[sociate] Go, Goobuntu!

 <http://blogs.siliconvalley.com/gmsv/> Good Morning Silicon Valley's
terrific John Paczkowski
<http://blogs.siliconvalley.com/gmsv/2006/01/speculation_has.html> reports
that Google seems indeed to be working on a desktop OS, "Goobuntu," based on
the  <http://www.ubuntu.com/> Ubunto Linux distribution. John points to an
interesting  <http://plod.popoever.com/upfiles/img/050902/googleOS.jpg>
screenshot, too.

Despite the fact that Apple's kinda nifty  <http://www.apple.com/macosx/> OS
keeps evolving  <http://www.apple.com/macosx/newfeatures/over200.html>
interesting features and because of the imminent appearance of Windows
Vista, whose principal virtues appear to be better security from viruses and
Trojans (as long as you pay up for  <http://beta.windowsonecare.com/>
OneCare) and deep DRM, which is only a virtue for big sellers of Content,

Operating systems no longer matter.


They don't. The desktop metaphor is ancient and tired. The personal
productivity tools and environment we all take for granted are
<http://www.sociate.com/blog/archives/2005_09_01_archive.html#11258180128882
7883> ill suited for group work. Web services are looking better and better
(though their integration still leaves much to be desired). Connectivity
just keeps getting better (though the telcos seem determined to
<http://blogs.siliconvalley.com/gmsv/2006/01/net_neutrality_.html> keep us
second-rate in order to defend their business models).

There's a great opening now for a legacy-free, Net-savvy, open open open OS
that takes advantage of all the MIPS on your average machine to do things
quickly for users, rather than ping central servers to check if what you
have on your hard drive is "authorized."

The  <http://www.linux-laptop.net/> Linux laptop initiatives haven't figured
this one out.  <http://rchi.raskincenter.org/> Archy,
<http://www.opencroquet.org/> Croquet and other initiatives are interesting
and may suit some people, but I'd sure like to find something that suits me
better than Windoze XP. This year, I may get to experiment with just that.
Very exciting.

Oh, it'd be nice if Goobuntu ran on open cellphones, too.



posted by Jerry at
<http://www.sociate.com/blog/archives/2006_01_01_archive.html#11387559778264
8561> 12:48 PM

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