Google has insisted that Chrome OS will not give rise to another walled garden, insisting that the apps store for the next-generation cloud operating system will not be a closed system.
Google's fondness for openness has been brought into question of late, with the decision to hold back the tablet friendly Android Honeycomb from the public domain, and decisions over video codecs causing rumblings.
However, the search giant insisted to TechRadar that the Chrome Web Store would not be locked down in the same way as some of its rivals - including the notably tightly controlled Apple App Store.
Walled garden
"We're really trying to avoid the idea of a walled garden," Chrome OS product marketing manager," Eli Lassman told TechRadar.
"We're trying to keep people on the web. The whole idea is that we're giving access to the web. The whole operating system is just based on bringing people online."
"I think what this comes down to is that there's so much you can do on the web itself. When I'm on my computer I'm using a web browser 95 per cent of the time.
"So I wouldn't think of it as a closed system as we have the whole web. The apps are optimised… ultimately you get to use the whole web. "
Chrome OS under review
Chrome OS is set to appear on devices in the summer, with low cost, small form factor notebooks from major manufacturers carrying the browser/OS.
TechRadar got to grips with a Chrome OS notebook at the end of March, specifically the CR-48 prototype.
In that Hands on: Google Chrome OS netbook reviewthe suggestion is that the success of Chrome OS may well be more about the price point than anything else.
