On the Non-OS

Michael Scalisi doesn’t think Chrome OS is a threat to Windows:

By completely omitting local apps and storage Google made it obvious that it’s not looking to replace your existing OS. Pichai acknowledged that not all apps will run on the Chrome OS and countered that “most people who buy this device next year…expect them to have another machine at home.” As my colleague Robert Strohmeyer pointed out last week, Chrome OS seems intentionally unremarkable. This demonstrates that Google isn’t positioning Chrome to take over as your media center, gaming machine, or professional workstation.

Chrome OS is being developed to fill a need for fast, dirt-cheap, Web-centric computers that are highly mobile and have extended battery life. Beyond that, the Chrome initiative exists to promote next-generation HTML5 Web apps and to create a computing ecosystem that replicates Chrome’s features and settings across multiple platforms. Chrome exists as a catalyst to accelerate the development of Web-centric applications, and to give people more reason to start using Web-based alternatives to traditional apps.

I think he may be surprised — I think Chrome do well in the netbook market.