If you can get away with using only Web apps while on the road, a Chrome OS equipped netbook will be worthy of consideration. It's worth pointing out that Google's definition of "netbook" deviates broadly from its origins. Google thinks of a netbook as a slim inexpensive portable computer having a full-sized keyboard and touchpad, decently sized screen, long battery life, and solid-state storage. As a companion PC, a Chrome equipped netbook is an IT person's dream. Chrome OS keeps itself and all of its plug-ins up to date; you never need to worry about updating it.

When it boots, Chrome runs a checksum on all of its binaries. If something is off because of malware or corruption, your computer is automatically and transparently reimaged from the cloud. You can forget about resource hogging anti-malware apps. Also, locally cached data is encrypted. If your netbook were stolen, it would be very difficult for anyone to recover any personal data. When you replace your netbook, all of your settings and data are right there. In fact, your entire environment is replicated from the cloud on any Chrome netbook you log into.

The Possible Future

It's not difficult to see how the Chrome OS could become wildly popular on netbooks. are already using Google Apps, and could see immediate benefits using the Chrome OS on a companion PC. For those who already work in Google's Web apps, a Chrome OS-equipped netbook will be worthy of consideration. However, such companies appear to be the exceptions that prove the rule, since they've already bought into the ecosystem.

Once it has established a user base on netbooks, Google will likely starting pushing into larger laptops and desktops. If Web-based cloud computing becomes popular enough, we'll see more developers of traditional desktop apps make a push for the Web. For legacy apps and those that don't easily translate to the Web, we may see more implementations of Citrix and Terminal Server type applications. Still, it's unlikely that Windows, OS X, and Traditional Linux computers will disappear. However, Google promises that features in the Chrome OS will filter into the Chrome browser. Hopefully what this means is that if 95 percent of what we do is on the Web, that experience will be replicated on both the Chrome OS and the Chrome browser that runs on our desktops.