Google today announced their Chrome OS project.  The details are sketchy for this announcement.  This Chrome OS apparently stems from the Chrome web browser that Google released last year.  A sort of instant-on netbook operating system, that meshes the hardware with the Internet cloud.  Google claims the OS project differs from the Android stack that runs on cellphones.  And thats all we essentially know about this Chrome OS.

So left me put on my futurist hat and predict what Chrome OS will be.  If I were building something like Chrome OS, I would grab an existing OS (say Linux).  I would then strip out all the unnecessary extra services and applications.  Then I would modify the desktop shell to essentially run a web browser (Chrome) connected to the web.  I would include an internal web caching application (Google Gears anyone?) to handle the off-line situation.  So there you go, netbook running Chrome OS would essentially act as a smart thin client (dummy terminal for you readers who remember the 70’s).  And the server would live on the Internet cloud.

Wonder how such a device would feel like?  Grab a Nokia N810 or N800 and you’ll have a closer feel to a mobile cloud computing device.  Congratulations to Google to helping bring true heterogeneous cloud computing and its advantages to the common man.