I just updated my Cr-48 to the latest version of Chrome OS - version 20, for those who are counting such things. Although the default mode still appears to be the familiar full-screen browser look, there's also a more desktop-ish mode available, complete with wallpaper.
Unfortunately, I fear that the days of the Cr-48 are numbered; this fancy new OS version seems to be testing the limits of my prototype hardware and page rendering is quite slow.
Oh, look, there's another update. Always fun to discover new stuff, but I wish these things came with change logs. Time to restart!