But I digress…

I just realized what is the difference between email and Twitter messages: Twitter messages are throw-away. You virtually never refer back to them.

While we like to keep old emails, we don't really care about old tweets.

I think what Google is doing with it's OS is the same thing it has done with Chome.

With Chrome, it created a browser with x30 Javascript performance and better standard compliance. Within a year, both FF 3.5 and IE 8 showed up with huge Javascript improvements and better compliance.

With the Chrome OS, the goal is to change the game in the following sense:

• Change the default for software design (OS + apps) of the computer from disconnected to connected.
• Show how good at browsing a dedicated design can be.

Don't forget – Google will not make money directly from this (all code is either GPL (OS) or BSD (browser)). Just as with Android and Chrome – Google's only real interest is driving more usage of the web and of their web applications.

They are taking the next big step – designing a complete software stack under the assumption that most of the time the computer is connected to the internet, and also assuming that the data and application are in the cloud, delivered via a browser.

There is a good chance that the Chrome OS is a little ahead of its time – connectivity is not where we would like it to be, and the cloud apps are still not up to par with native apps (and most don't provide decent offline modes).

Overall – this is a great technological step forward and is not designed as a commercial step. Would it succeed? Almost definitely, since it will push the web/cloud-based, almost-always-connected OS concept forward. Even if the most common implementation is Microsoft's, Google will get its way.