11.20.2009

Chrome OS FAQ



PCWorld has a great piece up about Chrome OS. It's a FAQ-type article that explains some of the confusion points about Google's upcoming operating system. There's just one section that I have to add a "correction" to:

Will you be able to work offline?
JR Raphael from PCWorld says pretty much "no". I say nearly a certain "yes". Raphael correctly explains that all apps (as we currently know) will be web apps. This means you will use Gmail or Yahoo or another web-based email service, not Outlook or Thunderbird. He says that without a network connection, only some functionality off apps will be present, that developers "may be able to build in a small amount of offline functionality for their programs".

However, developers have already done this. Gmail has offline functionality. You can read emails and write emails without an Internet connection. Gmail simply sends the newly composed emails and downloads newly received emails when the connection is restored. Just like Outlook.

Other than that one small misstep, Raphael does a good job of clearing up the Chrome OS confusion. Check it out here: "Google Chrome OS: A Simple FAQ"