Google Chrome OS Reviews

By Dena Cassella January 12, 2010

In late November of 2009, Google unveiled more details of its new Chrome operating system (OS). Google’s Chrome OS will be a whole new type of operating system—the company is calling it a lightweight operating system that will take place within a Chrome-based browser. The company says it envisioned Chrome as a Web-only experience, so you can kiss your file system and software applications goodbye. One of the fixes for this new operating system that has caused a bit of chattering is that it’s supposed to be extremely fast. Google is gearing the Chrome OS for speed: speedy Web access, speedy Web browsing, and just over all speed in performance.

Contents

IT Pro Gives Realistic Review
eWeek Finds It Intriguing
GadgetMix Tries a Speedy Boot Up
Tech Radar Has a Quick Hands On
Computing Unleashed Gives 7 Reasons

Another important feature of Google’s Chrome OS is its storage. The Chrome OS model essentially uses local storage only for caching and to speed operations, allowing the operating system to store individual users’ data in cloud-based applications and services. This will provide quite a convenience for people—to be able to tap into their online lives from a variety of machines and locations. All-in-all this new OS is starting to sound mighty tempting—speed and convenience, what a perfect OS features.

Well, not everyone will be looking to Google’s new OS when it debuts this year—it just may not suit everyone’s personal taste. Also, Google has made some very bold promises regarding its new OS—speed and security, namely—and we would like to know just how those promises measure up to the real Chrome OS experience. Although this new operating system may be too young to be put to the test, many people are—here are the few reviews of Google’s new Chrome OS operating system.

IT Pro Gives Realistic Review

IT Pro notes many great aspects of Chrome OS, but still find that this is a niche operating system and isn’t as revolutionary as Google makes it seem. The review concludes that although this OS will be great for netbooks, it is hard to see it as the business OS of the future (aka Google’s hope and dreams for it).

eWeek Finds It Intriguing

eWeek noted in it hands on review of the new operating system that it is very convenient that its interface looks so much like the Chrome Web browser because a lot of people are already familiar with it UI.

GadgetMix Tries a Speedy Boot Up

GadgetMix.com made an attempt at Google’s speedy Chrome OS boot ups on a netbook, but unfortunately they found the process wasn’t as speedy as promised.

Tech Radar Has a Quick Hands On

TechRadar.com also agreed this operating system is too much in its infancy to be fully judged. The quick hands on review concluded that it did seem more like just a browser than an actual operating system.

Computing Unleashed Gives 7 Reasons

This review gives seven different reasons why Google Chrome is a unique operating system—like having a browser itself as an interface and Chromes swift boot up time.

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How to take a screenshot on a Mac

The keyboard and trackpad of the MacBook Pro 14-inch.

For most new Mac users -- especially if they're coming from Windows -- one of the first questions they need to ask is how to take a screenshot on a Mac? There's no dedicated Print Screen key like there is on Windows, but there is keyboard shortcut, and if you want something more akin to Microsoft's Windows Snipping tool, there are some great screenshot apps you can use, too.

Here's how to take a screenshot on a Mac in a few different ways.
How to take a screenshot using keyboard shortcuts
MacOS keyboard shortcuts are the quickest ways to take screenshots, whether you're capturing the entire screen or just a portion. By default, Apple's methods save your screenshot to the desktop, but if you want to copy the screenshot to the clipboard, there's a keyboard shortcut you can use instead.
How to capture a selected area

Computing

How to delete Google Chrome on Windows and Mac

Google Chrome with pinned tabs on a MacBook on a table.

Google Chrome is a user-friendly web browser that is packed with useful features and intuitive controls. It’s also the default browser for pretty much any Chrome-branded product you purchase. Even if you prefer Safari or Firefox, we bet Chrome has one or two things you would dig. But what if you've added Google Chrome to your Windows or macOS machine, and you’ve decided you don’t like the dang thing?

Computing

Google Drive vs. Dropbox: which is best in 2024?

Google Drive in Chrome on a MacBook.

Google Drive and Dropbox are two of the most popular cloud storage providers, if not some of the best. They offer a range of exciting features, from secure file storage and transfer, to free storage, file syncing, extensions, chat-app integration, and more. But while they might go toe to toe on some cloud storage specifications, there are others where one is the clear winner. The question is, which one is the best in 2024?

Let's take a close look at Google Drive and Dropbox to see how their latest head to head turns out.
Google Drive wins the free storage battle
Both Dropbox and Google Drive offer free storage space for those who would like to try out their respective services before putting down a few dollars a month for something more expansive and permanent. Google Drive comes standard, with 15GB of free space, far more than Dropbox's initial free storage offering of just 2GB.