[latepaul]

I think you're never going to "get" this computer unless you understand one thing - Google hopes and believes that the Cloud is the future. And I think they're probably right. I think we're not there yet for a number of reasons but it's inconceivable to me that at some point in the future most people will not be doing their computing in the cloud. We already think of the wired internet as something that's just available. Like electricity or water we just expect it to work and it's a notable event when the service is out. We don't spend (much) time worrying how we'll cope without it because we expect it to be back on again soon. I can only see that becoming more true with wireless also.

A lot of the other objections that people have to cloud computing they will either become comfortable with or will have dealt with - I think privacy controls will become more robust, encryption more widespread and transparent, and legislation will make your online data similar to your deposited cash - institutions who want to manage it for you will be regulated and expected to provide certain guarantees.

So I think that if you look forward the idea that in 10, 20 years time people will be happy in a super-connected world to not always have access to their stuff is crazy to me. And you'll never get more than a niche group who will be prepared to run their own cloud. There will always be those who want more control and who keep their local storage and their flash drives and so on - but the generation that grew up with Facebook just being there isn't going to want a copy of everything offline.

But that's the future and like I said we're not there yet. I don't know if it's 5 years away or 30 but I can't see how it couldn't be the case unless we just abandon the idea of the internet for some reason.

Now as for this particular laptop at this price at this time - it's a tough sell. But I'm not sure Google cares. I agree with those that say this is sort of a concept car. It's not designed to sell well it's designed to change the image of what a chromebook can be. They don't want people to automatically think "chromebook = cheap basic hardware". I think that's why Google has built this themselves - because they know it's not going to make money but they want it to be out there as a stake in the ground to where they're going.

Oh and finally can we please stop saying "a glorifed browser"? HTML5 is an incredibly powerful programming environment. I can't think of anything you can't do and certainly it's more than capable of running the equivalent of any of the programs most people run. I think people perceive it as less capable because of the lack of offline storage access - but that's a limitation of ChromeOS (a deliberate one) not the programming platform, and because of simple availability. The fact that there isn't a Photoshop-level image editing app doesn't mean you couldn't write one, it just means no-one has yet.

And that's going to be the other thing Google will be doing. Pushing to get as many developers interesting in porting their programs as possible.

One final final thing. Just because I say all this doesn't mean I'm rushing out to buy one. (If I had the money to consider it disposable I might) I'm part of the niche/generation that wants my local data and local computing power under my control. But I get the concept.