They are moving to storing applications on the web instead of on your hard drive. Kind of like how your iphone has "applications" on it....same concept but for your laptop.
More specifically - they are making the move to replace the operating system with a browser. Chrome OS is an implementation of the Chrome browser as the "operating system" of a stand alone computer. This makes it fast (super-fast), instant-on and a real threat to Windows / Mac / Linux. In order to do that - they took a page from Apple's book by creating an application-store - but instead of limiting it to the phone/iPad - they made it into a store for web-applications - and added a lot of functionality to the web browser that allow it to act like an operating system, specifically better local-database storage and really fast execution engine. In other words - this might be the first real threat to Windows since, like, forever.
This is nothing new. It's Linux with browser as desktop. A free app store is not different than browsing for plugins, no?
Chrome OS is for dorks then. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Chrome_OS Google Chrome OS is a forthcoming Linux-based, open source[3] operating system designed by Google to work exclusively with web applications.[4] Chrome OS will not be available as a download to run and install. Instead, the operating system will only ship on specific hardware from Google's manufacturing partners.[5] The user interface takes a minimalist approach, resembling that of the Chrome web browser. Because the only application on the device will be a browser incorporating a media player,[3][6] Google Chrome OS is aimed at users who spend most of their computer time on the Internet.[7][8][9]
Not really. It uses a Linux based Kernel and nothing more. Chrome OS to Linux is like MacOS is to the BSD - the MacOS Kernel is based on some previous work done on the BSD kernel - but other than that - the OS is very, very different from anything that ever came out of Berkley. Same with Chrome OS and Linux. As for the Apps/Plugins - again, not exactly. Plugins / Extensions are stored on the local machine where the browser is - and operate within a different (more privileged) context than web-applications. What Google did (originally with Gears and now within the Chrome implementation) is extend the ability to a true web-app to store data locally - so the application is actually in the cloud (unlike a plugin) - but it can store local information in a sandboxed local database. Basically Chrome OS looks at the fact that many people spend the vast majority of their computer time working online - and remove a layer standing between the browsing engine and the hardware (the OS) - by making the browsing / web-application-execution engine the OS - it makes for faster, safer, cheaper alternative for traditional operating systems. In a way Apple tried to do that with the iPhone/iPad - but unlike Google they had to put restrictions on what can/can not be accessed (no flash, for example) - and have not done anything to extend the most widespread application medium out there (web applications) other than provide an old-fashioned (if rather well executed) browser. Like the old times of Windows vs. Mac - Chrome OS does to iOs what Windows did to the Mac - open hardware, multiple vendors and cheaper prices.
Unless you know how to compile an open-source OS and deal with an unsupported hardware machine - you should not... If your machine runs like crap with Vista - investing in a copy of Windows 7 is probably a good idea - as it is robust, fast, easier to use and just about everything Vista was not.
