As horrendous as your Windows PC being part of a botnet without your knowledge? Your entire system controlled by organized crime? Aside from black hats you also have Microsoft, a convicted felon with a very bad privacy record. The idea that anyone who is using Windows right now has privacy is absurd.

With Google OS, at least you have a chance that only Google has your data, and is using it according to specified terms.

And each browser window in Chrome is sandboxed, and there is no native app layer where viruses and malware can run.

It seems quite possible to me that a typical everyday Windows user who moves to Chrome OS could dramatically improve their security and privacy. Not just because Chrome has those features, but also because Windows lacks them.

Jon, John: yes, a lot of finagling can be had with the Open Source terminology. The most open system imaginable can be subverted by the user downloading and installing a malicious browser plug-in or some such.

I’m not saying that Google is the ultimate in trustworthiness, but I trust them further than a company that has a lock on business and government desktop computing and that will be true until there is real competition in that space once again.

First step (which is all this amounts to) is for companies to no longer being cowed into denying competing with Microsoft for fear of retribution. I’m tired of waiting for the Justice Department to do their job (but note who they are actually picking on at this point).