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Chrome OS Will Be Shown This Week

Rumors have been swirling for days now about possible delivery of Google's much discussed Chrome OS this week. GigaOm pinged a few people at Google to get confirmation on the rumor, and while they didn't get back a specific answer on whether the download will arrive this week, there was an invitation to a press event at Google's Mountain View campus on Thursday morning, billed by the company as an update on our progress with Google Chrome OS. It sounds like everyone will get to try it very soon. Check out GigaOm for more details.


What Lies Ahead for Chrome OS?

So rumor has it that Google's Chrome OS, which had been slated to arrive some time next year, is about to arrive as a beta release. As I pointed out this morning, netbooks based on it may help preserve open source influence on a hot hardware category, but is Chrome OS likely to be a smash hit?


Don't Count Linux Netbooks Out

The announcement last week of a Linux-based smartbook from Lenovo was just one of several signs I'm seeing that Linux will maintain a foothold in emerging portable computing categories, including netbooks and smartbooks. Many people predicted that, with the arrival of Windows 7, which is squarely aimed at netbooks, Linux would fade on low-cost portable computing platforms. Here are several reasons why that is probably not going to happen.


Is the Symbian Foundation DOA?

When Nokia announced that it was launching the Symbian Foundation to great fanfare, it had within its grasp that rarest of opportunities to move swiftly and become the dominant open source mobile platform. Alas, just one and a half years later, they have seemingly ceded that position to Android. Instead of recognizing the threat from Android and making strategic changes to counter, they instead criticized Google's closed-door development of Android before releasing a line of code themselves. When criticizing competitors, it helps to have your own house in order first.

?In October, the Symbian Foundation released the Symbian kernel sources to the world, and the rest of the world (read: developers) collectively responded, Great. Where's my Android phone? I've often lauded Google for its ability to fuse the marketing, PR and developer benefits of open source projects into one seemless operation. It would seem that Symbian could stand to learn a few things. The question is, is it too late?



Android: Linux--Only Different

This week, much of the talk in the smartphone arena surrounds the new Android-based Droid phone, which is the result of a partnership between Verizon, Motorola and Google. Lost in the buzz over the phone--for many people at least--is that the Droid, like all Android phones, is Linux-based. Early reports show that there were approximately 100,000 Droids sold on its opening weekend, which is nothing to shake a stick at. Meanwhile, there will be approximately 20 Android phones by the end of this year, and the operating system is spreading out beyond phones as well. So just how Linux-based is Android, and is its Linux heritage a good thing?


Google Unleashes Go: A Brand New Systems Programming Language

Not content to dominate search and online advertising, two operating systems, and cross-platform browser, Google is now getting into the programming language business as well. Yesterday Google announced Go a brand-new systems programming language. Why does Google need Go? According to the FAQ on the site, Google saw a gap in the existing systems programming languages, and the company decided it was worth trying again with a new language that has taken ideas from other systems programming languages as well as scripting languages like Python and JavaScript.



Google Provides Closure: Releases Open Source JavaScript Optimizer

JavaScript programmers, rejoice! It's been a good week for open source from big companies. Earlier this week Yahoo! released its Traffic Server it acquired from Inktomi, and now Google has unleashed Closure Tools. These are part of the toolset that Google uses to create JavaScript-heavy applications like Google Docs, Gmail, and Google Maps.



Thankful for Android

It was only back in March that questions were swirling about the fate of Android, Google's open source operating system. Now, of course, Android is flourishing, with approximately 20 new handsets to be on sale by the end of the year, and questions being raised about the fate of Windows Mobile as Android spreads out. Today, JKOnTheRun has a thank you letter to Google posted, in which James Kendrick says that Android has fired up the smartphone space. It's worth reading. Check it out here.


Chrome and Firefox Get Upgrades

This week is a big one for open source browsers, which, as we've pointed out many times, are responsible for most of the innovation going on in the browser arena. The first beta version of Firefox 3.6 is available for Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux, and you can get it here. Meanwhile, Google has delivered a very fast new beta version of the Chrome browser, and it features bookmark syncing so that you can keep your bookmarks streamlined across multiple computers.


Non-Obvious Android Opportunities

Matt Asay has an interesting item up today on non-obvious ways that Google's Android operating system can lead to a lower cost infrastructure for mobile technology usage, and a big boost for Google's mobile search business. He notes this quote from Google CFO Patrick Pichette, from Google's recent earnings call, where rosy numbers were reported: If we move forward the adoption of these smartphones by having a lower cost infrastructure because it's open source...all the (mobile) searches...will happen so much faster. The point of that isn't just that you can buy an Android smartphone for less than the competition because the OS is free--that would be a very incremental kind of cost savings. It's the freedom from vendor lock-in and licensing costs that can kick in real cost savings over time. As that helps pave the way for Android adoption, Google's lucrative search business also gets a healthy boost.


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