Google Chrome OS Unveiled

Google has unveiled the OS they have been working on. As expected, it is basically just a browser that allows you to quickly access web apps – Google’s bread and butter.

It seems like a good idea for many people. How much of what you do really needs to be done on your computer? If you are like most you do email, web browsing, watch youtube, go on facebook, post to a blog maybe. For all that you really don’t need a full blown computer.

My concern however, is that for very specific instances this OS is just not enough. What about people who want to edit the videos they upload to youtube? No imovie or windows movie maker here (and no equivalent). Photoshop? nope. Even if these apps became available online somehow, would you really want to wait while you uploaded raw video over the internet? think of how much RAM photoshop uses. Think thats going to translate well going over your cable modem? Want to play a DVD – no media drives.

Better still – How would you sync an iPod with this? There is no online version of itunes.

Here’s the kicker. Nothing is saved to your computer. It’s all in “the cloud”, so you can just go to another computer and not have to worry about transferring your docs and files. But what if you don’t have internet access? Tough luck. Guess you won’t be using your computer.

Still very interesting. Microsoft and Apple should be a bit concerned. A big positive? You don’t run any native application locally, so less concern about security and viruses.