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News reaches us that Google’s first foray into the desktop OS world has been delayed slightly.  Apparently, although Google will still be releasing their own Chrome OS machine (think of it as the Nexus One of the netbook world), other companies will have to wait until next year before being able to ship devices with the new cloud-based operating system.

Google’s own netbook (we’re assuming netbook from the chipset being used – at this point there are very few details about the mystery device other than it’s existence) is apparently being manufactured as we speak by Taiwanese giant Inventec, the plan being to get it out before Christmas to put Chrome OS in the hands of early adopters and developers – although it will be made clear that the OS is still in beta form (but then Google has a history of keeping software in beta long after it’s ready for prime-time – just ask GMail).  Engadget reports Inventec are producing a rather modest run of 75,000 machines – we’re hoping they are of original design and not the crappy plasticbooks that have flooded the market since netbooks took off.  It’ll be running on a fairly new Intel Atom processor, so hopefully should run plenty quick given Chrome OS’s relative light weight when compared to Windows.

When asked for comment, Google simply responded that they would have “more details to share later this year.”.  So at least one thing’s for sure – we won’t be waiting long.

If you haven’t given Chrome OS a try yet – or if you have no idea what I’m blabbering on about – esteemed hacker Hexxeh releases bootable builds of the project fairly recently (like the Chrome browser, the core of Chrome OS is open source) over on his website – you should give it a try – it’s incredibly simple!