It's the idea that our usual computing tasks are not run by the hardware in our computers, but instead on powerful servers connected to your machine via the internet.
Operating systems on netbooks and laptops are still firmly tethered to the hardware, with Windows 7 and Linux distros being the OSes of choice. Into this fray comes Google's Chrome OS, an operating system designed to drag laptops and netbooks into the cloud.The machines that run Chrome OS are known as Chromebooks, and Samsung is ahead of the pack by releasing the first Chromebook in the UK – the Samsung Chromebook Series 5.
At present there are two models. One is made by Acer and the other by Samsung. The Chromebook represents the fulfillment of a prediction from an unlikely source. That person being Microsoft founder Bill Gates. Mr. Gates said some 25 years ago that someday we would all do our computing simply by means of terminals which connected us to far greater data processing resources placed server side. Gates introduced his belief in the form of a device known as WebTV. It failed… miserably. No one liked it.
Ruling out the Acer model due to what we will politely call quality concerns, the price of a Samsung Chromebook is roughly the same as a regular 15″ screen laptop. An HP netbook is 40% cheaper. Netbooks and notebooks allow one to do all of the things a Chromebook can do. Plus they allow for offline use of applications. If you are not connected to the internet, your Chromebook is almost worthless. People will no doubt purchase Chromebook so as to view and admire the new operating system technology. They will quickly discover that this technology is a puffed up browser and little more. A Chromebook without a hard drive does less than an Android phone. A HP netbook does everything the Chromebook does and more. When iPad prices drop, and indeed they will, an iPad will be cheaper than a Chromebook.
The Samsung costs between $499 / €350 and $429 / €300.
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