Yesterday Google announced Chrome OS, a stand alone operating system. Hooray no more Windows! But wait , before you jump for joy don’t throw out that old PC yet.
The Chrome Operating System (OS) simply runs in the browser, so all of your applications or programs are on the Internet. I can certainly see computers, phones, or gadgets of the future working this way, but we probably have a ways to go before you swap everything to an “Internet only” OS.
My initial thought is, “What if the Internet is down?” Second, certain applications like Adobe Photoshop or Premiere just wouldn’t work. I know there are online photo editing applications but they do not yet possess the horsepower of a program like Photoshop.
I do think though, there is currently a market for an Internet only OS computer. Internet speeds are pretty fast and many Internet applications work fine in the browser. My email is completely web based (Gmail) and I use Google documents for word processing and spreadsheets. I also use Google Calendar to keep my life straight. See updating Gcal with SMS. So an inexpensive laptop computer for those applications would be great.
Anyway, here is a video Google released about Chrome OS. Let me know what you think.
RESOURCES:
Official Google Blog: Introducing the Google Chrome OS
Google Chrome Blog: Google Chrome OS – FAQ
