Chrome OS - Oversimplified

When Google announced about Chromium OS sometime last year, I didn't pay much attention to it. If there is only one reason why I should pay attention is because of its Linux link. I was thinking that it is going to be yet another distribution of Linux from Google. I asked myself a question, why you need another distribution? Why can't it be Ubuntu? Of course, Ubuntu has come a long way in being a most preferred desktop Linux OS and it is evolving everyday. Will Google answer this to community?

A couple of weeks back, I read about Chromium again. Chrome OS is Linux based OS that are initially targeted for netbooks. One cannot install any applications apart from pre-installed Chromium browser. The users of netbooks can't install any software and for everything they have to go online. We are far from accessing everything online. Even if I have everything online, still I would like to prefer to have something in my gadget. Another important thing is that Chrome OS has new security model to make netbook secured. May be a value add here on security front.

Out of curiosity, I searched for Chrome OS download and found a VMware image which of 300MB+ size. Downloaded it and loaded in my VMWare player. Within 20 seconds, login screen was thrown at me and I had to enter my Gmail username/password. Login is fast and neat (but this is not a selling point. Chrome OS is lightweight and so this is very basic requirement). After login, Chrome web browser was launched. There isn't much to write about Chrome OS. After login, Chrome browser is Chrome OS. Is it a trick by Google to capture Internet Explorer market? I don't think, with the current features, Chrome OS go near to Ubuntu. I feel that Google's target is IE market :-). Waiting for Chrome OS release to see what it finally offers. Overall, I feel that prototype of Chrome OS is oversimplified.

Here is the screenshots that are taken from my Vmware Player.