As a here-and-now product, I view Chrome OS as a non-starter. Cloud-based solutions are sufficiently immature - witness Palm's latest webOS data-sync meltdown as only the latest example in a never-ending litany of them - that the full-on, local-centric OS will remain central to the typical client experience for the forseeable future.

Longer-term, though, as each of the obstacles - ubiquitous networking/connectivity, app stability, data integrity and redundancy - are overcome, the OS will thin out. Chrome OS establishes a fairly concrete target for this, even if the day when it is truly feasible for most of us is far off.

Call me a pessimist. For now, anyway.