Google polishes up its Chrome OS

Google then year hopes to change the paradigm of personal computing. At a press conference last week, the company provided details about its upcoming Chrome operating system and announced the opening of its Chrome Web Store for applications for the Chrome browser that currently runs on Windows and Macintosh.

Google says that it boots in seconds and resumes from sleep nearly instantaneously. The company is distributing test machines to selected businesses, government agencies, press and consumers as part of a "pilot program." Anyone can apply at www.google.com/chrome. Versions of Chrome netbooks will be available from Samsung and Acer and possibly other companies in mid-2011.

Some applications, including Google Docs and Spreadsheets and some games, will as well run when the machine is not connected to the Internet and will at the time sync the data to the cloud when you reconnect.

The end of the press conference

As Google CEO Eric Schmidt pointed out nearly the end of the press conference, the idea for a simple, light-weight device or "thin client" is not new. Schmidt, who worked at Sun Microsystems while much of the 1980s and '90s, said he was involved, along with Oracle CEO Larry Ellison in promoting the "network computer" back in 1997. However it failed, he said, "because we couldn't build great Web applications "... that were on the scale and power of existing desktop applications." He evidently thinks that Google and other companies are all things considered ready to bring us into the era of network computing.

It appears as if Google is taking a page from the Apple playbook by tweaking its smartphone operating system to support tablet PCs. Unlike Apple, which makes all its own hardware, Google is likely to work with hardware vendors to usher in a flood of devices, as it did with smartphones.

Although they are completely different operating systems designed for different devices, Chrome and Android share a common commitment to cloud computing and the use of a Google account as an essential tool for taking full advantage of the device.

Chrome will come to life with your data, preferences and personalized look and feel as before long as you enter your Google account and -- to a lesser extent so does Android. I've used numerous Android phones over the past couple of years, and what I like about them is that all I have to do is type in my Gmail address and, within minutes, my e-mail, calendar and contact list appear on the phone. Though Google's vision is different than Apple's, they share the view that the traditional PC will in the end cease to be a mainstream device. They won't go away, however many people will rely on simpler devices, just as the iPad, Android tablets and Chrome-based netbooks.

Even Microsoft is committed to cloud computing for both its enterprise and consumer clients, and it is building Web-based application and storage solutions for both PCs and mobile devices. Its new mobile operating system, Windows Phone 7, is a good start towards creating a more user friendly environment. Nevertheless so far all Microsoft has to offer for netbooks and tablets are versions of Windows that are near as big and bulky as its PC operating system.

If you listen to Google and Apple, it's time for computers to go on a diet so they become lighter and more nimble. I agree, which reminds me that it's time for me to step away from my computer and get some exercise, so I too can someday be lighter and more nimble.