What if nearly everything you usually keep on your computer — photos, documents, music and software — was stored online? Your machine would be speedier and perhaps less vital because you could simply use another machine to recoup your digital life should you lose your laptop.
This premise — somewhat scary, yet liberating — is behind Google Inc.’s upcoming Chrome OS, which will make notebook computers more like netbooks than most actual netbooks.
The software powering Chrome OS, which is based on the search giant’s eponymously named browser, serves mainly as a tool for connecting your computer to the Web. That’s where nearly everything you use is housed and linked to your Google username and password. It’s a concept known as cloud computing.
A peek at the upcoming operating system and its vision of cloud computing shows a promising idea that could make computing faster and more convenient. But it still needs a lot of work.
Google expects the first computers powered by Chrome OS to be released this summer, and initially they’ll be made by Acer Inc. and Samsung Electronics Co.
For now, though, Google is operating a pilot for some individuals and companies to test an unbranded laptop that runs Chrome OS. The company lent The Associated Press one of these machines, which aren’t going to be sold to the public.
The laptop itself, called the Cr-48, doesn’t really deserve to be critiqued, because it is a stripped-down machine that is chiefly a frame for Google’s OS oeuvre. The shell is entirely matte black plastic, without a hint of branding. It has a webcam, a screen that is about 12 inches diagonally and a full-sized keyboard with a search key in place of the caps lock key.
The machine also has 16 gigabytes of flash memory for storing files, if you feel absolutely compelled to…