The browser as operating system is apparently not working out for Google. I mean, have you ever thought of ditching your favorite operating system in favor of a browser only Chrome OS? Or purchasing a Chrome Book for that matter ?
Google seems to acknowledge that, and has just pushed out a pretty significant update to the Dev channel, which basically turns Chrome OS into a desktop operating system. The Aura window manager and shell adds a desktop, overlapping windows, a taskbar, and is fully hardware accelerated with fancy transitions and all that.
Aura is a hardware-accelerated "user interface framework for Chrome UI" that offers "rich visuals, large-scale animated transitions and effects that can be produced only with the assistance of hardware acceleration". Aura is cross-platform and should "provide the foundation of a flexible windowing system and shell for Chrome and ChromeOS on a variety of form factors".
The latest Chrome OS release is only available for Samsung and Acer Chromebooks as Cr-48 Chromebooks will skip Chrome 19.