Google Chrome

[kc2ifr]

There is a new browser available. Its just the beta version but so far so good.......just thought some of u folks might like to try it. Do a search for Google Chrome and give it a try.

Bill

[Carl WA1KPD]

So far I like it.....
But I use FF out of habit

[kb3nqd]

I have nothing against Google but their first EULA for Chrome was draconian:

"By submitting, posting or displaying the content you give Google a perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide, royalty-free, and non-exclusive license to reproduce, adapt, modify, translate, publish, publicly perform, publicly display and distribute any content which you submit, post or display on or through, the services. This license is for the sole purpose of enabling Google to display, distribute and promote the services and may be revoked for certain services as defined in the additional terms of those services."

To their credit they changed it shortly after being featured on the usual sites: digg.com;slashdot.org and later abc;nbc;cbs

It looks like Google has largely forgotten their Mantra of "do no evil"...I suppose this means they are officially part of corporate America.

[W2PFY]

The BIG problem I see with it is, you cannot delete the MOST VISITED
links which happened to be on the opening page. . There is no Select All. No delete.

The only way to delete the Most Visited is to uninstall the program and install it again. Maybe I'm missing something so if anyone can tell me how to delete the most visited I would appreciate it. Fire Fox has that but it was easy to get rid of it. 

[W2PFY]

One Moe Time.
Check out this link.

http://www.newsweek.com/id/158727

Looks like there is some tarnish on the old Chrome.

I don't know why they put this thing out. Hopefully there is more to come.

[Steve - WB3HUZ]

Hint: It's beta software.

From the Google Chrome site.

http://www.google.com/chrome


Google Chrome (BETA) for Windows

[ab3al]

heres another hint....    its firefox with a different skin. I was privied to the source code.  Google is working on a new os trying to take the thunder from microsoft.  Its called android.  its based on the newest linux kernal.  chrome is being tweeked to work like ie does with windows.. being about 75 percent of the gui for the os

[Steve - WB3HUZ]

 Chrome is based on WebKit, an Apple open source browser engine used in Safari and most Apple/Mac OS X apps. Firefox, like all current Mozilla browsers (and others like Flock), is based on the Gecko engine.  Chrome does not equal Firefox with a different skin. It's user experience is more like Opera and OmniWeb than any other browser I've used.

[ka3zlr]

I like how these Os systems copy off of Linux...That's cheaten man..That's Weak..

No Originality.....

[W3RSW]

so where's the real UNIX when you need it?

Where's good ol' tight assembler in this bloated code world for that matter?


(sorry,  -above questions probably should be rhetorical; time marches on.)

[Blaine N1GTU]

just remember...
Chrome dont get you home
 

[ka3zlr]

...LOL......Most Excellent....

[k4kyv]

so where's the real UNIX when you need it?

I believe Apple's Macintosh OS-X is a variation of UNIX.

As for browsers, I use Firefox 2.  I'll upgrade to FF3 as soon as they work out the bug with Real's flash player save-to-disc function.

[Bill, KD0HG]

My biggest gripe with Apple, Unix and Linux is their lack of hardware support.
XP is still the best thing out there, if you want to *use* a computer rather than screwing around with it.

[kb3nqd]

Bill, I agree that XP is the way to go if you want to do Windows (having used Vista)      A seasoned computer instructor once told me that all an OS is really is a way to shoot yourself in the foot, your choice of OS simply reveals how you want to do it.

It's just my opinion, but having compiled more than one or two Linux kernels I can tell you that Linux supports more hardware than any other OS kernel on the planet from what I have seen.  It still iirc has VLB drivers.   

The real issue is that it does not support bleeding edge hardware.  Hardware manufacturers have largely refused to release specifications for their newest hardware citing intellectual property (IP) concerns.  It seems like they are more concerned about people knowing that they have patented pattently obvious things (think one click shopping, cursors, etc..) than their IP.  The latest trend is to put binary blobs (ugh) in a driver to protect IP which really only exacerbates the issues but fixes things in the near term. 

The community that supports Linux and the GNU project have literally had to reverse engineer some hardware to write drivers that work.  Their are many who have put extraordinary effort into creating drivers when manufacturers refused to release specs and they do this simply to better the community.  This all takes time and these folks are all volunteers so getting things out on a schedule is tough (much like a radio club). 

The bottom line is that for the newest hardware if it isn't supported wait  6 months and it usually will be. 

If computer users valued their freedom more, than hardware manufacturers would be forced to release specifications for their equipment enabling third parties to write software.  It has only been recently that computer users have started to remember what it is like to set your own upgrade schedule and be able to use hardware that is more than two years old if you choose to (instead of being on the Microsoft/Intel treadmill).

There are a lot of people who are very suspicious of these folks since they are "doing something for nothing".  Initially, much of the software development for GNU/Linux grew out of programmers who were disillusioned with MS but as time has gone on it has turned into something very different and most developers do it to help out the community of computer users.  These attitudes about helping the community and doing things for others within the free software community is very similar to the Amateur Radio ethic of helping others.  The number of developers involved in free software numbers in the millions and with modern collaboration tools it is difficult for a company (even as large as MS) to keep up with the speed that things are improving at currently (the curve is logarithmic). 

If you haven't used a GNU/Linux distro lately I would encourage you to try it out.  If you don't want to install it on your disk their are plenty of live DVD/CD distros out there that you can check out like KNOPPIX.

73
M

[K6JEK]

I like how these Os systems copy off of Linux...That's cheaten man..That's Weak..

No Originality.....

Wait a doggone minute.  Linux  itself is a clone.  Linus stole the thing lock, stock, and barrel from the people who developed it. UNIX was developed by AT&T.  Major improvements like virtual memory and sockets were added at UC Berkeley, hence BSD.  Sun Microsystems took BSD and added piles of stuff to it including a Window system. There were many other variants too, like SCO.  AT&T & Sun, keepers of the two main branches, buried the hatchet and produced a common version, System V Release 4.  This so ticked off IBM, DEC and HP that they produced an alternative, OSF 1, which went nowhere. But the window system they championed X/Windows (MIT gets credit here) and its look and feel Motif, prevailed over Sun and AT&T's X/NeWS & OpenLook.  Many, many other variants appeared over the years, but Linux is essentially a knock off of System V Release 4.

If you're still reading.  MacOS is an evolution of the NeXT operating system which is in turn an evolution of Mach, yet another offspring of AT&T UNIX, the brainchild of Avie Tevanian who went to NeXT then to Apple.  I've lost track of how close this is or isn't to the main stuff, SVR4 cousins, but Apple and Apple alone hawks the language they love, Objective C, and the object libraries (Cocoa) that go with it.

I lived this little world for a long time,  I have to confess, as one of the perpetrators.

[W1EUJ]

Linus stole the thing lock, stock, and barrel from the people who developed it.

Linus wrote Linux himself, based on the (well-published) Andrew Tannenbaum's MINIX operating system, who based his own operating system on both the published design of the UNIX OS and his own priniciples. However, there are significant differences between them. MINIX uses a microkernel, while Linux has always been a monolithic kernel. Not long ago, somebody brought up the accusation that Linus copied big chunks of the MINIX code. That was rebutted by Tannenbaum himself.

This is just the kernel we are talking about. Alot of the applications, tools and such were originally drawn from GNU. Over time, much has been ported in from the other Unices.

No theft here. Wait, wasn't there a lawsuit from SCO about this?

[Steve - WB3HUZ]

You got it right JEK. OS X is a true UNIX system in that is Posix certified. It uses the Mach kernal with BSD around it. Most everything above that is pure Apple: file system, Quicktime, Cocoa, Core Audio, Core Animation, Core Image, Open GL (not Apple), etc. It's 64-bit and multicore capable. Anyone claiming it doesn't have hardware support never used it.

[K6JEK]

Linus stole the thing lock, stock, and barrel from the people who developed it.

Perhaps stole was too strong a word.  The post that got me going was about how lame it was for other OS's to be copying Linux when Linux itself is just a copy of something else.  How original is that?

Those who haven't done it underestimate the time, effort, expertise and expense it takes to make a really good interface. To do it right, great companies use their very best people and their most careful processes, open or otherwise.  Implementations come and go.  Interfaces last and last.  Linux is mostly an implementation of interfaces others created over many years at significant expense.

That said, I'm a fan.  It is very nimble.  It has become the defacto OS on small things except the desktop.  It may become the defacto standard on big things.  Good for it.  But you'll never convince me it had anything to do with creative design or engineering. Linus took a creative approach to the market with a successful open source program, certainly.  But originality? invention? Precious little if any.

[ka3zlr]

My biggest gripe with Apple, Unix and Linux is their lack of hardware support.
XP is still the best thing out there, if you want to *use* a computer rather than screwing around with it.

 I'll go along with that Bill, XP on this dell has just Not given me any problems at all.

I've heard enough about the latest windows Folly I don't have it.. and my gateway at the bench does just fine under linux..for the little things i need it for.  Even the old windows 98 Laptop dell works well still...

[Opcom]

Chrome.. to me the name indicates bling in favor of function. But some folks like alot of doo-dads or find them helpful to better use a computer. I'd like to see Chrome in use on someone elses' computer before I sacrifice mine to it. I'm still not sure Google doesn't spy on those that use its free tools. The warning about the 'most recently visited' is a red flag. If it is like mozilla, then there should be a file that is saved each time the software is exited. This file can perhaps be found and edited, or replaced with a clean version with the aid of a batch file. XP is about a elephantine and convoluted as I am willing to go due to increased uncustomizability and a general lack of sufficiently deep operator controls. I prefer 2000 and the like, if I am using microsoft windows, at least it is somewhat malleable.

[ka3zlr]

I haven't really looked at anything in awhile or dissect software like i used to, it's an appliance now and little else. The beef I and alot of others have (had) with gates and his Ilk is a useless cause, and it's to bad,...time goes on.. those great companies and these great software engineers who spend great amounts of time and money to do one thing.. relieve your wallet of revenue and keep the limited OS choice to their ideal of the way it shud be, have succeeded, and why should they offer any Deep Operator controls your an idiot and you don't need those things, subsequent treatment when contacting support.

Ah well it's just another appliance...right..

[Steve - WB3HUZ]

Chrome is anti-bling. It has a rather minimalist interface. Also, each tab is a separate process, so if a particular web site causes a crash, only that tab goes away, the rest of the browser keeps rolling.

Chrome.. to me the name indicates bling in favor of function. But some folks like alot of doo-dads or find them helpful to better use a computer. I'd like to see Chrome in use on someone elses' computer before I sacrifice mine to it. I'm still not sure Google doesn't spy on those that use its free tools. The warning about the 'most recently visited' is a red flag. If it is like mozilla, then there should be a file that is saved each time the software is exited. This file can perhaps be found and edited, or replaced with a clean version with the aid of a batch file. XP is about a elephantine and convoluted as I am willing to go due to increased uncustomizability and a general lack of sufficiently deep operator controls. I prefer 2000 and the like, if I am using microsoft windows, at least it is somewhat malleable.

[Opcom]

that sounds good. I still want to try it some time and take a peek under the covers.

[N8LGU]

I'm very happy with FF3 running under Vista Home Premium.