Get A Free Chrome Notebook From Google

Google is actively looking for volunteers to test drive its Chrome OS loaded notebooks and provide feedback.

You will receive - free of cost - a brand new notebook loaded with the Google Chrome OS. Courtesy of Google.Be one of the first to test drive the Chrome Operating System.Bragging rights.Unfortunately, not every body is eligible. You should be living in the United States and should be an adult (> 18 years old) to take part in this free giveaway from Google.

If you fit the bill and are interested in checking out what this Chrome OS hype is all about, then visit the following page and fill up the form. Who knows, you may be the lucky one and just might land yourselves a brand new notebook running Google Chrome OS.

Please note, the deadline for applying is December 21, 2010 11.59 PM PST. So hurry.

Google Unveils Chrome OS - A Browser Based Operating System

Google unwraps its much awaited Chrome OS - a browser based operating system, which the Google CEO Eric Schmidt has termed "a viable third choice" over the popular traditional OSes Microsoft Windows and Apple OS X.

Chrome OS which runs on a customized Linux kernel banks heavily on the concept of Cloud computing. All your data and the applications reside on a remote server and not on your machine.

Google says this makes data backups redundant. Even if your laptop running Chrome OS gets stolen, you don't lose your data. All you need to do is buy another Chrome OS laptop and you are up and running. More over, because the data store on your Chrome OS laptop is encrypted, no one will be able to break into it and access your data.

Notebooks running Chrome OS will be available from Samsung Electronics Co and Acer Inc in the first half of 2011.

Google has also hinted that Chrome OS is designed to work across a wide range of screen sizes and foam factors, enabling hardware manufacturers to deliver computing devices beyond notebooks. Which makes me wonder if Chrome OS is discretely being positioned as a future replacement to Google Android.

Google also unveiled the Chrome Web Store which is an online store that helps a Chrome OS user discover and download new applications. Chrome Web Store has been designed on similar lines to many online stores by mobile phone providers such as Nokia's Ovi store, Apple's App store, Samsung Apps, and so on.

[Source : Google Chrome blog]

Richard Stallman Says Chrome OS is Bad for Users

Richard Stallman founder of the GNU Project and the Free Software Foundation (FSF) has reiterated his stand against Chrome OS and Cloud computing in general.

Stallman says, when you store your documents in the cloud (on a remote server rather than on your machine) as Google Chrome OS does, your data is not in your full control any more. You are left at the mercy of the service provider to access your data.

Not having full control of your data also throws a few legal risks. For instance, Stallman points out, the authorities could legally gain access to your data anytime through the service provider without you being aware of it.

Stallman akin Cloud computing to Careless Computing. He cautions users not to be so careless over whom they trust with their data.

Guardian which runs the story further says:

The accountability of cloud computing providers has come under close focus in the past fortnight after Amazon removed Wikileaks content from its EC2 cloud computing service, saying that the leaks site had breached its terms and conditions, and without offering any mediation in the dispute.

Why Google Chrome Frame won't help

So Google just announced a new open source project: Chrome Frame.

Google Chrome Frame is an early-stage open source plug-in that seamlessly brings Google Chrome's open web technologies and speedy JavaScript engine to Internet Explorer. With Google Chrome Frame, you can:

• Start using open web technologies - like the HTML5 canvas tag - right away, even technologies that aren't yet supported in Internet Explorer 6, 7, or 8.
• Take advantage of JavaScript performance improvements to make your apps faster and more responsive.

Just to clarify: I don't think it hurts anything, and I applaud Google's intentions to rid us all of supporting such a piece of shit like IE. It looks like a cool piece of technology and the most creative effort I've seen since the Mozilla ActiveX control.

But it'll do jack shit to get around supporting IE in all of its broken glory.

I'll ignore the current requirement of adding a meta tag to a page in order to trigger the plugin, and also the fact that this extremely young and experimental project doesn't have things like deployment tools for IT departments to use. They just announced this, and want feedback from developers at this point so they can continue working on it.

Google Chrome Frame will do jack shit, because the stick-in-the-mud companies that can't part with IE6 won't install a browser in a plugin. If the companies didn't have ignorant, self-defeating, head-up-their-fucking-ass rules about what level of corporate hell they'll ban you to for trying to install something on your machine, they would simply let you install the browser itself. None of the companies currently threatening their employees with fines or even firing will consider for a second adding an entire browser via a plugin. Employees might try to install it on their own in order to try to hide the fact that they get more work done when not using a complete piece of shit, but that will just prompt more companies to learn how to block people from installing browser plugins.

One of the reasons even the more laid back companies would probably let people install a whole other browser before installing a browser in a plugin: support. If you have employees using web applications that take advantage of Chrome Frame and they hit a bug either in the web application itself or something more severe like a browser crash (or maybe the always entertaining BSOD), that will fucking suck to figure out what happened. And if you installed Chrome Frame without their knowing, then call up support with a "my browser fucking crashed on me again" that turns out to stem from Google's crap code, your employer will fuck you. Shit, once they finally upgrade to IE8 they'll have enough of a problem with browser engines.

We instead need to find out what products companies use that require IE and either get the distributer to stop that shit, or provide alternatives. This will take a fucking long time, so I expect we'll also need to educate some of these dumbasses who think that they'll stay more secure by using an ancient fucking version of the least secure browser in existence, so they'll at least let one of the better choices onto the machines. Then employees will still have IE6 for the ten-year old shit software that requires it, and something else to use that actually works with the rest of the world.

Because you can't use dick until IE expires

Catching up on things, so bear with me.

Alexis Deveria posted a great breakdown of when you can use various browser features and pieces of specs. In addition to confirming what we all know - IE fucking sucks - it also gives a good visual of when you can plan to start using given features based on your matrix of supported browsers, which will invariably include some version of IE. For many of us, that even includes the dinosaur itself, IE6.

A couple of highlights from the results:





If you notice anything amiss in the results, don't just fucking dismiss the whole thing - let Alexis know in the comments so he can fix it.