Having spent several days using chrome 8.0 (Available for both Windows and Mac) it is clear how the new Chrome application store and Chrome apps could replace the overlapping window environment that we have been playing with sine the 8O’s.
The applications appear as windows which are tabs within the browsers. For the technically sophisticated we know that different technologies are being used as compared to native applications but for the end user it is the user experience that is so improved. They now have tabs. Tabs which don’t obscure each other and which can be managed and grouped. If you want to see a natural extension of how this can work use the new Beta of Firefox 4.0 which allows you to group tabs into a desktop like layout.
The user experience is so much improved that even users who are unaware of where there files actually are stored and where they are cached will prefer the experience and people will choose to shift towards the environment. The new CR-48 which demos the Chrome Operating System (OS), is going to be just the beginning of the first of many tools using Chrome OS which assumes that the Chrome browser is the sole user interface and which supports the use of cloud based tools and a client which is again a thin client with cached data from the cloud.
Maybe this time around the thin client will succeed as the setup of the server end is a one time process within the cloud. I think on the tablet type environments this outcome will appear natural and there will be users flocking towards low cost tablet solutions providing a Chrome/Chrome OS environment.
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