Chrome OS

wags007

Episode 37 – Top things that happened in 2010

Running Time:  43:19

1) Introduction

2) This is a running list of things to consider for the top news of 2010

 Big Purchases in 2010:

   Novell get’s purchased – the patents that went to Microsoft

   Oracle buying Sun

   Palm get’s bought by HP

 Changes in the world of Open Source:

   Google World:

    Android shoots for world domination – Or at least Mobile Platform domination

    Google TV announced and delivered

    Chrome OS Pilot Program announced Beta’s of Chrome OS on VM’s

   Ubuntu abandons Xorg and Gnome for Wayland and Unity

   Mandrivia struggling/passing away…

   Tablet Market exploded with the introduction of IPad and Galaxy Tablet

3) Conclusion

  Recommendations for People to interview

  E-Mail us at podcast@linuxinstall.net

  Go to the WebSite to call us via Google Voice

  Facebook Fan Page

  Follow us on Twitter and Identica as @linuxinstall

  Look for us and comment on iTunes, odeo

http://player.wizzard.tv/player/o/j/x/129333743179/config/k-73b443e966a1409d/uuid/root/height/325/width/325/episode/k-0d89f6df3652c2b7.m4v

wags007

Did you miss it? Google is trying to send Windows Packing….

While there is tons of speculation as to the real reason it is pretty clear at this point that Google real is encouraging people not to use Windows in favor of Linux and MacOSX.  There are rumors all over the map as to the reason.  The linuxinsider.com has a great rundown collection of the major rumors and a little bit of commentary.  There are also articles over at zdnet.com the Googling Google Blog trys to claim that the switch will save Google millions, like they need the money and haven’t already paid for the licenses.

This is truly great news for the Linux Community.  Of course not the first major company to encourage the use of anything but Microsoft.  Novell has the majority of it’s company migrated and only those who can find no alternative software are allowed to stay with it.  IBM and Cisco both allow people to choose their own PC.  Basicly they give their staff a budget and provide solutions for them to implement and support.  In the end this lowers costs and let’s people work happier with the OS the picked.  It is good to hear though and I hope more companies will start looking into why they have to stick with Windows.  Especially for the IT Staff.

wags007

Chrome OS quick review…

Chrome OS is Google’s attempt to put Linux on net books in a way that anyone can use it. Google has stated that they will only be supporting specific hardware. For instance, the hard drive will have to be a solid state drive to keep the machine booting at the 7 second mark. The interface is really simplified. It’s pretty much just a browser with some links disguised as a buttons.  The folks over at GDGT created a VMWare image of the new OS.  I downloaded it and tested it out using Sun’s Virtual Box.  Here are my first thoughts about the new OS.

The less that perfect parts of Chrome OS:

You must be able to connect to the internet to be able to use it. This may change but seems to be a strong positive in Google’s goal. The theory is that you can or will be able to do everything you need with Web based apps. When I am at home or in an area with Cell Signal this would be fine. Geton an airplane that doesn’t have Wifi and the machine is going to be useless.

They don’t want you to have to worry about drivers. So it’s really unclear about how they plan on doing things like printing and other device connections. If they are planning on using CUPS(the open source print queue manager for Linux) they need to figure out or help the project work with cheaper printers. So how are we gonna get things that don’t have drivers built in to work?

It may actually be too simple. The limitations are supposed to be beneficial but they may turn out to be too limited for even the most basic user. This is like reversing the trend from smart or app phones back to simple phones that just make calls. Not sure that it’s a trend that will work. Only time will tell of course.

The good parts of Chrome OS:

It’s simple. Really this is the perfect for my 80+ year old Grandfather. He wants to do E-Mail and look at our pictures and this is really the easiest OS to do it with. The OS could be nice for that purpose.

It boots really quickly. It connects easily to the network. It just works. Don’t be undersold by those factors.

Conclusion:

All in all it’s a wait and see moment for the new Google project. It may work but the discussion of merging it with Android seems to make more sense in the long term.  The real ultimate endgame though should probably be separate OSes with the ability to share apps.  That would provide the best of both worlds.