Google has announced full details of its Chrome OS, although admitted that the operating system is still a year away from launch.

The Chrome OS effectively turns a netbook into a thin client. All applications will be web apps, all data will be stored in the cloud and the operating system will be booted from Flash - no hard disks will be supported.

"We want Chrome OS to be blazingly fast," said Sundar Pichai, vice president of product management at Google. "We want it to be like a TV - turn it on and you're in your web application."

Google demonstrated the OS booting on an Eee PC in around seven seconds. "We're working very, very, very hard to make this time shorter," Pichai said.

"Every application is a web app - there are no conventional desktop programs," Pichai added. "It's very simple to use, there's nothing to maintain. It should just work."

The interface of the operating system is effectively the Chrome browser. Applications are each given their own tab, and users can shift between different windows each with their own group of tabs. So, for example, you could have a "productivity apps" window with tabs for Gmail, Google Docs and Spreadsheet, and another window devoted to web browsing.

All user data will be stored in the cloud, with the operating system only using local flash memory for caching data such as settings. "If I lose my Chrome OS machine, I should be able to buy a new one, log in, and within a few seconds get all my applications back," Pichai claimed.

Custom hardware

Google said consumers won't be able to download the operating system - it will only be available on hardware that meets Google's specifications. Hard disks are banned, for instance, while Google said it will also specify factors such as screen sizes and display resolutions.

Google said it's currently concentrating on the clamshell netbook form-factor, but wouldn't rule out moving to full-scale laptops and desktop PCs over time.

"We're working with partners to specify the components at the hardware level," Pichai said. "We really want the software to understand the underlying hardware. We're specifying the underlying hardware components."

The operating system will run on both x86 and ARM processors.

Trusting the cloud

Pichai deflected concerns that consumers would be reluctant to entrust all of their data to the cloud, and effectively lose all functionality on their netbook if they lost their internet connection. "If your cloud is down it affects any computer you're on," he said. "I'd like to see a comparison of the cloud with what you have today. I think the cloud will compare very, very favourably."

Google will also allow some data and applications to be accessed offline. Users will be able to listen to music and read eBooks without an internet connection, for example, as well as accessing files stored on USB flash drives. Any application that supports HTML5's offline mode will also be accessible without a net connection.

Pichai neatly swerved criticism that people would miss regular desktop apps such as Microsoft Office, showing how an Excel document stored on a flash drive could be opened instantly from Microsoft's own Office Web Apps. "Turns out Microsoft has launched a killer app for Chrome OS," he joked.

Pichai admitted, however, that the company is pursuing a "fundamentally different model of computing".

Coming next year

Google said it plans to officially launch Chrome OS by the end of next year. In the meantime, the company has open-sourced the Chrome OS code. "Google developers will be working on the same [code] tree as external developers," Pichai claimed.

Google wouldn't give any indication of what price it expects Chrome OS netbooks to sell for, although it seems likely they will be at the low-budget end of the netbook market.

the chances of me having it are zero and falling.
No internet connection = paper weight

For many but certainly not all people, all they really want is a browser and the ability to play local media. Many people only use webmail and online calender, which is far easier than trying to sync a fat client across a number of devices. Fat clients offer no advantage except off-line access, and you get that with Google anyway.

For me personally, most of the time all I want from a netbook is web access. As long as I can use Logmein, I can fix customer's problems while I'm in the car. Decent Java performance is the key thing there, and I imagine Chrome would be just fine.

On site is a different matter. I need to be able to run things like the Avaya admin software, which is Windows only. Therefore, I will always need a Windows laptop. I find this rather annoying because I'd much prefer a browser interface, but such is life.

Fat clients offer a lot more flexibility, speed and ease of use, compared to most online services. I have Google Mail, Hotmail, Yahoo!, MobileMe, company Exchange e-mail and my own domain.

They all have web interfaces, but they are all more difficult to use and slower to respond than working with a local client.

Epic failure.

My experience is completely different. Fat clients are vastly slower, more difficult to use and less flexible than Gmail.

I have 800MB of emails on my Gmail account, which is synced with Mail on my home computer. A Gmail search totally blows away Outlook and Mail both in terms of speed and reliability. A search that takes Google less than 0.2 seconds takes my desktop about 20 seconds, and Mail fails to reliably find everything unless you have indexing enabled. Mail takes nearly a minute to open and thrashes your drive, where as Gmail takes less than half a second. Mail doesn't offer any control over my account, whereas the Gmail portal offers total control.

As for Outlook and Exchange, the amount of cursing it makes me do probably exceeds any other product I use. I have just a few hundred emails on my work PC, but it still takes forever to search them and I can't tag anything to make it easier. Folders are all very well, but labels are far more powerful.

As for ease of use, I find the Gmail client far more friendly than Outlook or Mail. I love the use of labels, and the fact I can log on absolutely anywhere totally destroys any benefits to me of a fat client. The only reason I sync it to Mail is in case Google go bust or I get cut off!

Dependable access to fast Internet has the ability to totally change the way we depend on local storage. Hard drives fail and USB drives get lost. In Lord Google I do trust.

A file isn't saved, unless it is saved in at least two places (Alex Rose).