OStatic

Truth be told, I'm not sure I really get Cooliris, the browser plugin designed to enhance your photo and video browsing experience. Don't get me wrong, it's really cool, and fun, and now that it is officially available for Linux, I've spent way too much time fiddling around with it and getting seasick as I whoosh through photos online -- and on my desktop -- at high rates of speed. I don't get it, but sometimes getting a concept just interferes with enjoying it. I like Cooliris, but I love the way Cooliris works on Linux.

Though the majority of companies have policies pertaining to responding to speculation, sometimes it just gets to a point they have to. For instance, say a rumor makes the rounds (with at least some supporting evidence) that Google has something up its sleeve that might possibly have to do with an operating system. Google can keep mum for a while, but it obviously has to be formally addressed, sooner or later.

It's unclear whether Google originally intended on announcing its Native Code Project last night, or if it hoped it could squeak out some more prep time before anyone noticed something was afoot. Either way, Google has unveiled Native Client, a technology that Google says will give web developers the full power of the client's CPU while maintaining browser safety, complete portability, and safety. And yes, it is open source.

Not long ago the Moonlight development team announced that the Linux Silverlight adaptation was drawing ever nearer to the 1.0 release. On December 1st, the Moonlight 1.0 beta version was released.

The Moonlight beta installs easily, and works quite well (though some sites respond better than others, this seems to hold true with Silverlight in a native Windows environment as well). The few hiccups I encountered during installation had more to do with network congestion and user error than the application itself.