Chrome OS: The King of Christmas

By most accounts, Chrome OS had a great holiday season. Some have projected Chrome OS captured more than 20% of notebook sales in 2013. Pretty amazing.

No matter how wildly successful Chromebooks become I won't be surprised. The platform deserves all the success that comes its way and then some. Why? Because it's easier.

Chrome OS is the world's simplest operating system, its greatest strength.

It was almost exactly 3 years ago when I received my first Chromebook, a Cr-48.

My initial thoughts:

Chrome OS is basically just a web browser. What's the big deal? This morning I turned on a brand new computer and in less than 5 minutes had access to all of my personal and professional email, all of my personal and professional contacts, all of my calendars, all of my voicemail, chat and all of my chat contacts, video chat, all of my documents, our customer relationship management application, our expense tracking application, project management software, access to all of my social networks and all of my bookmarks from my other computer. Pretty sweet. 

I happened to fire up that Cr-48 tonight, as I do from time to time to test it out. The Cr-48 was intended for testing only, not retail sales to the public. A "throw away" device if you will. I love firing it up to see how it performs.

Interestingly, the Cr-48 has likely improved more than any other piece of technology I've had since 2009. In fact, I think it's the only piece of technology I have that's improved since 2009.  

The MacBook Pro I was using in 2009? Gone. The Android phone I was carrying in 2009? A huge piece of junk (soon I would move to the Nexus devices and never look back). I have several Windows XP machines for work that are running well but they're custom XP configurations. Vista? Please. Windows 7? Never had a need. We do still have my wife's 2008 MacBook and while it's chugging along admirably, it won't improve without serious intervention.

Was the Cr-48 a nice piece of hardware? No, not by any definition. But to me that's what makes its improvement all the more impressive. The Cr-48 has to be one of the most underpowered, cheaply manufactured devices on the planet yet the operating system at its core is still able to improve in more ways than I could even document. 

Windows 8 is the antithesis of Chrome OS. Windows 8 usability is beyond ridiculous, it should qualify for a class action. Most consumers leverage Windows because it was the cheapest option and they don't really care about operating systems. Chrome OS is the perfect hero. Or villain depending on your perspective.