What might a fusion of Chrome OS and Android look like, from a technical perspective? This talk of a grand business strategy glosses over the technical differences between the two systems, which go deeper than the primary input method and full-screen versus overlapped windows.
I can think of two more salient differences:
1. Both systems are based on the Linux kernel, but Android is based on a custom libc (Bionic) and various Android-specific things (like SurfaceFlinger and AudioFlinger) held together by an Android-specific IPC system called Binder. By contrast, Chrome OS is much closer to a typical GNU/Linux stack; in particular, AFAIK, it's based on X11 and GTK.
2. Android supports persistent on-device storage, whereas Chrome OS only supports ephemeral storage.
I can think of two more salient differences:
1. Both systems are based on the Linux kernel, but Android is based on a custom libc (Bionic) and various Android-specific things (like SurfaceFlinger and AudioFlinger) held together by an Android-specific IPC system called Binder. By contrast, Chrome OS is much closer to a typical GNU/Linux stack; in particular, AFAIK, it's based on X11 and GTK.
2. Android supports persistent on-device storage, whereas Chrome OS only supports ephemeral storage.