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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Computing

The best antivirus software for Chromebooks in 2024

HP Elite Dragonfly Chromebook with accessories.

Google has done a great job of making Chrome OS lightweight, yet still secure against common computer viruses, which is one reason it’s a popular choice at schools. However, if you have a Chromebook, it can still be vulnerable to certain malware attacks or virus-laden downloads, so security is important.

If you’re looking for the safest experience, you should add antivirus software to your Chromebook. Fortunately, we have many, many hours of experience with testing both Chromebooks and antivirus apps, so we’re well-positioned to make several top recommendations when you’re looking for software.

Computing

Google just broke search

AI Overviews being shown in Google Search.

Google AI Overviews were announced a couple of weeks ago at Google I/O, and they've already proven to be rather controversial. The aim to provide high-quality answers to your questions summarized from the web, but a series of recent X (formerly Twitter) threads show how big of a fail it's already proven to be.

The response that went viral involves a very dubious pizza recipe. As reported, when prompting Google for an answer to the issue of "cheese not sticking to pizza," the AI Overview suggests adding nontoxic glue to your pizza to prevent the cheese from sliding off. The exact words the AI overview gave are as follows: "You can also add about 1/8 cup of non-toxic glue to the sauce to give it more tackiness." Where did the Google AI overview get the info as a source? An 11-year-old Reddit comment from this thread, in what was clearly a joke.

Computing

Some updates coming to macOS 15 aren’t just about AI

Apple's 15-inch MacBook Air on a desk, with macOS Sonoma running on its display.

Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) is coming up soon, and everyone's expecting a huge announcement around AI. But don't worry, according to a report from AppleInsider, there are some practical tweaks coming to macOS 15 that are in the works. Notably, the System Settings app is set to receive the biggest changes, with other menus and app UIs also expecting some rearranging.

The last update to the Settings app happened with macOS Ventura, changing the name from System Preferences to System Settings and shifting to an iOS-style design, a change that ruffled the feathers of diehard Mac users. This time, the organizational system will reportedly be based on "priority and overall importance."