Google Says Chrome Operating System, Cloud Aren&apos

When it comes to cloud computing and the idea that Google's new Chrome Operating System can be a reliable portal for that movement, people either like the idea or hate it.

Chrome OS is Google's operating system to the cloud, running Web applications in the Chrome Web browser. Google stores these Web apps on its servers and provisions them. Users access applications and data generated in Google's cloud through Chrome running on a notebook, tablet or smartphone.

Stallman told The Guardian Chrome OS looks like a plan "to push people into careless computing" by forcing them to store their data in the cloud in other words than locally on machines, where they can control the data.

He added that "extensive use of cloud computing was "worse than stupidity" because it meant a loss of control of data."

For its part, Google realizes going to the cloud means placing a tremendous amount of trust in the companies that hew to the cloud model. Rajen Sheth, group product manager for Google Enterprise, said Google isn't taking that lightly and disagrees that Chrome OS and the cloud are careless computing.

The concept of cloud computing

"We fully believe in the concept of cloud computing," Sheth said. "I think the number businesses [Google has more than 3 million businesses using Google Apps] that have adopted cloud computing is evidence of the security, reliability, and the return on investment for moving to the cloud."

Chrome OS for instance has several new measures of security to safeguard user data, which is encrypted by default. There is as well a verified boot process and sandboxing research with which to expose plug-ins.

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