Chromebook

Citrix Receiver brings Windows desktops and apps to Chrome OS laptops.

Could you ditch your computer operating system and live entirely in your browser? That's the question Google is asking with its new Chrome OS Chromebooks -- and it isn't an easy one to answer.

Plus: Wanna see the inside of a ChromeBook?

Everyone wants what Microsoft's got, namely control of the most widely used computing platform. Or, more accurately, everyone wants the billions and billions of dollars that flow in from the dominance of desktop computing.

Google is attempting to reinvent mobile computing with its Chromebook, but despite all of the features and analysis available to us, there are still some important questions yet to be answered. We won't know about some important aspects of the Chrome OS laptops until we get our hands on one, and other questions are largely about the viability and reliability of laptops that are entirely web-based. Here are five of the top unanswered questions.

One of the problems with the marketability of the Chromebook -- that it only functions when connected to the Internet -- is also a misunderstanding. Google's Chrome OS doesn't have any locally installed apps like a word processor or spreadsheet manager, so many believe that Chromebooks are dependent on and useless without Wi-Fi or cellular data connectivity. But when Chromebooks ship on June 15, they'll come packaged with offline versions of Gmail, Docs, and Google Calendar.

The spotlight on Day Two of the Google I/O developer event here in San Francisco was firmly on the company's Chrome OS. After six months in which only a prototype was available, laptops running Google's Chrome operating system will finally come to market for consumers, businesses and education.