ChromeOS is all about the web; Why didn't Google just make it downloadable by the Web?

Yesterday was an exciting day for Chrome with all of those product announcements. Although I was impressed with the launch of the Chrome notebook, I could not help but wonder; if this ChromeOS is so simple, lightweight and inexpensive why couldn’t Google just make it available as a download like its browser version? That would have been niceÂ wouldn’tÂ it?

If ChromeOS claims to be nothing but the web, why didn’t Google just give us something by the web?

After all, it is just a browser with login functionality therefore couldn’tÂ it have been easily bundled up as a downloadable OS that would allow anyone to simply install it over any netbook or notebook? It only utilizes the cloud and uses your Google account. It is so simple; it would seem like a no brainer for Google. That was really the kind of announcement I was hoping for. A downloadable OS would have made a lot of people much happier.

This would have been a better way to get this beta project up and running rather than going through a long beta program for a notebook. Who knows if I will ever get a notebook to test? Why get stuck with a waiting game, when you can download and run it now?

Don’t get me wrong, it would be cool to have test versions of the Cr-48 Chrome OSÂ notebook but why all that hustle in the first place? What’s the catch? Is GoogleÂ planning to monetize on Chrome by bundling the OS with cheap notebooks? Am I the only one missing something here?

Anyway, I was at work so I missed some parts of the live event. Did any part of the event give any reasons to why we downloadable Chrome OS model was not mentioned? Some answers would be nice.

Well, if you did not get a chance to view the Chrome event, take a peek at the first 20 minutes below: