When the Chromebook was originally released, it had a more bare bone approach to other competition operating systems such as Microsoft Windows or Mac. The most recent update of Chrome (release 19) has drastically changed how the chromebook looks and the final product has the OS looking more and more like Windows 7. This has many people asking does the Chrome OS look too much like Windows.
It is true that the Aura update has drastically changed how the Chrome OS looks, but is this a bad thing? The answer in my opinion is no. The new shortcuts making navigating the internet and using your Google laptop 100 times easier than before. Also, the Google “shelf” which lets you place icons in the bottom left hand corner of the screen was longer overdue and allows you to open programs much quicker. Another much needed change was support for an additional monitor. This allows the user to hook up an external monitor to their laptop for an additional display or to mirror it if you were looking to use a larger monitor. Also, the user experience has been much improved and simplified with the new changes. The new changes also allow for a window manager similar to the one Windows has. The Chrome OS was originally marketed as being fast, simple, yet very secure. The new update while ads a little bit of complexity, it overall makes the process much easier to use.
All in all, the inexperienced computer users are the ones who will most likely benefit from the new Chrome OS update. Aura is much easier to use and now anyone who is used to Windows or Mac OS will be able to jump right in and start using their chromebook. While the new update makes Chrome look much more like Windows, this is for the best and the ones who will benefit the most are the user base. Doing tasks from a desktop simply fee much better than using the Chrome browser and I applaud Google with their new set of changes. While the Google OS is the newcomer when it comes to the operating system market, Chrome is taking steps in the right direction and is not that far off from perfection.
