Tim.Igoe.me.uk

The other day, Google held a press event at its HQ to demonstrate its new Google Chrome OS. This new OS isn't an operating system as such, its an OS that's really just a web browser.

Google's aim currently is to sell this system on netbooks, that will boot quickly and be ready to use within seconds. The fact that is is a custom firmware for the hardware, this has the down side that it really does limit the hardware selection that ChromeOS will run on, it will need to be certified. This is like Apple's system with Mac OSX. Limiting the hardware that the operating system will run on does improve reliability.

When Chrome OS boots, you'll be presented with a web browser, Google's Chrome. This is your portal to everything that operating system can do. There are no 'applications' as you or I would expect from a current operating system, everyhting is performed over the web and your data is saved to "the cloud".

Google have been developing a lot of rich websites and  applications that work purely in a web browser, so Chrome OS is taking the next logical step to get a user to their data quickly.

Moving Data into the cloud isn't without its risks, and while Google hasn't 'lost' anyones data yet, recent events with Microsoft, Danger and T-Mobile have proved that the cloud isn't the most reliable system yet. Google have however had major issues with Gmail recently meaning users have been unable to access their email for hours at a time.

Using applications through a web browser also dictates you need an internet connection to perform any tasks - in the current environment this isn't very good, roaming wifi is very limited and 3G isn't stable enough especially when on the move to be reliable.

Overall, its looking like a nice idea but possible not something that'll take off until infrastructure changes are made and internet access more easily accessible from anywhere.