Google Chromebooks - Cloud Computing - CNN

Here is the link to our CNN discussion from Sunday.  

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Add yet another computing machine to the influx in the marketplace. Tablets, netbooks, notebooks, now... Chromebooks.

Last week at Google’s annual I/O conference they announced Chromebooks.  Pairing with Samsung and Acer for the first two models to be released in June, the netbook-like units can be rented as low as $20 a month students and $28 a month to business individuals.  But that’s not what has everyone buzzing.  It’s the fact they are computers running completely off the cloud.    

Chromebooks have no hard drive, zero storage space.  It’s Google's hope to drive everyone to do everything online – and of course use more Google applications.

PROS

• Units will update themselves in the background
• You can log in from any computer to access your data
• IT managers can easily control and manager users
• 8 second boot up
• Anti-virus built in

CONS

• Do we really want to give even more data to Google servers?
• No company is immune to a hacker attack.  (Think Sony and Amazon Could Services)
• $20 a month adds up - $240 a year you can buy a full netbook - plus add a few more dollars a month for 3G access which I feel would be a must
• Limited amount of programs and applications

The idea of a full cloud netbook is subjective.  It also is confusing to people that don’t understand the cloud to try to explain that with a Chromebook they can’t access things like Microsoft Office or iTunes or just save pictures to their desktop.

Most do however use the cloud a lot more than they realize.  Email, data storage, etc. and in many cases we are putting a lot of trust in to these companies with our information.  But, I personally am not ready for 100% leap.  I think its forward thinking but don't like the idea of having EVERYTHING online and also having to always be in wi-fi or 3g network every time I want to do something. 

What do you think?  Would you purchase one of these units?