From Free Software Magazine: "Google promises a much needed shift in the way small computers work. Problems like software updates, backups, installation, maintenance, viruses, have plagued the world for too long: a shift is way overdue. To me, however, the change about to happen shows us what many people have refused to believe for a long time: KDE and GNOME shot each other dead."I held back on publishing this as I had been working on a lengthy opinion piece that tries to summarise a lot of the ‘jist’ I have been getting out of a stream of articles since the Chrome OS announcement.
This opinion piece is about the paradagim change Chrome OS is set to bring about, even if makes most cringe at the thought. The Free Software Magazine article also touches on this, noting how Chrome OS changes a number of common things and that Chrome OS eschews such features because both KDE and GNOME have been incompetent at bringing about simplification of the Linux software stack.
Whilst I don’t personally think that KDE and GNOME were ever up for consideration by Google, I do think that there is a lot of truth in this statement:--
--And because of that, I also present my article on the topic of Chrome OS; "This Is Where We Are Going". I warn you though that this is an opinion piece that will no doubt anger some, and does not represent the views or opinions of OSnews itself.
I believe this is something that I think is difficult for us geeks to discuss because our skills are not representative of the majority, nor their requirements; and KDE and GNOME have not provided an Internet experience that is significantly better than other offerings. As desktop environments, they are good, but they do not change enough of the desktop experience to matter to most regular users. I can have the exact same Internet experience on KDE as I can have on Windows or OS X. There’s no differentiation here.
Moblin is a much bigger step in the right direction. The Year of Desktop Linux has been talked about on OSnews for as long as there have been DEs. Personally I believe that timeframe has now passed and the "Desktop" will be going away, just as GNOME and KDE have finally got themselves into shape. We always imagined that the fabled Year of Desktop Linux would be with KDE or GNOME but now I feel that the answer is more likely with Chrome OS (or Chromium OS).
"Google is working to bring Web software to televisions through a partnership with Intel, Sony and Logitech, according to two people involved in the discussions with the companies. The project, called Google TV, uses Intel chips, with Switzerland's Logitech developing a keyboard that operates as a remote control, said one of the people, who declined to be named because the matter isn't public."
"Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have released research detailing how molecules in chips can self-assemble, potentially reducing manufacturing costs. The researchers have developed a technique in which polymers automatically fall into place to create an integrated circuit." Uhm people, have we learned nothing?
"In this article, the authors investigate the impact of DRM restrictions on the demand for music downloads. [A new model] estimates the impact of DRM on consumers' willingness to pay for songs (both favorites and nonfavorites) and on the producer revenues and profits. Based on two studies of more 2000 college students, the results suggest that despite the potential advantages offered by some DRM restrictions, on balance the elimination of DRM has a net positive impact on producer revenue, profit, and consumer welfare."
"By encouraging more people to post videos in Wikipedia articles, we can bring theora video played in html5 to a very large audience. Currently, there are very few wikipedia articles that have videos. We hope that this campaign will bring thousands more to the site and show people how great theora can be. HTML 5 video, which plays without Flash, is a wonderful step towards a more open web - but if it depends on proprietary codecs like h.264, we will still be stuck with a gatekeeper for online video.""Google is changing the way it handles the unique identifier that accompanies each installation of its Chrome browser. As noticed by H-Online, a Google white paper says the company will now delete the unique ID after the browser updates itself for the first time. Google has confirmed with The Reg that the change will be made with the upcoming Chrome 4.1."Today's mobile space is owned by the likes of Nokia, RIM, Apple, and Google. While some of these corporations have embraced some open source components, a full FLOSS solution has yet to gain traction. Why? Blogger Bradley M. Kuhn posts thoughtful analysis of the current state of Open Source in the mobile space.Jim Bray, who played a major role in the XML standardisation effort, has joined Google to work on Android, and his words for the iPhone are pretty harsh. "The iPhone vision of the mobile Internet's future omits controversy, sex, and freedom, but includes strict limits on who can know what and who can say what. Itâs a sterile Disney-fied walled garden surrounded by sharp-toothed lawyers. The people who create the apps serve at the landlord's pleasure and fear his anger. I hate it."
"Following two unsuccessful attempts at forcing ISP Telenor to block The Pirate Bay in Norway, the IFPI and performing rights outfit TONO have abandoned their legal action. The case will not now head to the Supreme Court but instead the entertainment groups will pin their hopes on new legislation."
"A number of humorous yet undocumented features are hiding beneath the surface of some of the most popular open source software applications. Although easter eggs are generally easy to spot when you can look at an application's source code, there are a few that aren't widely known."
"In March 2008, Microsoft and Nokia announced their commitment to make Silverlight available for certain Nokia phones running the Symbian operating system. Microsoft is finally ready to make a beta of that code available. Microsoft briefly posted, then pulled, the download of the beta of the Silverlight for Symbiancode on March 11, as well as the associated developer tools for that release. I grabbed the description of the downloads before they were zapped."