Winding up

Well I've been busy winding up the project I've been working on so haven't had much time to work on much else. And we've had a cold spell which has slowed down the enthusiasm to jump out of bed and start coding too ...

Hmm, so Google has finally announced it's `own' OS. Well, it isn't really, it's more like it's own `desktop environment', since they're just going to use a linux kernel, and presumably some sort of GNU or similar user-land, although much of it wouldn't be necessary if you're only running one application. Seems to be a bit of an overbloan buzz in the press - it isn't like they're the first to come up with their own linux-based distro.

Still, I do see some potential positives to come out of it for the free software world. For one, it will be interesting to see the notion of a 'desktop environment' completely re-done in a few months - rather than the years it's taken GNOME and KDE to get to their current state (to give them credit they did start with nothing). And it'll give the UI zealots another interface to clone; and perhaps it'll be better than the shit they've been cloning for the last 10 years.

Then again, even with a fast javascript compiler and HTML5, browser applications are still pretty much going to `suck'. Relying on faster computers to hide the problem is terribly inefficient. And in-fact working toward that whole network-based remote-terminal interface will look dated when the machine in your hand will fast enough and have enough memory to run real software whilst keeping your data local and private.