Some believe that Chrome is the first step by Google toward a Web OS. I think so too. Except that the meaning of OS will have to be re thought. There is no point in Google making an OS for PC’s. There is already a number of very good FREE – OPEN SOURCE OS in all the variants of Linux. Sun have a phrase “the network is the computer”. There is no network OS as such. The web is made from so many different parts. There are standards of course, perhaps they are the OS, perhaps the work of W3C is in fact the precurser to a WEB OS. Google and Chrome in that context cannot be an OS, merely a browser (tempted to say window) on the net.  In that sense Chrome is an indicator of a move toward the dominance of net based computing. The net has simply outgrown the idea of an OS.Here is a cartoon strip showing Chrome features: On Mobile, things look diffrerent, the OS is still very important. Google have also released Android which is an OS for Mobile phones. Android is designed specifically to access the web. It is Linux based (in part OPEN).  Android phones and devices will access web based apps (See Android app competition winners). In that sense they are also windows (given in) on the net. (See article below – The Internet of things)