Within five minutes of unboxing my Cr-48, I was on the internet and all my plugins, bookmarks, and passwords were automatically synced. I have always been fond of living on the cloud, but this was almost utopia.

However, Chrome OS definitely requires a paradigm shift that I am not sure I am ready to take. As a web developer, I have crafted a very intimate relationship with Zend Studio, Photoshop, and a local *AMP stack. Although I have found alternatives to almost all desktop software floating somewhere in the cloud, most of these alternatives are not (yet) as powerful as their desktop counterparts, and severely hinder my productivity (almost as much as Facebook). That being said, John the developer probably won’t be using Chrome OS as his main operating system for a while, but John the student feels differently.

The eight hour battery life, (fairly) small footprint, the a/b/g/n and 3g wireless card makes it ideal for taking notes in class on Google Docs or browsing Facebook when the professors accent is just too thick to understand. I think this is exactly what Google was looking for. Chrome OS doesn’t work for John the developer simply because the applications aren’t up to par, not because of the operating system itself.

In the past week I have made every attempt to use the Cr-48 as my primary computer. For the most part, it was an enjoyable experience. Although, at times, it was a bit slow at switching between tabs. I’m not sure if this is due to the hardware, or if it is a glitch with the operating system itself. Below is a list of my likes and dislikes:

Likes

• The battery life. Although, in the netbook scene 8 hours is not a lot, it is significantly more than my laptop.
• Two finger scroll. A few weeks ago one of my roommates purchased a MacBook Pro and I fell in love with its tracpad. So I was delighted when I was able to scroll with two fingers. I would really like to see gestures in future releases of Chrome OS. Perhaps a two finger swipe to move forward and back in your browser or between tabs, a three finger swipe to move between workspaces, and pinch to zoom.
• The wake up time. It is literally one second.
• 3G Card. When I don’t have access to WiFi I can enable the cellular modem. However, cellular data is expensive, and at this time, Chrome loads pages normally and eats through data pretty quick. It might be worth adding an option to allow users to switch their UserAgents and allow them to load mobile optimized pages.
• Living on the cloud. It is very nice to be able to go to any computer in the world and have access your data. Plus it puts an end to the misfortune of a hard drive crash.

Dislikes

• The shell. I have been a Linux user for four years and have grown very familiar with BASH. The shell provided with Chrome OS is complete crap (granted, its probably not a high selling point for the average user). I would really like to see a more powerful shell with the ability to use ssh keys, navigate through your html local storage.
• Living on the cloud. At this current time, it is impossible for me to abandon.