New
#60
What you're missing is that Chrome OS, despite it's name, is not being designed as a fully-functional operating system. I don't even know if it can run software in the traditional sense. It's designed as an OS-independent web browser that attains productivity through web apps. It's a very different concept than, say, an OS like Windows or Mac on the cloud. Chrome "OS" is no more of an operating system than the menu screen on my television (meaning, it's an OS in technical definition, but not in functionality). I wouldn't expect Chrome OS to do the things you mentioned anymore than I would expect Firefox or IE or Safari to do those things. It's a web browser.
According to Wikipedia, a platform is "hardware architecture and software framework (including application frameworks) that allows software to run." Thus, by that definition, Chrome OS isn't even a platform, and is therefore irrelevant to this discussion.
However, isn't Chrome OS going to be able to view web apps from any website, just like any browser can? I was not under the impression that only Google-developed web apps will work in it.
Most likely the same thing that often happens to a person's various Internet personas when they die: nothing. It just sits there forever unless you did instruct a friend or relative to shut it all down for you in the event of your death. The only way this would be avoidable (I think) is if the government took over the whole thing and ran it like Social Security, where you get XX GB of storage when you're born, tied to your SS number, and it just goes away or gets reallocated when you die.
Oh crap ... I hope no one in DC reads that...