So to that end, I've been fooling around with netbooks for the past few weeks in hope that I could be persuaded to pull the trigger, but the net net (pun intended) is that they are too damn slow. The processing speed, or lack thereof, is noteworthy and I am certain that if I owned one, I'd end up throwing it out the window in frustration.

So that all being said, Google's Chrome OS effort is a masterstroke in brilliance. I have not yet fooled around with the developer builds that are out there on the torrents, but I hope to soon. I am sure Google will get it right and once it takes hold in the marketplace, I think it will mark a very important and fundamental shift towards Internet based computing. If I was Microsoft and to a lesser extent, Apple, I'd be pretty worried because Chrome OS has the potential to be a massive game changer over the long haul. 

For the record, I am not a Google acolyte. On the contrary, I think they are becoming so pervasive in Internet computing that it's scary, but between Chrome OS, Google Wave and Android, you have to give credit where credit is due: even if none of these technologies take hold, they are clearly in a league by themselves from an innovation standpoint.