Chrome OS would be anywhere close to Windows in near future. But we should welcome a healthy competition though. After all MS is doing monopoly in the Windows OS field.
I have heard google chrome has been planned to put in every netbook. I think google is just planning related things to the net ... Google is doing a good job!!
I was going to reply to your post until I took notice of your sig links. Why am I going to argue this? But I will say one last thing. While Google Chrome OS will be a failure, it will be a success for Microsoft because it will keep them on their feet. And to be honest with you, the idea of cloud computing wasn't something Google came up with. Microsoft has been working on similar projects for quite some time now. If you want to dispute it come with some hard core evidence. Peace out.
I donnot think that Chrome OS can defeat Windows or Vista because people won't get out of desktop software and docs.