Can you trust Chromium?

I mentioned recently in my posts on Google's new Chromium operating system project that while the idea of a lightweight, secure, powerful web-oriented operating system may be theirs at the moment, they may not ultimately be the business that finds success with such a product. This isn't the first time I have hedged my bets when discussing Google efforts, particularly those oriented toward commercial enterprises; I have a similar hesitancy in crowning Apps, or Postini, as clear successors to the disputed throne of SaaS offerings in their respective categories because, fundamentally, I don't believe Google cares about that market or those products. Google is a media company, and ads are their bread and butter.

By most conventional business logic, it would actually be somewhat silly for them to focus on anything else to the extent necessary to guarantee success. Nor does the company appear to do so; they are taking another, perhaps more rational, approach, one that involves throwing a lot of stuff out at the wall and seeing what sticks.