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Google began Chrome OS long before Android really took off. They started developing two OS ecosystems that are totally different, and I think they sort of knew that eventually one would win out. I bet that Chrome OS is still in active development because Google isn't 100% sure of Android's future since it's still so young.

A Chrome OS netbook can cold boot in a few seconds, has a nice hardware keyboard, excellent user switching and cloud-based data storage. Chrome OS is far ahead of Android in terms of the "ideal" cloud landscape where your settings, data, and everything else is totally 100% okay even if you set your machine on fire and smash it with a hammer. Try smashing your Windows netbook and see what happens to your documents.

So I definitely think they've got a place in the market and I think they know that. But you're probably right about sales numbers...I can't see it going very far.

I have a Cr-48, and the great thing about it is that it doesnt get slower over time like most computer, which has made non tech people want it. Most PCs start getting slower because of all the things we download into them, but my chrome OS doesn't let you do anything it. If they fix sending attachments, and a version of Adobe that's pretty good is in the cloud, and printing was easier, I would never use anything but it.

This was the argument used for years for switching to linux/mac and no matter how true it was at the end of the day people don't care that much as shown by the vast amount of XP users that are around today.

You need features. Tell people that Farmville requires a mac and after a decade of XP they suddenly will have a mac.

I can't see many of these selling. And in saying that I’m not saying I don’t think ChromeOS will succeed. I’m saying I can’t even imagine a scenario where it does.

I can. I'll take the opposite bet. (Not an extravagant amount. I'm bootstrapping right now. Wanna give me odds?)

Unless Google does several MAJOR updates in the next couple months the Chrome devices will be feature deficient to the extreme.

Features aren't what matters.

Windows netbooks can do 99% of what a PC can do. On a smaller screen and with a weaker processor but they can still do it.

Yes, but how good is the netbook experience? Can Google do for a laptop-like form factor what Apple did for tablets? I think yes. In particular, Google seems to have recognized that, as far as security and cryptography infrastructure goes, the computing mainstream is in a state of poverty. As far as having workable security infrastructure in place, we are in a state analogous to pre-industrial nations physical infrastructure. (Or maybe the internet in the days when there were still BBS and AOL was up and coming.)

Google gets it. They're doing something about it in a walled garden of their own making. If they succeed, they're going to revolutionize owning a computer in a way that the interstate highways changed car ownership in the US. (And no, Apple doesn't quite get this yet. They get the walled garden part, but they are still a little incompetent with security.)

It's just hard to see for us right now, because we're used to the crappy way things are, just like people were used to driving on narrow, winding, poorly paved roads without seatbelts.

What would cause security to become such a huge selling point for the broader market, though, which mostly stuck with Windows back in the bad ol' days?

Wasn't Apple using security as a OS X selling point for awhile? It's all a part of the "it just works" selling point. Security for most computer platforms is a pain in the 4ss. One of the few where it's not: Google Chrome. I have to say that my Macbook and iPad do a pretty good job of "it just works." That's a far cry from my dad's Thinkpad, where Firefox and IE both have like 7 toolbars.

A lot of suboptimal user behavior is like those dogs in the cages with electrified floors. Everything/everywhere sucks, so you just lie down on it and accept the suck as normal. (The dogs in the experiment were eventually just lying down on the electrified floor.)

Basically, if you're to have a hope of delivering the highest levels of "it just works" then you're going to have to build some security infrastructure to support it.

So, if the user experience changes with the next version of windows, how would that make a difference?

Is Windows going to get secure enough to prevent all crappiness that results from malware? If that's the case, then this means Windows already has the right kind of security infrastructure. I don't think it's quite there yet.

CR-48 owner here. From my experiences with it vs. a WinXP netbook, I'd say the CR-48 provides a much better experience. It could do to be a little faster and have more RAM, but for a lot of contexts I don't even notice that there's nothing outside the browser. And I would assume that on a given set of hardware, a Chrome OS notebook would be cheaper.

Sure, it's possible to do a lot of desktop PC stuff on a netbook, but who would want to?

I agree.

I think ChromeOS suffers from the same problem Linux desktop advocates suffers from - the assumption that the end user just uses "email, a browser, and nothing else." That's almost never true. Whats true is that each user only uses 10% of the features of the OS but different users use a different 10%.

Grandma uses skype because her grandkids are overseas. Dad uses an old version of Quicken he'll never upgrade from. Mom uses an HP multifunction printer and edits scanned photos. Sister uses two different instant messengers. Son plays a couple of video games. etc.

I'm not sure where ChromeOS fits into any of this. Tablets are a pretty big compromise and ChromeOS can't do 90% of what tablets can do, let alone a real OS.

There are definitely limitations, but I've been using my desktop a lot less since getting a CR-48 - much more than I've ever used a conventional laptop.

It would have also helped them out if they had actually provided an install for the OS to people like me.

I wanted a CR-48 because I wanted something to play with, not because I wanted a free laptop.

I still wanted a CR-48 after the giveaway thing was done because I still wanted something to play with, but I couldn't find anywhere to get the install and...start playing with it.

I honestly think that they had good intentions with the CR-48 thing, but I think they mismanaged it.

I went a step further. I compiled it from source. I never managed to get it working, except in a virtual machine... And that was so slow and painful that I gave up.

"I can't see many of these selling <i>to tech-savvy people like me</i>" -- there. I fixed that for you.

Chrome OS isn't trying to tackle an existing market any more than Nintendo's Wii was trying to target the hardcore gamer. There are far more people interested in doing LESS with their computer as it's less daunting and intimidating that way. Combine that with the severely lessened threat of viruses and a near one-click full system restore feature that, due to cloud storage, poses absolutely no threat to any data less and you have a #winning level of simplicity that no Windows-based netbook can offer.