[Tfug] Browser based UI's

[Matthew Patenaude]

I understand the concept of employing different layers for ease of use:
Windows XP is, of all the insane things in this world, a good deal easier to
install in VirtualBox on top of Linux, than natively on the hardware. I
tried to install XP first, a while back, before installing Ubuntu 9.04 (I
usually always do a fresh install instead of following an upgrade path), and
I forgot just how many drivers I needed in order to make XP work. I should
have first downloaded all my drivers, and put them onto a CD before
installing. However, I hadn't thought of that before I installed, and lo and
behold! I didn't even have internet through my LAN connection, much less
through wireless! I needed to download drivers for my LAN hardware and all
sorts of other things before I could get it going right.

What I was trying to do, was make a dual-boot set up, because I have a iPod
Touch, and wanted to be able to upgrade the silly thing through ITunes.

However, as soon as that happened to me, I said "forget it, I really don't
want the hassle anyway", and just wiped it clean and went back to my
backed-up virtual machine image once I had Jaunty and VirtualBox installed.
Much easier way to do things. :) I borrowed a friends computer and upgraded
the Touch to 3.0, and other than that, I have no reason to connect it to my
computer apart from the apps that use a wifi connection to sync or transfer
files.

I am all for technological advancement, and finding new and better ways to
do things... I like the screen shots of Gnome 3, for instance (ducking the
shoes thrown by the KDE guys :) :) )

However, I don't think running all one's programs through localhost is the
way to do that, IMHO. It just seems that running code directly would be more
effecient and stable, given the right programing languages and APIs, of
course.

I do understand the idea of rapid deployment of certain apps over a large
number of computers, however, you're not going to ever want or need to do
that with ALL the apps any particular individual is going to want on his
computer, surely!

I also noticed an article on Chrome OS that mentioned users might even want
both Chrome AND another linux on their system, to quickly load a basic
Internet OS for times when they want to fire off an email or check Facebook
or whatever, without running a full OS. It seemed the main focus there was
time involved, with a slight gain in battery life as well.

I just think with the improvements other OSes are making in boot times and
energy effiency, that I am going to want to pull out my netbook and boot up
Chrome rather than say Ubuntu NBR or Moblin, you know? Just how much
difference is it going to make? I can't see it making much, when other
systems get their boot times down below 20 seconds to a full desktop. If you
have *that* little time, then you probably just don't need to be sending an
email, you know? I can't presently imagine dual booting Chrome* along
with*my other Linux-of-choice.

Matthew
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