Incase Windows vs. Mac vs. Linux wasn’t enough, now the Google lovers out there have something to smile about it. It’s not much, but you can bet they will defend it to the death.

Google has finally unveiled the Google Chrome OS. An operating system based on their Chrome Browser. Which is of course based on Apple’s WebKit (like Safari).

While first glances aren’t usually the best to go by, the screen shot shows a lot of detail about how the system will work.  Of course, the interface could change, and time will tell.

I see no grouping, however, it could change, if it doesn’t, it could get annoyingly messy.

How much data do we want Google to hold from us.  The private information they are collecting, and storing on their servers is quite frightening.  Just from the above screenshot, we see no applications that are stand alone to the operating system.

Gmail.  They store our emails.
Hotmail / Yahoo Mail.  Web based third parties.
Google Calendar.  They store our events.
Google Reader.  They know what we like to read about.
Google Docs.  They know what we write, what spreadsheets we make etc.
You Tube.  They have our videos, and know what we like to watch.
Picasa.  They have our photos.
Hulu.  Web based third party.
Lala.  As above.
Pandora. As Above.
Notepad.  They know our notes.
Contacts.  They know our friends, business partners, family etc.
To-do List.  They know what we need to do.
Calculator.  Well everything has a calculator.  8008135
Books.  They know the books we read.
Chess.  Umm.  Meh.
Facebook.  Third Party.
Twitter. Third Party.

Above, considering the amount of information we all share, is exactly that.  A lot of information for one company to hold for one person, not to mention the millions upon millions of people who use Google.   When we add Google Search and soon to be Wave to it, and Google will probably know things that even we, as the owners of this information remember.

All of that aside.  What about the fact that an Internet connection is going to be required?  Unless you have a wireless connection, forget taking you cool netbook and using it on the bus, the train, in the park etc.  Just another annoyance.

Google also says that the OS will boot in 7 seconds.  That’s hardly surprising considering all it does is boot a browser.  Also.  If your netbook has a standard hard drive, you’re out.  This OS is SSD (Solid State Drive) compatable only.  Why?  Everything is saved online, apart from a bit of cache use for applications and memory.

So it’s great that there is going to be more competition, but I truely fail to see how they will market this OS as a good thing in it’s current state.  I can’t think of one group of people, apart from fanboys, who could use this operating system effectively.