1- ChromeOS is a not a traditional OS in the sense Windows, OS X or Ubuntu are. When it appears next year, it will come pre-installed in certain netbooks and in all likelihood will not be available for download the way Linux distros are. In other words, ChromeOS will be tied to hardware because it will require specific hardware like a flash drive to run. It's more similar to mobile OSes like Symbian that comes with Nokia phones or Google's own Android that is installed on selective phones.

2- ChromeOS turns file system on its head. It will have cache to speed up things but otherwise Google is banking heavily on Cloud Computing to store files or data accessed by users. This means we will no longer have to deal with C drive, D drive and My Folder. This also means that when offline, ChromeOS will be virtually unusable. Cloud Computing is still a few years away and basing something as fundamental as an OS on it seems a sure way to cripple the computer's functionality in a significant manner.

3- With Google hoping to offer everything to users through web, it's obvious that in ChromeOS you will not be able to install any application. That means that in a machine running ChromeOS you won't be able to edit pictures in Gimp, compose documents in Open Office, play games like Modern Warfare 2, watch movies on KMplayer or listen to songs on Winamp. Do I need say more?

Does it really matter anymore?

This is the question that Google seems to have asked itself and come to a conclusion that, maybe, it's time for the world to move beyond the traditional OSes that treat internet as a communication tool and not as a vibrant virtual world full of endless possibilities.

Google believes most people, when they use their computers, spend "nearly 90% of their time on Internet". With ChromeOS Google's aim is simple. Put people online as fast as possible with minimum fuss and offer them basic services like email, chat, calender etc within seconds after they hit power-on button of their computers. Security and seamless integration of data are two other key areas. For security, Google has designed its OS in a way that will make it extremely difficult for viruses or trojans to set bases. The user experience will take place in a sandbox environment that will make the machine virtually unassailable. And somehow, even if there is a breach, Google plans to have a mechanism using which ChromeOS will be able to discard its infected copy and acquire a new one from the Google servers.

This is pretty neat. The seamless integration of data, however, doesn't inspire the same confidence. As earlier noted, it's all in the Cloud and for now we are severely limited by technology for the great leap of faith that Cloud Computing requires by asking us to save our data at some random remote servers without any backup in the local machine. Google, on the other hand, thinks people need freedom from having to copy their data endlessly as they travel or work. It wants to make sure we get all our bookmarks, contacts, documents, songs, movies, games everywhere, irrespective of the computer and ChromeOS has been designed keeping the same philosophy in mind.

According to Google, its OS is a totally "rethought computer that will let you focus on the internet", so you can stop worrying about your computer. "Every capability you want today, in the future it will be written as a web application," said Sundar Pichai, vice-president of product management for Google, as he introduced ChromeOS to the world. And with ChromeOS, Google wants to be ready for the future.

What about the present

From what I found while tinkering with ChromeOS for a few hours, it is not going to set the world on fire. On Thursday, when Google introduced ChromeOS, the company also released its source code for developers. This source code was soon compiled into a virtual image that can be run inside a virtualization program like VirtualBox. To be honest, ChromeOS is probably still in alpha build and it is not very fair to judge an OS that has not been released for public or press yet. But because this remains the only way for now to see ChromeOS in action outside Googleple , it is a liberty I risk to take.

ChromeOS, after booting up inside VirtualBox, requires a Google account. Once the login is complete, what greets you is Chrome browser with a slightly tweaked UI, with three application tabs for email, Google homepage and applications similar to widgets that let you connect to web-based services like calculator, Hotmail, Yahoomail, Twitter, Facebook, Chess and Google Docs. The three tabs are on top-left corner. On top-right corner you have a sort of taskbar that shows time, battery status, connectivity options and a dropdown menu that will let you tweak ChromeOS in certain very basic ways.

ChromeOS, in its early form, has a simplicity that is more alarming than soothing. With its Spartan interface and very few tweaking options, it is hard imagining how it is going to negotiate messy world of thousands of devices that are part of computing eco-system nowadays.

Working inside ChromeOS was not different from working inside the Chrome browser that Google offered nowadays and the limitations of such a computing experience became all too evident when I tried taking screenshots of the ChromeOS. You can hit the Print Screen key as many times as you want, but there is no way you can get the screenshot of computer within a browser. You will have to navigate to either Paint or Photoshop or similar program to take a screenshot. Something that ChromeOS is not going to allow!

Back to the future

As far as ideas go, ChromeOS is not bad. Given that there are millions of people who indeed use computers only for mail, social networking, chat and millions more who don't feel too comfortable with the complex - and often twisted - ways in which Windows organizes data or information, Google's take on traditional OSes seems quite sound.

I can see how ChromeOS can benefit tech-agnostic elderlies who tie themselves into a knot while starting a computer, clicking on a browser and navigating to a site. Or how it can appeal to ultra-mobile executives who can use Chrome-powered netbooks instead of regular laptops to keep tabs on their business. But given the technological limitations right now, it is almost impossible to imagine ChromeOS as the Windows killer that many folks were hoping it would be.

The best use, as noted earlier, for ChromeOS remains as a secondary OS in a computer, to be used in case a quick look at your mailbox is all you are looking for. If you wish to do anything more, it's still worth waiting 30 seconds for the Windows to boot.