You disappoint me, Google (NASDAQ:GOOG). Like so many others, I was hoping you'd have a copy of the Chrome OS ready for me to download and play with.
But I guess that's the good news. Rushing the introduction of such an important OS would've been a bad idea, especially when Chrome proposes to be nothing like Mac OS X, Windows, or the various flavors of Linux from Ubuntu, Novell's (NASDAQ:NOVL) SuSE, and Red Hat (NYSE:RHT).
What will it be instead? Webby. Very, very webby. Here's how.
First, Chrome will boot in seven seconds or less, making it reminiscent of the promises Palm (NASDAQ:PALM) once made with its failed Foleo device. Google thinks it can do better. I think so, too.
Second, in Chrome, the browser is the operating system. Sort of. Only those netbooks that feature a solid-state drive will be allowed to boot the Chrome OS.
"We want Google Chrome OS to be blazingly fast. From the time you press boot, you want it to be like a TV. In addition to making the boot time fast, we want the end-to-end experience to be fast," Computerworld reports Google vice president of product management, Sundar Pichai, as saying.
Intel (NASDAQ:INTC) and SanDisk (NASDAQ:SNDK) are among those to build SSDs, which tend to be more expensive than their optical counterparts. For example, Apple offers a 128-gigabyte SSD with its high-rent MacBook Air. Asking cheapskate netbook makers such as Dell (NASDAQ:DELL) to adopt them for their Chrome OS systems is a gamble.
Third, Chrome OS will introduce what it calls "application tabs." Choose a tab for where you wish to store and access your Web applications and that's where they'll stay. Think of them as a way to add a desktop feel to this browser-based environment.
Fourth, and perhaps best of all, Chrome OS will remain an open-source project so that developers will have the better part of a year to create software that will take full advantage of the system's features and functions.
My guess is the wait will be worth it. Don't let us down, Google.
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