Whoa. After long periods of speculation, Google enters the operating system space, for reals.

Chrome OS will be "fast and lightweight, to start up and get you onto the web in a few seconds." Targeted at Netbooks, Chrome OS will be available on new systems by the second half of 2010. "The user interface is minimal to stay out of your way, and most of the user experience takes place on the web", according to the Official Google blog.

And, lest you think "Chrome OS" to just be fancy rebranding of Google's Android mobile OS, Google's VP of Product Management makes it abundantly clear in the release, "Android was designed from the beginning to work across a variety of devices from phones to set-top boxes to netbooks. Google Chrome OS is being created for people who spend most of their time on the web, and is being designed to power computers ranging from small netbooks to full-size desktop systems."

Corporate espionage being what it is these days, there have likely been some sleepless nights around Redmond recently. With the full faith and credit of Google behind a radically new "cloud" OS -- relieving users of tedious things like backing up files, or installing applications -- Microsoft's quest to tie up the netbook market, without allowing it to compete for the low end of desktops, could face significant challenges in the years ahead.

At any given time on the planet, there's a technology trade show in progress. Some are more significant than others, and there's no formula to figure if any given one will be worth the airfare. We're guessing that a few ultraportable laptop manufacturers, as well as a few of us (cough) normal folk, are a little intrigued with the news emerging from the Computex exhibit halls today.

Canonical let slip some further information and screen shots of Ubuntu Netbook Remix, the Ubuntu derived operating system for ultraportables. The quick and dirty information: it looks suspiciously as if the Ubuntu image is made to work solely on Intel Atom processors. How radically different is that from the other Intel processors used previously in ultraportables? Will it be a significant enough difference that it won't run with other Intel chips? Are VIA machines left in the dust? Maybe, maybe not, but we're guessing it'll affect performance on some level.

It seems that Canonical and Intel are working with various manufacturers to get Ubuntu Netbook Remix into our hot little hands, but it probably won't happen much before late 2008. They were so kind, however, as to release some screenshots of the demo version.

Ubuntu Netbook Remix looks... well, a little bit like the "Easy Mode" settings in the Eee PC's customized Xandros. Maybe not quite as simplistic, but we have this funny feeling that many people picturing "Ubuntu on an ultraportable" were thinking more along the lines of the traditional look with a few GUI tweaks. We're not sure if this is really a good or bad thing, as yet. Ultraportables are different animals, and used in a different manner than a desktop. Perhaps a different looking user interface is enough of a disconnect to make it all work (and keep us from trying to install the sorts of things on our ultraportables that they aren't intended to run due to processing limitations).

What will be interesting, and promises to push Linux on ultraportables to the next level, is all that scary stuff on the backend. The most intriguing bit of this conversation seems to focus on the use of Moblin, and the push for developers to get Ubuntu packages to work well -- really well -- with the specific requirements of the processor and ultraportable hardware.

Who doesn't love choices? You can "have it your way" at fast food restaurants. No two cars ever cost the same, because of add-ons and price negotiations. We like choice. It's a good thing.

Right?

Choice, really, is a double-edged sword. We get too many choices, and we can get easily overwhelmed. "Oh crud, another option..." leads to "What do I care?" leads to "Forget it." We either select our options without thinking through (or understanding) the consequences, or we drop what we're trying to customize without ever getting all the way through.

Choosing a Linux distribution is tough. We're not kidding. There are a lot of them out there... some wonderful, some not so wonderful, and some that are designed to fit very specific needs you may (or may not) have.

So how are you supposed to sort through them all?

Here's a hint. You don't. Not all of them, anyway.

Linux is a powerful operating system, but chances are it's a very different operating system than any you've used before. The dizzying number of choices in distributions alone is enough to make your head spin, but it also means there's something out there that really suits your computing style. There are some things in Linux you just have to work out for yourself -- distributions, applications, neato screen savers (hey, we like distractions as much as the next guy).

We're taking a departure from the norm this week and not discussing a specific piece of software. Instead, we've been thinking about what we most wished we'd been told on our first foray into Linux-land. These tips run the gamut from installation planning to how to best ask for help. We chose these tips because they are not distribution-specific, and the majority of new users will at least find a few tips apply to their situation at some point.

Matuschak believes an operating system is only as good as its ability to avoid or solve problems, and that's what Ubuntu's really good at. For example, in Ubuntu, if a user tries to watch a video and doesn't have the proper codec to do so, the open source OS will attempt to find and install the codec.

But there's a solution on the horizon, or Matuschak would like there to be. He believes the answer is in Spotlight, a commonly underused but very powerful OS X feature which can be adapted to be a general problem solving tool.

Coming back to the video codec problem, if the user would like to figure out what's needed to play the video file, he types the file extension into Spotlight. The service would return a variety of options including codecs and programs. The suggested codecs and programs aren't necessarily installed on the computer, but, with one (or two) clicks, the user can then install whatever programs or codecs came up as a result of the search. It's merely a concept at this point, but Matuschak would like to make it a reality. If you'd like to help him out, make sure to check out his site.

We have a confession to make. We are secretly, deeply, head over heels in love with Zenwalk Linux. Zenwalk is a Slackware-based distro. It's lightweight, it's modern, and though it may not be the easiest distribution to install, we've certainly had worse experiences.

Zenwalk 5.0 beta was released for testing yesterday. The 5.0 release has some major changes: the use of HAL in place of its own hotplugging system, updates to the Xorg X servers, and the Wicd wifi-browser. Zenwalk still uses Xfce (4.4.2) as its default desktop environment, along with the Icedove email client and Iceweasel browser (both Thunderbird and Firefox compatible).

We've been playing with Zenwalk 5.0 beta for a day now. It's everything we've come to expect from Zenwalk, the speed and stability, the flexibility, and the nice interface. There were a few little problems at install (needed to boot with the "noapic" kernel parameter to avoid a panic) and beyond (video card driver installation is hardly ever fun). These little issues aside, the beta bugs seem minimal.

Zenwalk may not be the best choice for a first Linux distro, but we'd highly recommend giving this beta a try if you're comfortable with a more text driven install process. Meanwhile, our hearts are pounding and our palms are sweaty, waiting for the final release of Zenwalk 5.0. Love is so hard.

NetBSD 4.0 is finally out, and, if you don't know what that is, sit tight and we'll get to that later. For those that know all about NetBSD, here's the lowdown on the latest major update to the operating system:

The 4.0 release includes support for version 3 of the Xen virtual machine monitor (yawn). It also includes support for Bluetooth (welcome to 2005) and many new device drivers and embedded platforms based on ARM, PowerPC and MIPS CPUs. It also contains complete binaries for 51 different machine types.

For those who aren't into the NetBSD scene, NetBSD 4.0 is a Unix-like operating system often used in production and research environments. It's open source and easily redistributable. It's available at various sites around the web, and you can get many of the popular NetBSD programs through pkgsrc, the NetBSD Packages Collection.

[via Slashdot]

Microsoft is getting together security updates for Windows 2000. There are five security bulletins that are set for release on September 11th 2007 that will update a version of the Microsoft Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool on Windows Update, Microsoft Update, Windows Server Update Services and in the Download Center.

Of the five updates deemed an "important update" for users, only one has been considered critical. These fix bugs that could exploit flaws without any user interaction. The other non critical updates have to do with fixing remote code execution and elevation of privileges on in such applications as Windows Live Messenger and Windows SharePoint Server.

Vista took a while to come to fruitation, and now that it's out, and somewhat patched, businesses are having a hard time deciding whether it's worth it to update.

A new survey by PatchLink Corp. suggests that businesses see XP as being far more secure than Microsoft's new Vista operating system, and have decided not to migrate to the platform. 87% of respondents in the survey stated that they would be happy staying with their existing version of Windows, with only 2% currently running Vista.

Just last year 50% of CIO and IT network admins said that they believed that Vista would be far more secure than XP, so why the big change?

The Japanese government is working with 10 major Japenese auto makers to develop a standardized automobile operating system. While we're tempted to make jokes about blue screens of death and unexpected errors, the truth is many cars now include complex electronics and require a computer system to coordinate all those newfangled parts. And developing a uniform operating system is going to make life a lot easier on your poor neighborhood mechanic.

JasPar, or the Japan Automotive Software Platform Architecture group will be responsible for developing the platform. JasPar is a joint venture that includes the cooperation of Toyota, Nissan, Honda, Toshiba, and other auto and electronics makers. Many of those companies are currently developing their own operating systems.

The goal is to have a prototype available in 2009, with a final version on the market in 5 to 10 years.

[via TechMeme]

Could developers be moving towards Linux and handhelds? A new study says they are! Evans Data has published a study that found that Windows developers are dropping slowly, with 65% of software being written for Windows this year compared with 75% last year. The shift began two years ago, and seems to be drastically increasing.

Why this change? Web browsers are becoming capable of running advanced applications both on and offline, making desktop operating systems seem less important.

What are your thoughts, should developers keep their focus on browser/web based applications like Apollo, and forget about developing for multi operating systems?

Big Apple fan? How about taking that obsession online with you while feed reading. Hicksdesign -- a small new media company -- has developed a new theme to make Google's online feed reader resemble a Mac OSX application. Installation is pretty simple, and should be up and running in a few minutes.

The theme is supported in Firefox, Camino, Safari, Omniweb, and Opera, hows that for compatible. Full instructions can be found on the Hicksdesign website.

[via GoogleSystem]

Skeptics took a guess that Microsoft wouldn't sell many Vista versions, but it looks like that guess has been squashed.

Microsoft sold 20 million boxes of Vista in the first month it was out. Compare that to 17 million copies of XP over the first two months it was available. Its quite a stretch given the few issues that usually pop up with any new operating system, many people usually tend to wait until things smooth over before purchasing.

Microsoft said that it did expect there would be a rush when it first came out, and bet on the fact that it would be their fastest selling operating system ever.

No word yet on how many of the copies sold were from manufacturers like Dell, HP, and Toshiba, versus how many boxed copies were bought off store shelves.

Are you running Vista? Which version are you running? Do you like it? I just bought a new PC with Vista pre-loaded, and it's nice. It's not completely perfect but, not completely sucky either, which in my mind computes to "just right."

For anyone who doesn't yet have Vista, but want to know about the ins and outs, there are a lot of new features, yet not a ton of truly "new" features. In an attempt to find out what Vista works like and plays like, I will be writing a bunch of Vista-related stuff over the coming weeks.

Microsoft officially announced the launch of Windows Vista for business customers yesterday, and expects more than 200 million users will be working with this new version by the end of 2007. At a presentation on Thursday, Steve Ballmer said that Vista, along with Office 2007 and Exchange server will be "game-changing".

With all of the delays, and the consumer version not being released until the end of January, Katie Fehrenbacher at GigaOM asks whether or not we care about the launch. Personally, I couldn't really care less. Knowing Microsoft's track record, there will undoubtedly be some unfilled holes in the OS, and I will be in no rush to test it out until the first few fixes are released. But you never know--Microsoft might surprise us this time.

You can check out a webcast of Steve Ballmer's presentation on the Microsoft Window's Vista website.

So, what do you think? Will you be prepared to install Vista at its consumer release out in January?