Chrome OS: getting a hard time

Last year, Google employees took a video camera into Times Square and asked 50 people the supposedly simple question: "What's a browser?" The answer they were looking for was "a piece of software that lets you view pages". But the responses they showed how few people knew the answer, and also how little this knowledge gap matters. People just turn on the computer, launch a browser and access the web. Semantic distinctions are unimportant because for many, the browser is the internet – and, increasingly, the browser is the computer.

This is the target market for Chrome OS, Google's widely trailed operating system for desktops, laptops and netbooks that's just been given a vague 2011 launch date. You start up the machine, it connects to the internet and displays a browser window. That browser, and all the other applications you might use within it – word processors, email, games – are stored remotely: no installation, no maintenance. Your files are stored remotely, too. So you can log into any machine running Chrome OS, from anywhere, and it'll look and feel like your computer. For those who use computers exclusively for the internet, it cuts out all the clutter and complexity. Simple is good, surely?

Simplification, however, isn't always welcomed by those in computing. Chrome OS has been getting a rough ride on online forums. Which isn't to say there aren't drawbacks. We're used to our email being stored remotely, but extending that to personal files or the applications we've paid for requires another mental leap. Where is it? Does Google have it? If it does, can I trust Google to look after it, and not share it with others?

If we're prepared to accept these trade-offs, Chrome OS – and others like it – could herald an era of cheap, easily accessible computing. Which, regardless of sneering from geeks, has to be a good thing.