Slashdot Mirror
Acer To Launch Chrome OS Netbook Next Month
Barence writes "Acer is preparing to launch devices based on Google's Chrome OS at next month's Computex trade show, according to reports. Multiple sources have apparently told VentureBeat that the company will show off devices at the Taipei show at the beginning of June. It doesn't specify what the devices are, although given that Chrome OS is primarily designed for low-powered laptops and Acer's status as the world's second biggest PC maker, it seems inconceivable that the devices won't be netbooks. Meanwhile, Google is considering implementing a Coverflow interface into Chrome OS. One design adheres fairly closely to Apple's template, and allows users to flip through applications and web pages with 'hotkeys and swiping gestures.' Favicons will be displayed beneath the pages, allowing users to click these and head straight to the application."
This might actually succeed, given that most of the competition I've seen is either clunky XP or a low-powered version of Win 7.
Yet Another Tech Blog
(but so much more, including game and movie reviews)
http://yanteb.peasantoid.org
Why inconceivable? Since Acer already is big with netbooks, they don't have to prove much there.
And considering that ChromeOS device could be just as well based on ARM chip (with many advantages of that route), it could as well be a new kind of devices, at least as far Acer is concerned (tablets? They do fit with "lack" of features of ChromeOS). Not saying this is what will happen...but inconceivable?
One that hath name thou can not otter
I hope windowing systems die soon.
We all have our complaints about windowing systems. It does indeed seem like we spend a fair amount of time just managing the windows (moving, resizing, etc.) rather than working. Like you, I'm pretty convinced that there has to be a better design out there. But I don't think it's the right strategy to throw-out windowing systems altogether, without a viable alternative to actually push towards. Despite all their warts, our modern GUIs are by now highly tuned and in fact do help us be productive.
There has to be a better design than a metaphor to desks and file cabinets...
I think our modern desktop metaphor isn't really mimicking desks and file cabinets in any meaningful way. Sure, the same terms are applied ("desktop", "folder", "file", etc.), but in reality the computer-objects bear little resemblance to the real-world objects. (You can't infinitely nest folders in the real world!) I think our GUI metaphors have abandoned any real-world resemblance that was slowing them down. (E.g. you can't arbitrarily resize a real-world sheet of paper on the fly, but it's easy to resize a GUI.)
I'm not sure what the answer is (mostly just thinking out loud, here), but I think our time would be better spent refining the modern GUI, rather than throwing it all away and hoping that something fantastically better fills the void. Some ideas that spring to mind:
1. Windows in a GUI are useful (e.g. to read from one and type into another) but managing all the windows is as much fun as shuffling paper on a real desk. What would help is far smarter layout algorithms. When a new window appears, its size and position should "make sense". For instance it should be in some way proportional to the amount of text within it. It should try to appear in areas that will not obscure existing content. A given document should re-open to the same position on screen as the last time you had it open (thereby taking advantage of human visual memory and habit-forming procedures). A GUI that shuffled all the windows around on you would probably be more annoying than helpful. But some amount of predictive behavior would be nice (e.g. tossing a window towards one edge of the screen could dock it there cleanly.)
2. GUIs should let users easily define tasks rather than forcing them to manually open all the windows/documents associated with a given workflow. So when I open the "banking" task, my financial spreadsheets should open (and appear with the size/position I always set them to), my Firefox window should appear in the right place with the right websites all open, my calculator app should pop open in the upper-right-hand-corner, and so on... It should be easier for users to define sets of tasks and have those states reappear when required. This all boils down to: the size, position, and state of all the windows on-screen actually conveys useful information to the user! Don't throw that information away!
3. Each app should have a hidden backend database where every command and help topic (with appropriate index terms and tags/keywords and synonyms) is stored. If you can't remember where the button or menu item for a given task is, it should be trivial to type that into a persistent "help/do-stuff" bar and have the option simply appear, ready to be clicked/invoked. For apps with tons of options (MS Word, Photoshop, etc.) this would make it trivial to find the option you want. (Just type "red eye correction" or "make sentence all caps" or whatever.) If done properly, this would also allow users to interact with applications in a faster text-command mode (anyone who has used Firefox's Ubiquity will know what I'm talking about.)
These are just the ideas that have occurred to me (repeatedly) and may not be the best ideas out there. Overall my point is that I agree we need better GUI-interaction styles... but that I think we can use the existing windowing systems as good starting points for further refinement.
http://chromeos-blog.com/
Another site with downloads for pre-releases, but without the need for registration.
"He may look like an idiot, and talk like an idiot, but don't let that fool you. He really is an idiot." - Duck Soup