Understanding Chrome OS and Next Gen Computing

If you have been following technology news, you would have heard that the latest discuss around the world is the new computer operating system called Chrome OS and it's from the Internet giant, Google.

To understand Chrome OS, you have to understand cloud computing. "Cloud Computing, what the hell is that?" I hear you, you are not alone on that. In simple terms, cloud computing is just taking your computer processing unit and dumping it on Google. Well, something like that. The result of outsourcing the processing work initially done on your computer is cloud computing - Google servers do all the hard work and pipes down the result to you all in seconds. You can access document, edit them, generate new ones, create excel sheets, play games (Farmville fans probably understand this by now), etc, only this time you will be doing it through a web browser.

If you live in the US, you can apply to test Cr-48

"What about safety?" This seems to be the first question that pops into the average person's mind. Well, I think it's a question of personal choice and paranoia threshold. We are not here to argue the pros and cons of cloud computing but to draw a link between this new era of computing and what Google has just launched as a platform for their netbook.

Chrome OS is essentially the Chrome browser giving you access to web application from the entire planet. Its still in testing stage (recently a number of Cr-48, as the machine is called, is being distributed to the general public) but the majority of the work has been done.

A really brilliant move that Google added to ensure success of the project is launching Chrome Web Store. Here you can access thousands of apps for your Chrome OS. Some are paid and some free. It seems they are ready to move the world from the usual desktop computing to the cloud.

Lovely Chrome web store showing featured apps

The next generation of computing will see users turning on their pcs in no time (booting is reduced to near instant time), accessing their files, settings and preferences from any computer logged on to the internet and losing no sleep when their computer is stolen or broken. A lot can be said about the whole Chrome OS thing but I'll let Google tell you the story.