cause Google trouble.

In a move that could quickly be followed by similar deals, Google has reportedly inked a deal with Sony to pre-install the Chrome web browser on new Sony VAIO computers. As JKOnTheRun notes, this marks the first deal that Google has signed with a hardware vendor to get Chrome involved in consumers? OOBE (out of box experience). The out of box experience with a browser is particularly important on consumer systems, where many users will simply use whichever browser is already installed, and similar bundling deals are what helped propel Microsoft's Internet Explorer to dominant market share. There isn't any word on what kind of money changed hands here, but I'm guessing it was a significant amount, and this deal is another sign of strong momentum for open source browsers. Check out more details here.?

Is innovation in browsers where it should be? We've reported before on how most of the innovation is going on in open source browsers, as Microsoft's Internet Explorer continues to lose market share. This week, at two separate conferences, officials from Google and Mozilla have weighed in on how browsers need to improve. Notably, they primarily agree, and their focus doesn't seem matched by Microsoft with Internet Explorer.

Few corners of the software world are witnessing as much fierce competition as the browser market. Microsoft's Internet Explorer is continuing to drop in market share, ?and although the company's new version 8 of IE has many improvements, Walt Mossberg and others are finding that it's not as fast as Firefox, Chrome or Safari. I remain loyal to Firefox because of the incredible extensions that I can use with it, but I'm actually using all the major browsers, including Opera. Amidst all the competition, here are some findings I took note of this week, regarding Chrome, IE, Firefox and Opera.

Microsoft Watch's Joe Wilcox, in solemn observance of Friday the 13th, compiled a list of Microsoft's ten most unlucky breaks. The strokes of misfortune chosen were weighted according to heinousness (with #10 being least signficant, and #1 the most).

Checking in at #7 is the development of the Linux kernel. Putting aside Microsoft's whole Schrodinger's cat sort of approach to Linux over the years (Linux is not a threat. Linux is a threat), it is interesting Wilcox (and the analysts who helped him narrow down the list) focused on the kernel as the bad break.

The Google Operating System blog and The Open Road have noted that Google's open source Chrome browser will get Firefox-like extensions by May. That's when the Google I/O conference takes place in San Francisco, and there is a session there titled Developing extensions for Google Chrome. According to Google officials This talk will cover the basics of the extension system (distribution/packaging, installation, updates), as well as the different APIs to enhance with the browser. As I've written before, this, along with the delivery of Mac and Linux versions of Chrome, will kick the browser into high gear, with Internet Explorer facing many problems.

Recently, we covered benchmarks showing the Release Candidate for Microsoft's Internet Explorer version 8 browser seriously lagging open source browsers Firefox and Google Chrome. We also discussed Microsoft's acknowledgement that the European Commission may force it to see that alternative browsers to IE ship on new computers. Now, representing the latest blow for Internet Explorer, new research shows Microsoft's browser continuing to lose market share.

ZDNet Australia has been putting the new Release Candidate for Microsoft's Internet Explorer version 8 through benchmark tests and a look at the results shows that Microsoft is seriously lagging Firefox 3.1 (beta 1) and Google Chrome. That's especially true for JavaScript tests, where IE8 is about three times slower than Firefox and Chrome. (Surprisingly Opera lags behind them too.) Along with initiatives to put browsers other than Microsoft's on computers as default choices, this could spell trouble for Microsoft's browser dominance.

Hmm, in all the talk I've seen about how Google will proceed with spreading Chrome out to new platforms, and to mobile devices, I haven't seen any discussion of the company pursuing the idea of getting its open source browser pre-installed on hardware platforms. Now, Google is confirming that it will probably do just that. It is likely to pursue deals with major original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) to put Chrome on their computers and devices. This is a move straight out of Microsoft's 1990s playbook. If Mozilla could get aggressive about this too, we could see Internet Explorer facing more serious competition than ever.