Chrome OS is not the beginning of the end... That started with DRM and the iPod's completely unusable and cryptic "file system." It evolved into the iPhone and Apple trying to make JailBreaking illegal. Now patent sharks roam the waters looking for tasty rafters trying to make it. (Lodsys or w/e they're called and the indie mobile developers.) 'Course, the sharks are attacking themselves too. (Apple vs. Microsoft vs. Google vs. Oracle vs. Everyone.)
Microsoft requires UEFI secure-boot for Windows 8. Further, for ARM processors, they require OEMs to
not allow disabling it. Doesn't paint a pretty picture for GNU/Linux. Ubuntu and Fedora have decided to just buy the necessary certificates for signing though. I suppose that helps
keep GNU/Linux around though.
Secure boot isn't the biggest problem though. By making computers more "user friendly" (that is, by removing freedom) users are less inclined to mess with their computer's internals. People who would otherwise become great programmers never have that experience that makes them realize
that is what they want to do. (Of course, I'd be considered an extremist for wanting to teach people how to use the terminal before they learn how to use the GUI.) I think the problem is a general lack of education on anything outside of Microsoft Word.
Now that I think about this, maybe it all began with the NES and its "trusted-module." (Not checking names here, and I'm not sure if there was anything before the NES.) You know, the thing that made it so that games had to be approved by Nintendo. Sure, the user was technically able to disable it... by fiddling with the hardware. (Yay! User friendly.) That trend of course continued into modern society... And we all know what happens when someone publishes their findings on the hardware they own. (GeoHotz vs. Sony.)
The information I'm giving is mostly from memory and personal opinion. Read with a grain of salt as I may be incredibly incorrect on many of the things I've mentioned here.
NOTE: Chromebooks have offline storage capability iirc. Not much, but enough for common uses. It's not meant to be a business machine, so you might as well call it a FisherPriceBook.
Rant On Internet Services And Caching {
This is directed towards everyone who's ever even contemplated making an internet streaming service.
CACHE THE DATA. Why is it that when I get interrupted by something, and don't have time to pause my video, that going back twelve seconds causes the video stream to have to be reloaded? Wasn't the data
JUST there? (Valid excuses: Bloody nose, don't get blood on keyboard/laptop/mouse. Dog is peeing on the bed/couch/other-furniture. Someone called and you missed what just happened. Cat jumps on your keyboard and gets in the way. Kitchen caught fire. -- I've experienced all of those while a video was playing [though, in the case of the kitchen, it was with me playing a video game].) I believe this is because data isn't cached properly. Sometimes, it's faster (and smoother) for me to just download a YouTube video before watching it. Less "buffering" nonsense. On the subject of buffering though,
NetFlix sucks. When you first load a video, you can't choose to enter fullscreen mode, or pause a video before it starts playing. (Maybe I just want the video to buffer for a bit before actually playing it...) Then, when it goes to buffer again during playback, on the Wii, it gives a black background. Wtf netflix. Doesn't do that on PC... Also, SilverLight? Really? *Sigh*
I digress. I believe the issue is caching. Why not just begin downloading an AVI/MP4 or some such and stream the AVI/MP4? (Or any container format with whatever codec is suitable.) I know technology is capable of doing that. It's been researched. It's been implemented. In free (libre) software, nonetheless. Don't get me wrong, I'm glad the services exist, but they can really improve. A lot. Little things add up and make one big pain. (Maybe I'm the only one who notices them though.)
Okay, with (most) of the rant out of the way... Here's why I mention this: Games will likely begin streaming their media over the internet (mainstream games, no pun intended). I've heard of companies who want to start doing this to reduce disc foot-print and such.
}
Anyway,
here's my solution. Buy a bunch of these and hope they never break down. And if they do, that there are updates and better hardware.
Alas, I'm practical. For the price of one of those I got a laptop and a desktop. Desktop: AMD A6 APU 2.9GHz x 4, 4GB DDR3-1600~ RAM, D3D 11 support, three 500GB SATA2 (or was it SATA3? don't remember) HDDs. Laptop: Intel something CPU 1.8GHz x 2, 2GB DDR(2?) RAM, D3D 9.0c (SM3) GPU, 80GB SSD. Each computer takes about ten to thirty seconds to boot. I saw a YouTube video of the Lemote Yeeloong. It took three minutes to boot. No thanks.
Cheers,
Aaron
PS: Feel free to completely dismiss everything I just mentioned. I'm not trying to convince anyone of anything.
