Chrome OS - a familiar new look

Chrome OS is famed for it's simplicity. It's just your Chrome web browser, on a dedicated computer. (plus a few extra's like wifi connectivity, battery life indicator, but it's still just Chrome). And then they added virtual desktops, so you could have your work and personal browsing on two separate full screen desktops. But wouldn't it be great if you could have smaller Chrome windows, like on a Windows PC or an Apple Mac? That wouldn't be very Chrome OS.... or would it?

The new version of Chrome OS is to include a.... wait for it... desktop environment, and a UI which allows for multiple Chrome windows to sized and positioned in the tradition Windows/Mac/Linux fashion. The screen shots online show some design cue's which will be very familiar to Windows 7 and Mac OS X Lion users! The below image shows apps arranged in the iOS style called Launchpad on Mac OS X Lion. The application shortcuts in the bottom left and the notification/clock area in the bottom right look very similar to Windows 7.

Image from The Telegraph.