Google Chrome OS is to Chromium OS what Google Chrome browser is to Chromium.

Chromium OS is the open source project, used primarily by developers, with code that is available for anyone to checkout, modify and build their own version with. Meanwhile, Google Chrome OS is the Google product that OEMs will ship on Netbooks next year.

Therefore Chromium OS is the source code released by Google which can be used by any developers to build and create their own OS. Chrome OS is a end product that will be released by Google and developed from this Chromium OS as the base.

By now, you may have come across the source code for Chrome OS. Some Torrent sites have now released the Chrome OS that can be downloaded to your USB drive. It seems Engadget guys have tried this on a Dell Vostro A90 netbook computer and it worked fine.

The booting time for Chrome OS is just 22 seconds and they claim that they were able to browse the internet instantly. However it seems that the device drivers for this OS are all in starting stages only. Hence some devices maynot function in your computer as expected. If you are one of those guys who would like to try the Chrome OS before it is officially announced and released for public then you can download it from http://chromeos.hexxeh.net/. Just download the bootable image into your flash drive and you can use it in your netbook.