Google could well be on its way to dominating the operating system market for Netbooks, the small portable devices we carry around with us for convenient access to the web.
Google Chrome OS is a stripped down lightweight operating system which could turn out to be the perfect partner for Netbooks and here’s why.
Netbooks are web machines; they’re not designed for performing complex processing tasks, more for consuming content on the web.
Devices running Chrome will have all their applications and data files stored on the web so will work perfectly for low processing power machines like Netbooks.
In a recent press conference in California, Google said they wanted to make the Chrome OS work like a TV set where a user turns on his device and is immediately connected to the web. That’s exactly what we want with a Netbook.
Now there are those who claim that Chrome as an operating system will fail. It’s true, there’s a downside to running a computer, laptop or netbook with Chrome and that is you won’t be able to do much if you haven’t got an internet connection as the applications and the data won’t be available.
There’s also the fact that not all applications are going to be available on the web but then again, we want our Netbooks for accessing the Internet and as for other apps and tasks that is why we have a desktop or laptop as well.
Netbooks make great secondary devices just for accessing the web and so an operating system that is also focused on the web would seem like a logical step forward.
Basically I don’t think we can compare Chrome OS and Netbooks to the other operating systems and fully fledged computers or laptops as they’re built for different purposes.
With Windows we can install and run many different applications and control our data without going near an internet connection, with Chrome we can’t. Simple as that!
There is nothing you can do with a Netbook that you can’t do with a desktop computer or a laptop and yet netbooks are incredibly popular, and they’re popular because they’re cheap, light, and allow us quick and ready access to the internet.
Similarly, there is nothing you can do with Chrome that you can’t do with Windows or Linux but Chrome allows you to do on a Netbook what you really want to do on a Netbook, namely access the web and web based applications without any fuss.
