Andy's Blog

Google took the wraps off of their new operating system, Chrome OS, today. And of course, after reading all that I could about Google's presentation, I downloaded the source code and got compiling. Google has really polished the build environment — it was pretty easy to get Chrome OS compiled and running inside of VMware:

Chrome OS, after login

I have posted a gallery on Flickr, which goes over my initial impressions of Chrome OS. In short, it is as Google says — they have optimized for speed and security. Even in VMware, Chrome OS boots quickly, and renders web pages in a flash. And it seems like Google has added quite a few security protections — having the root filesystem mounted read-only is an especially nice touch.

But unfortunately, these appear to be the only two areas in which Google has innovated. In my previous blog post on Chrome OS, I hoped that Google would use this opportunity to finally free Linux of some "legacy" baggage, such as the X11 windowing system. But alas, Chrome OS uses X.org, and toolkits such as GTK+. Google is really just focused on getting the browser running — they're not trying to advance the state of the art on any other fronts.

And so while I'm sure that this is going to help Google reach their goals for Chrome OS, my inner operating systems nerd is disappointed.

-Andy.

• AMD avoiding Larrabee route on road to CPU/GPU "Fusion" - Ars Technica:

  "It's entirely possible that Intel will sink a ton of effort and money into Larrabee, only to see it upstaged by a much-less-daring approach from AMD."

  It's going to be interesting to watch this play out.

• Apple's Mistake: This is another great essay from Paul Graham. But my problem with this essay, and with all criticisms of the App Store, is that they assume that all developers are the same. For the set of developers that Graham considers, his essay is spot-on. But there are lots of other developers out there, where Apple is a far less draconian gatekeeper than what they are used to.

  I think if you want to do a game on iPhone, you're going to have to go through the App Store. But all other developers are just going to migrate to the web. With all of the HTML5 bells and whistels in Mobile Safari, I think that web apps will be able to deliver a pretty good experience.

• Sweet! Is Sugar the future of publishing? - Fortune Brainstorm Tech: A positive article on my current place of employ:

  "... the San Francisco company has 12 sites, 114 people, and boasts an online audience that's comparable to that of Time Warner's (TWX) People.com."

  We've definitely been growing. When I started last year, there were 70ish employees.

• Marco.org - Is Palm's Comeback Losing Steam?: Interesting post from Marco Arment. I agree that Palm needs to have a WiFi-only device (like the iPod touch), but disagree with his conclusion:

  "For Palm, it’s too late. They bet the company and made a decent effort, but it wasn’t enough. They’ve already lost."

  I think that Palm should get the benefit of the doubt — I'll be interested in next year's "Pre 2".

• Dash to D.C.! Tech Guru Will Head Gov't Incubator, Digitize Democracy | The New York Observer: It'll be interesting to see if Anil Dash can pull this off. I'll be rooting for him.

• IEBlog : An Early Look At IE9 for Developers: Of note, Microsoft is really working on improving JavaScript performance, and CSS compliance. Still no word on HTML5 video, though.

• Startup Visa · Nat Friedman: Sounds good to me.

• Enlightenment working with top-tier electronics maker: Interesting. It's been years since I used Enlightenment, but I'm definitely curious about this.

• Blag Hag: Hmmm, I knew I saw a trend here...: Is this blasphemous?

• Chewy's first day of school: It gets even better when viewed full size. Awesome.

• kung fu grippe : Three things about Marco Arment: Instapaper is really as good as Merlin Mann says.

• Will Apple's History Repeat? - Continuations: Comparing the closed nature of the iPhone to the history of the PC is quite popular, but flawed. I think the more apt comparison is between the iPhone and video game consoles -- both are closed platforms, controlled by a single vendor, which must approve applications before they can appear on the system in question. Yet video game consoles have been tremendously successful over the last 20+ years, so I think it's likely that the iPhone will be successful as well, even though it isn't hacker friendly.

• Timon Royer Mediendesign » Blog Archive » Apple 27″ iMac (late 2009) Core i5 and Core i7 benchmarks are out: The comparisons between the new iMacs and the Mac Pro are stunning. I didn't think that the Mac Pro could look any worse, but I was wrong.

• Youtube in 1080P or how to redline your processor with Flash | 9 to 5 Mac: See, I'm not the only one complaining about Flash on Mac OS X.

• The War For the Web - O'Reilly Radar:

  "It could be that everyone will figure out how to play nicely with each other, and we'll see a continuation of the interoperable web model we've enjoyed for the past two decades. But I'm betting that things are going to get ugly. We're heading into a war for control of the web. And in the end, it's more than that, it's a war against the web as an interoperable platform. Instead, we're facing the prospect of Facebook as the platform, Apple as the platform, Google as the platform, Amazon as the platform, where big companies slug it out until one is king of the hill.

  And it's time for developers to take a stand. If you don't want a repeat of the PC era, place your bets now on open systems. Don't wait till it's too late.

  It's going to be interesting to see how the web evoloves over the next decade. As long as new companies are able to startup and play with the big boys (i.e. Twitter), I think everything will be okay.

• We've got the scoop on a new Buffy series! | SCI FI Wire: Motion comics can be a little odd (check the "Astonishing X-Men" one on Hulu for an example), but if they get the original cast for the Buffy ones, I'll be on board.

• AppleInsider | Conflicting reports within Qualcomm suggest Verizon-only iPhone: Apple likes to do the impossible. I could see Apple pressuring Qualcomm in order to deliver this new chip in mid-2010, presuming that Apple even wants to mess around with CDMA, of course.

• Verizon: How Much Do You Charge Now? - Pogue’s Posts Blog - NYTimes.com: When I read things like this, I wish that Apple had gone the MVNO route with the iPhone.

• Core i5 iMac arrives: first benchmarks | Electronista: Looking good so far.

• Morale: Fighter Pilots Face A Dismal Future: Isn't this how Skynet starts?