gdgt

I have to agree. I believe that what Google is trying to do here is getting cheap internet computing in the hands of the masses / spread information and access to everyone and anyone. First and foremost, this operating system is not meant to directly usurp the positions of power / market share held by Microsoft or Apple. I like to think of it as the first Linux-based operating system that may actually be embraced by the masses. (yay! :))

deinfinityx (im going to call you dfx from now on), I don't think he missed the point. That is his opinion.

I like the idea of the OS but I know it could only be on a netbook for me. I do tons of design work and I have to have Photoshop, Indesign, AutoCAD, Revit, Sketchup, etc all running...at the same time...and fast. Chrome OS can't do that. I would LOVE to have it on a netbook (Eee PC 1201n, please) so that I can do my internet related things as well as document creation and such but it would be completely limited to a secondary machine because I need to have all those full fledged apps at the ready.

I would almost rather have this as a secondary OS on my machine. Hopefully that way I could boot into it quickly and save battery for when I'm on the go.

Also, of course they need to keep working on it. It may be the best browser out now (I think so) but it still has some work to do with standards compliance and it still doesn't always behave like you want it to with certain javascript and flash protocols. They should never be complacent with what Chrome is.

Though I do understand that this OS is supposed to be optimized for cloud based computing, it is assuredly not to be used as a primary machine for most. The fact of the matter is most people have one computer to call their own and they have applications that aren't web based that they still use and no matter how awesome Gmail is, it doesn't come close to replacing outlook and Google Docs has no where near the level of functionality that MS Word has.

What you also have to consider is if this is freely available for people and is Linux based, it will most likely have driver related issues for most, which is probably the number one reason why hardware manufacturers have not embraced Linux based OS's the same way they have Microsoft's, so from a support perspective this isn't optimal.

There is always room for improvement for anything. Chrome is a great browser, but it still has some nagging issues which keep it from being my sole browser, offline support is one of them (gears is still not quite there yet), theming and extensions support.

What I will say though is that this has the best chance of putting Linux into the masses and to makes cloud computing on a netbook ever more enticing.

hence the "same efficiency and power" bit... of course nobody would even consider using something like this if it wasn't just as fast as a windows box, and completely available offline. i do think they're working on that, though, because their projects usually seem to focus a lot on speed.