Day 3 and 4 With the CR-48

I noticed something about my online habits after using the CR-48 for a few days. That is, in all of Chrome OS' splendor and wonderment, there's nothing magical about it. It's practical, straight to the point, and just works. I found myself turning on the computer to check my email, rss subscriptions, write a blog, watch some television programs online, or even just check a social network. I was on, and off the device moments after my task was done.

I'm not distracted by the interface as I'm viewing one webpage at a time. (Although, I would love to be able to reference two pages synchronously on the same screen at times.) I can see myself using a product like this more regularly, moreover when html5's data caching, having apps locally, even when there isn't a data connection would be ideal. Mostly, for situations when all is needed would be a word processor, I would sometimes want to just disconnect.

This is a quick screenshot of the other laptop's chrome preferences synchronized to Chrome OS.

Maybe I'm just vaguely reminiscing the time I used to spend with the workhorse laptop of my work life. I believe that we all have some form of emotional response to the objects we interact with everyday. We associate certain companies with frustration and maybe even anger. I think about, Microsoft, in my honest opinion, this company has done an amazing job in improving their user experience. Products that come to mind are the Xbox, Zune, and Windows 7. Personally, I really enjoy each of those products. I've used each of these products and I just have had such great experience. It's been so good, the only bitter taste left in the mouth of my mind is IE6. With Chrome OS, I feel that I can use this and get off and on the internet. My experience has been great. So good, it's sometimes easy to forget the bugs.

• It's a little slower (than the other laptop) at times to render pages
• Flash player isn't so smooth at higher/larger frames

... and maybe a few other bugs. I just really hope that services like Evernote, Google Docs, Blogger, Google Reader, and Google Calendar worked offline. Overall, four days later, I'm satisfied with my user experience thus far, keeping in mind, that I'm using it as a regular user might, not as a developer.

Tell me, what do you think about having a piece of hardware dedicated for a browser? (I know that this last notion is a crude underestimation of what Google is trying to do with the Chrome OS, but humor me.) How would you build a netbook?