On FriendFeed Paul Buchheit has called Google out on ChromeOS…

This is relevant not only because he is an ex-Google employee but also because he’s the creator of Gmail (arguably the web app Google built its app initiative on top of).  So his opinion carries a lot of weight.

But I don’t agree with it and I’ll explain why.

If ChromeOS is to succeed it will do so for one reason and that’s purity.  It is all web based.  You can destroy your Chrome Notebook and then walk to another and pick up where you left off. That’s not true of Android and, by design, IT NEVER WILL BE. 

Because Android will always allow individual applications to save things locally and as long as that’s true you’ll never have the same “transcendent” experience on Android as you will on an entirely cloud based system like ChromeOS. 

That’s where the “warning“ comes in.  I guarantee you the first thing that will happen once ChromeOS hits the market is a bunch of reviewers will start pushing Google for more native features (You can already see that in Danny Sullivan’s review of the CR-48 beta notebook).  They absolutely can’t give in to that.  If they do than Paul Buchheit is right and there is no reason for ChromeOS to exist. 

Purity of design is what will make ChromeOS a computing experience that transcends the individual machine and is the unique feature that will differentiate it from all other Operating Systems. 

One Side Point… Though unrelated to the technical issue I did want to make one additional point.  Google needs to see these comments as a sign of how others view their commitment to ChromeOS.  Though Mr. Buchheit is a high profile commenter these sentiments have been all over Hacker News in the last few days.  Google needs to set  money aside and commit to ChromeOS for a period of 5 years if it has any chance of survival.  Otherwise very few are going to trust them enough to invest in the platform.