Stefan Mileschin

I see a lot of potential in Google’s Chrome OS. Even today, I have no issues recommending the platform to friends and family with basic computing needs but who want something more traditional than a smartphone or tablet.

Once you get beyond its somewhat awkward learning curve (e.g. there is no traditional Office, you can’t run most of what you download from the web/email attachments, etc...), it’s an OS that is incredibly easy to support if you’re the appointed IT-person in your family/friend group. Sandboxing and automatic updates keep the platform secure. The inability to run most things outside of a web browser keeps clueless users from getting themselves into trouble by running things they shouldn’t. Then there’s the fact that many devices running Chrome OS tend to deliver better user experiences, at least as far as browsing is concerned, compared to similarly priced entry level Windows PCs. HP’s Chromebook 11 is a great example of what can be done. Although HP fumbled its SoC choice, the display, keyboard, storage and chassis in the Chromebook 11 were expertly chosen. For basic web use, I’ve found myself recommending Chromebooks over traditional notebooks more often than not.

I don’t appear to be an outlier in my recommending Chromebooks. Amazon’s top two best selling notebooks are both Chromebooks, and Google’s presence on that list is nothing new. The big question is whether or not the same success at the entry level of the notebook market can apply to desktops running Chrome OS. To find out Google partnered up with a number of OEMs, including ASUS, to go after the entry level Windows desktop market.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/7850/a...romebox-review