The only thing that will save our patent system now is for the big boys to get repeatedly dinged with massive patent troll judgements.
Unfortunately, the big boys have the resources to withstand repeated "dinging" as a "cost of doing business". In return, the patent system is an excellent insurance policy against the proverbial "one guy in a garage could put us out of business" scenario.
If the guy is a technology editor, why is he struggling with something as simple as a GPS? I'd understand if he was reporting that others had this problem... but come on.
If you actually RTFA you'd see that he wasn't complaining that he couldn't work his GPS, but was concerned about the potentially distracting visual clutter that is appearing on newer GPSs: 3D buildings, landmarks, terrain etc. and comparing it with two minimalist systems which research has shown to be more effective at communicating the necessary information with minimum distraction.
Is it me or do Apple get in trouble in the UK a lot?
More a case of whenever Apple get in trouble it tends to be over-reported. Ads get pulled all the time. Also, its largely driven by how many "members of the public" complain.
Have they really not bothered to hire any UK lawyers?
The ASA is an independent industry regulator enforcing a "code of conduct" so the law doesn't necessarily come in to it.
However, no, I don't think Apple really understands the way advertising works in the UK: a prestige brand like Apple is supposed to give us 40 seconds of entertainment with a "pack shot" at the end. If you make specific claims about the product, people will check (if a cosmetics firm says "8 out of 10 women in our survey said they felt younger looking" then they better have those stats). Knocking the competitor's product really isn't cricket and is fairly rare. I notice that although Apple initially made UK versions of the "I'm a Mac" ads (with a British comedy duo) that didn't last long.
On the other hand, Apple also think that a British keyboard is an American keyboard with the # key replaced by a £ sign. Twits.
About half of 369 websites selling electronic goods checked in an EU crackdown were found to have exactly these sorts of problems.
Of course, 99% of those websites weren't run by Apple, so they don't get singled out in the press. Fair do's I guess - 99% of companies don't get every product launch reported by the BBC, either.
The EU "distance selling" regulations (which include the UK) are fairly tight and comparatively recent.
Allow you to be a smoker and still get your iCrap serviced under warranty?
Probably not if the cause of the fault is that it is gunked up with foul-smelling tar. Go read the fine print in every warranty under the sun about not covering neglect or misuse.
Has anybody asked Dell, HP, Sony etc. what they would do in these circumstances? Thought not.
From what I'm told, the common implementation of the recipe of 'pizza' is very American and is different in Italy...
My (unscientific) experiments on a visit to Padova suggested that sausage-based pizzas may be more common in America (and here on Air Strip One) than in Italy. Or, it could be that I don't speak Italian. I did order a Pepperoni Pizza but it had (bell) peppers on it, not spicy sausage.
However, I was half expecting that, and it was very nice:-)
For added entertainment, watch a bunch of US Spanish speakers try and get tortillas in Spain. (Closest they got was "Mexican tortilla" which turned out to be Spanish omlette... with chillies).
Out of interest where does, Microsoft Windows, Dos, Ubuntu, Photoshop, Autocad, Proteus, MS Office, Skype, All Games and just about any software I can think of come into this picture?
Go read the EULAs that come with all of those products, for a long list of things that you cannot do with "your" copy. Such as run the cheaper versions of Windows on any sort of virtual machine, move the OEM windows bundled with your PC onto another machine, use your educational-licence copy of Photoshop for commercial work...
The details are different, but the principle is the same: you don't own the copy you bought.
Every single other company works that way.
In your dreams. Well, maybe Ubuntu since the GPL only really kicks in if you want to modify or redistribute.
At least, not what "netbooks" have actually become: cheap, compact, entry-level laptop PCs for people who want to run standard PC software but can live without editing HD video and have an xbox for their 100fps 3D fragging.
The Chrome idea is actually much closer to the original "netbook" concept: something the size of a BOOK to use to access the NET. (See what they did there?)
Now, we never got to find out how that went because ASUS made such a botch of the original EEE PC: it looked great on first sight, and they sold like hotcakes, but it was let down by the OS. Once you got past the click-and-drool "launcher" no effort had been made to adapt the usual Firefox/Thunderbird/OpenOffice apps for the small screen or get the power management working properly. Then ASUS drank the Microsoft Kool-Aid and effectively switched to making entry level Windows laptops.
Bottom line: Asus had no particular investment in promoting Linux - it was just a cheap option that ceased to be the cheapest option when MS started offering XP for a knock-down price.
Google, OTOH, is presumably going to get behind its platform, push and keep pushing - and you have to use a Chrome machine as a netbook (especially if they take the ARM route). So now we'll see if the "true" netbook model works.
Oh, and Google doesn't have to give them away to make them free - just ensure the wholesale price is cheaper than the "netbooks" that mobile carriers and ISPs are already giving away "free".
Bear in mind that the slashdot readership is not Google's target market. Nobody here is going to enthuse about a free/cheap web browser appliance unless they can hack it and use it for writing python scripts for automated wardriving.
However, other people might be sold on the idea of a free netbook thrown in with their mobile contract, broadband or cable TV*, especially if it is marketed enthusiastically.
(*How about a Chrome tablet as a program guide/remote for your TV...?)
I've used UK laptops in the US and had US visitios using US laptops in the UK. Wifi has always Just Worked and power has always just been a matter of finding the right socket adaptor.
I've yet to see a laptop that didn't come with a dual-voltage charger. Just check the label to ensure it is rated 100-240V or similar, which will work fine. All you need is a generic US to UK plug adaptor (not a voltage converter or anything).
The same might not apply to your other appliances, though: cheaper items might come with 110V-only wall-warts and our 240 Great British Volts.
Hint: buy the adaptor in the US (its something to do at the airport) because many of the smaller shops here in the UK will only have adaptors for UKians visiting the US. If you're stuck in the UK without one, you can probably just get a replacement power cord (UK plug one end, standard figure-of-8 2-pin plug on the other).
Hint 2: Next time, come in May or early June. Unless you like grey clouds, drizzle, and sunset at 4pm.
Hint 3: Riding the underground will completely destroy your sense of scale and direction. The Underground map uses a sort-of not-quite-logarithmic scale: the outer stations are quite a long way apart, but in the centre of the city they're only a few blocks apart and it can be quicker (and more interesting) to walk.
(I usually make the opposite mistake when I'm in the US and take on what looks like a 15-minute walk... an hour later I find myself half way there and staring at 8 lanes of traffic...)
but frankly when compared to an iPhone it looks like a high school science fair project.
Fortunately, when compared with anything other than an iPhone, it looks pretty good.
One problem is that, particularly in the case of the HTC phones, its being pushed out on decidedly sub-iPhone hardware that doesn't quite have the legs to do it justice. The larger screen on the iphone, in itself, is enough to swing it.
(But I hope they fix the WiFi issues - no proxy server support and iffy automatic re-connection - and work out how a fscking "message waiting" LED is meant to work).
And if someone sniffs your login, your data is just as vulnerable as a stolen laptop.
Well, Google uses https: for logins and you can opt to use https: for everything else (or force it on your users, if you have a business account).
And its at least easier to know when your laptop disappears.
Trouble is (a) you won't know whether the laptop was lost or stolen, (b) you still won't be able to get at any data on it and (c)...oh, shit, did I leave a copy of that really private file on there or not?
If you're worried, set Google Docs to send out email notifications when key documents are edited. Or get a business account and have Google log all activity.
No, its not crystal clear that one approach is best for everybody - there are tradeoffs. However, I still suggest that a well-run online system has the potential to be more secure than lots of laptops and USB sticks.
Downloading/simulating human minds: the philosophical and social implications of that are a recurring theme in Greg Egan's work - Permutation City, Diaspora and several of his shorts (such as "Learning to be Me"). If you want a side-order of ultraviolence with that, there's Richard Morgan's "Altered Carbon".
Of course, that's never gonna happen.
Post-scarcity economics: Not tech in itself, but the implications of tech. What if we had sufficient resources and robotic "labour" that everybody could just take whatever they reasonably wanted? How would the capitalism/socialism debate change that? This is the basis for Iain Banks' "Culture", but it also crops up a bit in Star Trek TNG.
Ain't never gonna happen. I'd better explain that one: software is a microcosm in which a "post scarcity" economy is possible because the marginal cost of "manufacturing" and distributing software has become negligible.
Near-future space flight: Stephen Baxter wrote a whole series of books on the general thesis "NASA rejected my application to be an astronaut: NASA sucks!". We have Time which had private enterprise saving the space program; Voyage (what would happen if Apollo had stayed on track and gone to Mars) and Titan (what would happen if an anti-science US president didn't replace the shuttle and we suddenly had a good reason for wanting to go to Titan).
Desperately cobbling together a cheap launcher from surplus shuttle components? Going back to an Apollo-style capsule instead of wasting fuel boosting space-planes into orbit? Private spaceflight saving the day? Ain't NeverGonnahappen
(Interesting lack of US authors in that list, though...)
...concerns about apparently philanthropic plans by big business to put the world's libraries online turning out to be a plot to control access to the world's knowledge?
Ain't gonna happen!
Oh, wait...
At least Google seems to have mastered the art of non-destructive scanning (but best not to give them ideas!)
I invite you to ponder the meanings of the words "Most", "at least the ones I've used", "Anyone that has" and "lets you" in your post.
Compare these with the fact that anybody with a web browser can download via HTTP or FTP with a single click, and then weigh against the minimal advantage of using a torrent when most clients are on ADSL and/or are leeching (possibly inadvertently because their ISP has blocked the default ports or they don't understand about leaving the client seeding after the download).
Oh, maybe you were talking about inferior browsers and not Opera.
...and you know, it would actually make most webmasters' lives much easier if they could just tell people to fuck off and come back when they had installed a decent web browser (or failing that, anything other than IE6). Unfortunately, if you do that, many people will just do the "fuck off" bit and not the "come back" bit - which is not very helpful if the whole purpose of the website was to get your message out to as many people as possible.
"Consumerist reports that Apple is refusing to work on computers that have been used in smoking households. '
I like the way that they've gone out of their way to ask other Leading Computer Brands what their policy would be if one of their employees refuses to work on a machine because of smoke contamination.
Oh, wait - they haven't.
Mind you, if I spent my days repairing other peoples computers, smokers or not, I would certainly investigate these things called "face masks" and "gloves". I mean, look at these puppies...
data is stored on GOOGLE servers, which means if Google powers down their servers you cannot access your data.
On the other hand, if your laptop is stolen or the hard drive gets corrupted, you cannot access your data either (but whoever stole it might).
Of course, as/.ers, we all have robust backup strategies (including an offsite backup in case our house burns down) and keep our laptop hard drives strongly encrypted... (it says here) but the most important thing to realise about Chrome OS is that it is Probably Not For Us.
Lets face it, Google will probably do a better job of keeping data safe than Mr Average User or a company data center outsourced to the lowest bidder. I'm sure that there will be "incidents" but Google have a strong incentive to prove themselves dependable.
Also remember, that you can always log into Google on a Real PC and download your files in any number of standard formats.
Now, the VM version of Chrome OS is currently about as useful as a chocolate teapot because there's currently no way of getting your data out - I was apparently able to download a doc as ODF but its not clear where it has been stored, if at all. Whether an official ChromeOS machine will let me download to a USB stick remains to be seen. However, that might be an "optional" feature: I can see that some corporates might welcome the idea that individual proles can't copy files to usb sticks...
It looks exactly like the Chrome/Chromium browser, with a few more desktop icons and a weird window manager.
Well, yes - that's exactly what its meant to be: a stripped-down OS exclusively for running webapps.
Media hype aside, Chrome was never going to be a technically fascinating OS: the interesting bit is going to come when we see what the hardware is, and how it is marketed.
(The "weird window manager" might make sense when its running on the target hardware - Android or iPhone would be a bit weird on a regular desktop).
Why is that? Because of the negative rap that torrents get.
Er, no: because most PCs don't come with torrent clients already installed - so most users will have to find one (hopefully not being deterred about the second paragraph on Wikipedia about clients being used to distribute malware), install it, probably have to set up port forwarding on their router (what - you want people to leech?) and maybe find that their provider has blocked the standard ports.
OTOH, they can just hit the HTTP/FTP link in their regular browser.
Oh, and as for the "negative rap" - that's not just "OMG torrents are for piracy" ignorance: as other posters have pointed out, not every network has bandwidth to spare - especially for upload, when networks were designed primarily for web browsing and email (Got ADSL? Even if you get 24Mb/s download the fastest upload is 3.5Mb/s - and 1Mb/s up is more likely).
However, we can correct the GP post for you:
You can't have (torrents) front and center to general users unless torrents "work for you" and you are happy to exclude anybody who is "too stupid" to spend time learning about torrent clients instead of just downloading what they wanted with the software they already have.
But while Linus, RMS, Eric Raymond, Bruce Perens, Tim O'Reilly, Brian Behlendorf, Paul Vixie, Mitch Kapor, Mark Shuttleworth, and Theo De'Rahdt are all exchanging ideas, sometimes harshly, they are not exchanging bullets. I'd say they all have a lot to teach politicians.
Only because they never meet in meatspace, and both the Simple Projectile Transfer Protocol and the PopACap.Net stack are so encumbered with submarine patents and international arms embargoes that they are even incompatible with the BSD license, let alone the GPL.
I believe the W3C are working on the nonlethal rCx4 (remote clue-by-four system) but the internationalization committee has been deadlocked on the metric unit support for the last 5 years, so don't hold your breath.
It's based on Linux so it should be automatically GPLv2.
Only the kernel.
A complete operating system can contain components under many different licenses - an OS based on the Linux kernel doesn't even have to be completely open source provided the closed bits only link to LGPL libraries.
The license quoted by the g.p. looks pretty much like the GPL-compatible one used by lots of other stuff that you'll find in every Linux distro, like the X Window system.
Slashdot Mirror
The only thing that will save our patent system now is for the big boys to get repeatedly dinged with massive patent troll judgements.
Unfortunately, the big boys have the resources to withstand repeated "dinging" as a "cost of doing business". In return, the patent system is an excellent insurance policy against the proverbial "one guy in a garage could put us out of business" scenario.
Think about how much Garmin you can sell if it came with God of War and a Playstation controller.
How about a version of Grand Theft Auto...
What could possibly go wrong?
If the guy is a technology editor, why is he struggling with something as simple as a GPS? I'd understand if he was reporting that others had this problem... but come on.
If you actually RTFA you'd see that he wasn't complaining that he couldn't work his GPS, but was concerned about the potentially distracting visual clutter that is appearing on newer GPSs: 3D buildings, landmarks, terrain etc. and comparing it with two minimalist systems which research has shown to be more effective at communicating the necessary information with minimum distraction.
Is it me or do Apple get in trouble in the UK a lot?
More a case of whenever Apple get in trouble it tends to be over-reported. Ads get pulled all the time. Also, its largely driven by how many "members of the public" complain.
Have they really not bothered to hire any UK lawyers?
The ASA is an independent industry regulator enforcing a "code of conduct" so the law doesn't necessarily come in to it.
However, no, I don't think Apple really understands the way advertising works in the UK: a prestige brand like Apple is supposed to give us 40 seconds of entertainment with a "pack shot" at the end. If you make specific claims about the product, people will check (if a cosmetics firm says "8 out of 10 women in our survey said they felt younger looking" then they better have those stats). Knocking the competitor's product really isn't cricket and is fairly rare. I notice that although Apple initially made UK versions of the "I'm a Mac" ads (with a British comedy duo) that didn't last long.
On the other hand, Apple also think that a British keyboard is an American keyboard with the # key replaced by a £ sign. Twits.
About half of 369 websites selling electronic goods checked in an EU crackdown were found to have exactly these sorts of problems.
Of course, 99% of those websites weren't run by Apple, so they don't get singled out in the press. Fair do's I guess - 99% of companies don't get every product launch reported by the BBC, either.
The EU "distance selling" regulations (which include the UK) are fairly tight and comparatively recent.
Allow you to be a smoker and still get your iCrap serviced under warranty?
Probably not if the cause of the fault is that it is gunked up with foul-smelling tar. Go read the fine print in every warranty under the sun about not covering neglect or misuse.
Has anybody asked Dell, HP, Sony etc. what they would do in these circumstances? Thought not.
and you wouldn't know a lot about it.
...not after being cooled down to -271 C and exposed to vacuum (if you were very lucky, in that order)...
From what I'm told, the common implementation of the recipe of 'pizza' is very American and is different in Italy...
My (unscientific) experiments on a visit to Padova suggested that sausage-based pizzas may be more common in America (and here on Air Strip One) than in Italy. Or, it could be that I don't speak Italian. I did order a Pepperoni Pizza but it had (bell) peppers on it, not spicy sausage.
However, I was half expecting that, and it was very nice :-)
For added entertainment, watch a bunch of US Spanish speakers try and get tortillas in Spain. (Closest they got was "Mexican tortilla" which turned out to be Spanish omlette... with chillies).
Out of interest where does, Microsoft Windows, Dos, Ubuntu, Photoshop, Autocad, Proteus, MS Office, Skype, All Games and just about any software I can think of come into this picture?
Go read the EULAs that come with all of those products, for a long list of things that you cannot do with "your" copy. Such as run the cheaper versions of Windows on any sort of virtual machine, move the OEM windows bundled with your PC onto another machine, use your educational-licence copy of Photoshop for commercial work...
The details are different, but the principle is the same: you don't own the copy you bought.
Every single other company works that way.
In your dreams. Well, maybe Ubuntu since the GPL only really kicks in if you want to modify or redistribute.
At least, not what "netbooks" have actually become: cheap, compact, entry-level laptop PCs for people who want to run standard PC software but can live without editing HD video and have an xbox for their 100fps 3D fragging.
The Chrome idea is actually much closer to the original "netbook" concept: something the size of a BOOK to use to access the NET. (See what they did there?)
Now, we never got to find out how that went because ASUS made such a botch of the original EEE PC: it looked great on first sight, and they sold like hotcakes, but it was let down by the OS. Once you got past the click-and-drool "launcher" no effort had been made to adapt the usual Firefox/Thunderbird/OpenOffice apps for the small screen or get the power management working properly. Then ASUS drank the Microsoft Kool-Aid and effectively switched to making entry level Windows laptops.
Bottom line: Asus had no particular investment in promoting Linux - it was just a cheap option that ceased to be the cheapest option when MS started offering XP for a knock-down price.
Google, OTOH, is presumably going to get behind its platform, push and keep pushing - and you have to use a Chrome machine as a netbook (especially if they take the ARM route). So now we'll see if the "true" netbook model works.
Oh, and Google doesn't have to give them away to make them free - just ensure the wholesale price is cheaper than the "netbooks" that mobile carriers and ISPs are already giving away "free".
Bear in mind that the slashdot readership is not Google's target market. Nobody here is going to enthuse about a free/cheap web browser appliance unless they can hack it and use it for writing python scripts for automated wardriving.
However, other people might be sold on the idea of a free netbook thrown in with their mobile contract, broadband or cable TV*, especially if it is marketed enthusiastically.
(*How about a Chrome tablet as a program guide/remote for your TV...?)
Think about it. Think about it like a cat.
In block-capital Papyrus on top of a humourous cat photo.
I've used UK laptops in the US and had US visitios using US laptops in the UK. Wifi has always Just Worked and power has always just been a matter of finding the right socket adaptor.
I've yet to see a laptop that didn't come with a dual-voltage charger. Just check the label to ensure it is rated 100-240V or similar, which will work fine. All you need is a generic US to UK plug adaptor (not a voltage converter or anything).
The same might not apply to your other appliances, though: cheaper items might come with 110V-only wall-warts and our 240 Great British Volts.
Hint: buy the adaptor in the US (its something to do at the airport) because many of the smaller shops here in the UK will only have adaptors for UKians visiting the US. If you're stuck in the UK without one, you can probably just get a replacement power cord (UK plug one end, standard figure-of-8 2-pin plug on the other).
Hint 2: Next time, come in May or early June. Unless you like grey clouds, drizzle, and sunset at 4pm.
Hint 3: Riding the underground will completely destroy your sense of scale and direction. The Underground map uses a sort-of not-quite-logarithmic scale: the outer stations are quite a long way apart, but in the centre of the city they're only a few blocks apart and it can be quicker (and more interesting) to walk.
(I usually make the opposite mistake when I'm in the US and take on what looks like a 15-minute walk... an hour later I find myself half way there and staring at 8 lanes of traffic...)
but frankly when compared to an iPhone it looks like a high school science fair project.
Fortunately, when compared with anything other than an iPhone, it looks pretty good.
One problem is that, particularly in the case of the HTC phones, its being pushed out on decidedly sub-iPhone hardware that doesn't quite have the legs to do it justice. The larger screen on the iphone, in itself, is enough to swing it.
(But I hope they fix the WiFi issues - no proxy server support and iffy automatic re-connection - and work out how a fscking "message waiting" LED is meant to work).
And if someone sniffs your login, your data is just as vulnerable as a stolen laptop.
Well, Google uses https: for logins and you can opt to use https: for everything else (or force it on your users, if you have a business account).
And its at least easier to know when your laptop disappears.
Trouble is (a) you won't know whether the laptop was lost or stolen, (b) you still won't be able to get at any data on it and (c) ...oh, shit, did I leave a copy of that really private file on there or not?
If you're worried, set Google Docs to send out email notifications when key documents are edited. Or get a business account and have Google log all activity.
No, its not crystal clear that one approach is best for everybody - there are tradeoffs. However, I still suggest that a well-run online system has the potential to be more secure than lots of laptops and USB sticks.
Let's see - couple of examples:
Downloading/simulating human minds: the philosophical and social implications of that are a recurring theme in Greg Egan's work - Permutation City, Diaspora and several of his shorts (such as "Learning to be Me"). If you want a side-order of ultraviolence with that, there's Richard Morgan's "Altered Carbon". Of course, that's never gonna happen.
Post-scarcity economics: Not tech in itself, but the implications of tech. What if we had sufficient resources and robotic "labour" that everybody could just take whatever they reasonably wanted? How would the capitalism/socialism debate change that? This is the basis for Iain Banks' "Culture", but it also crops up a bit in Star Trek TNG.
Ain't never gonna happen. I'd better explain that one: software is a microcosm in which a "post scarcity" economy is possible because the marginal cost of "manufacturing" and distributing software has become negligible.
Near-future space flight: Stephen Baxter wrote a whole series of books on the general thesis "NASA rejected my application to be an astronaut: NASA sucks!". We have Time which had private enterprise saving the space program; Voyage (what would happen if Apollo had stayed on track and gone to Mars) and Titan (what would happen if an anti-science US president didn't replace the shuttle and we suddenly had a good reason for wanting to go to Titan).
Desperately cobbling together a cheap launcher from surplus shuttle components? Going back to an Apollo-style capsule instead of wasting fuel boosting space-planes into orbit? Private spaceflight saving the day? Ain't Never Gonna happen
(Interesting lack of US authors in that list, though...)
...concerns about apparently philanthropic plans by big business to put the world's libraries online turning out to be a plot to control access to the world's knowledge?
Ain't gonna happen!
Oh, wait...
At least Google seems to have mastered the art of non-destructive scanning (but best not to give them ideas!)
I invite you to ponder the meanings of the words "Most", "at least the ones I've used", "Anyone that has" and "lets you" in your post.
Compare these with the fact that anybody with a web browser can download via HTTP or FTP with a single click, and then weigh against the minimal advantage of using a torrent when most clients are on ADSL and/or are leeching (possibly inadvertently because their ISP has blocked the default ports or they don't understand about leaving the client seeding after the download).
Oh, maybe you were talking about inferior browsers and not Opera.
...and you know, it would actually make most webmasters' lives much easier if they could just tell people to fuck off and come back when they had installed a decent web browser (or failing that, anything other than IE6). Unfortunately, if you do that, many people will just do the "fuck off" bit and not the "come back" bit - which is not very helpful if the whole purpose of the website was to get your message out to as many people as possible.
"Consumerist reports that Apple is refusing to work on computers that have been used in smoking households. '
I like the way that they've gone out of their way to ask other Leading Computer Brands what their policy would be if one of their employees refuses to work on a machine because of smoke contamination.
Oh, wait - they haven't.
Mind you, if I spent my days repairing other peoples computers, smokers or not, I would certainly investigate these things called "face masks" and "gloves". I mean, look at these puppies...
I wouldn't like to repair mine if I wasn't me :-)
data is stored on GOOGLE servers, which means if Google powers down their servers you cannot access your data.
On the other hand, if your laptop is stolen or the hard drive gets corrupted, you cannot access your data either (but whoever stole it might).
Of course, as /.ers, we all have robust backup strategies (including an offsite backup in case our house burns down) and keep our laptop hard drives strongly encrypted... (it says here) but the most important thing to realise about Chrome OS is that it is Probably Not For Us.
Lets face it, Google will probably do a better job of keeping data safe than Mr Average User or a company data center outsourced to the lowest bidder. I'm sure that there will be "incidents" but Google have a strong incentive to prove themselves dependable.
Also remember, that you can always log into Google on a Real PC and download your files in any number of standard formats.
Now, the VM version of Chrome OS is currently about as useful as a chocolate teapot because there's currently no way of getting your data out - I was apparently able to download a doc as ODF but its not clear where it has been stored, if at all. Whether an official ChromeOS machine will let me download to a USB stick remains to be seen. However, that might be an "optional" feature: I can see that some corporates might welcome the idea that individual proles can't copy files to usb sticks...
It looks exactly like the Chrome/Chromium browser, with a few more desktop icons and a weird window manager.
Well, yes - that's exactly what its meant to be: a stripped-down OS exclusively for running webapps.
Media hype aside, Chrome was never going to be a technically fascinating OS: the interesting bit is going to come when we see what the hardware is, and how it is marketed.
(The "weird window manager" might make sense when its running on the target hardware - Android or iPhone would be a bit weird on a regular desktop).
Why is that? Because of the negative rap that torrents get.
Er, no: because most PCs don't come with torrent clients already installed - so most users will have to find one (hopefully not being deterred about the second paragraph on Wikipedia about clients being used to distribute malware), install it, probably have to set up port forwarding on their router (what - you want people to leech?) and maybe find that their provider has blocked the standard ports.
OTOH, they can just hit the HTTP/FTP link in their regular browser.
Oh, and as for the "negative rap" - that's not just "OMG torrents are for piracy" ignorance: as other posters have pointed out, not every network has bandwidth to spare - especially for upload, when networks were designed primarily for web browsing and email (Got ADSL? Even if you get 24Mb/s download the fastest upload is 3.5Mb/s - and 1Mb/s up is more likely).
However, we can correct the GP post for you:
You can't have (torrents) front and center to general users unless torrents "work for you" and you are happy to exclude anybody who is "too stupid" to spend time learning about torrent clients instead of just downloading what they wanted with the software they already have.
Better?
But while Linus, RMS, Eric Raymond, Bruce Perens, Tim O'Reilly, Brian Behlendorf, Paul Vixie, Mitch Kapor, Mark Shuttleworth, and Theo De'Rahdt are all exchanging ideas, sometimes harshly, they are not exchanging bullets. I'd say they all have a lot to teach politicians.
Only because they never meet in meatspace, and both the Simple Projectile Transfer Protocol and the PopACap.Net stack are so encumbered with submarine patents and international arms embargoes that they are even incompatible with the BSD license, let alone the GPL.
I believe the W3C are working on the nonlethal rCx4 (remote clue-by-four system) but the internationalization committee has been deadlocked on the metric unit support for the last 5 years, so don't hold your breath.
Seriously - I'm sure there are fairly prestigious industry prizes, but I can't think what the Nobel or Fields Medal equivalent is...
Oh, and we need the IgNobel equivalent, too - execpt most years I suspect the same person would get both :-)
It's based on Linux so it should be automatically GPLv2.
Only the kernel.
A complete operating system can contain components under many different licenses - an OS based on the Linux kernel doesn't even have to be completely open source provided the closed bits only link to LGPL libraries.
The license quoted by the g.p. looks pretty much like the GPL-compatible one used by lots of other stuff that you'll find in every Linux distro, like the X Window system.