It seems that everyone has a thought or two on Google’s new Chrome operating system. In our continuing effort to cover the best of the tech world, allow us to present the top ten comments about the much talked about — and highly controversial — OS of the (near) future.

1. “Who knows what this thing is. To me, the Chrome OS thing is highly interesting (in) that it won’t happen for a year and a half and they already announced an operating system.” – Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer
2. “[Chrome] is an extraordinary market play. And an unsettling one. For it seeks to place Google, which already collects vast amounts of data about our Internet use, at the very center of our information experience.” – John Paczkowski, All Things Digital
3. “If the Chrome OS can help change consumer perceptions about the utility of online applications and cloud storage, it could be a big success for Google, even without wide adoption.” – John Timmer, ArsTechnica
4. “Google’s decision to create its own Linux distribution and splinter the Linux community decisively once again can only be seen as foolhardy and self-obsessive.” – Renai LeMay, Silicon.com
5. “Google wants to see multiple devices connected to the web in every household. A web device in your pocket, one on your wrist, in your car, on your boat and in every room of your house; not to mention computers in homes in the developing world. The Microsoft tax ($50 per unit for instance) has hindered the market adoption of these types of devices.” - Amanda McPherson, The Linux Foundation
6. “It’s disappointing that they’ve chosen to go it alone this far rather than working with the existing [Linux] communities.” – Joe Brockmeier, Community Manager for openSUSE
7. “As the long-foretold ‘Internet of Things‘ emerges — allowing everyday objects to be addressed via online queries — Chrome OS will be well positioned to help Google organize even more of the world’s information than the company already handles.” – Thomas Claburn, Information Week
8. “Nobody seems to appreciate how hard it is to make an operating system. You don’t just wake up one day and fall out of bed and make one. Not even the smarty pants kiddies at Google can do that. These things take years. Decades, even… Whatever Google might release in the second half of next year, it will just be a starting point.” – Dan Lyons, aka The Fake Steve Jobs
9. “If Google wants to succeed in its boldest product launch to date, the Chrome OS, the company needs to focus on its success with the same intensity it once dedicated to search. If it doesn’t, Chrome OS will end up just like Chrome: yet another irrelevant skunkworks [sic] project used by a handful of digerati and Microsoft-haters and ignored by everyone else.” – Henry Blodgett, Silicon Valley Insider.
10. “If anyone thinks that the recent attention being paid to Microsoft’s new search engine, Bing, and the sudden announcement of a free OS from Google is a coincidence, then you haven’t been following the tech business closely. Everything is strategic.” – John C. Dvorak, MarketWatch.com

…As for us, it all comes down to a very concise list of pros and cons.

Pros:

• Google starting small. Honestly, no one would give them the time of day if they immediately targeted traditional desktop and laptop systems. It would just be another small fish living in a pond inhabited by the likes of Windows, OS X, Ubuntu, and Fedora. By going to the comparatively uncharted world of netbooks first, Google has the opportunity of making considerable headway in a relatively short amount of time.

Cons:

• Google seems to have a hard time picking good hardware providers. Their “temporary alliance” with mediocre phone manufacturer HTC is proof of that. Now the folks at the “big  G” could always surprise us by linking up such heavy hitters as Asus and Dell. They could even go with an “under the radar” firm with a stellar reputation, such as Cowon or Archos. Unfortunately, we do not see that happening any time soon.
• Despite what many might think, the original Windows lineup — 3.1, 95, 98, and ME, etc –  were not operating systems in the strictest sense of the word. They were actually specialized suites called “extender programs” designed to make the aging DOS system structure more user friendly. As it stands now, Chrome OS is that very thing, only for Linux instead of DOS. While being a fancy extender program isn’t a “bad” thing, it doesn’t necessarily make it a true operating system, either.
• The thoughts of having to rely exclusively on cloud-based applications such as Zoho Office makes us want to cry. Now don’t get us wrong here — we love online apps just as much as the next person. Still, man cannot live on Google Docs and Adobe Acrobat Online alone. Even if there is a way to load external, offline programs onto the operating system, the bulk of these apps will have been designed specifically for Linux. In the minds of many, Konqueror, KOffice, and GNUCash are not adequate replacements for the likes of Safari, Microsoft Office, and the Peachtree Accounting Suite.

Our Verdict: Too soon to tell. I guess we will have to wait until the Chrome source code is released in November before we immediately start jumping to conclusions. Until that time arrives, consider the Free Line’s involvement in the matter to be officially closed.