On Wed, Jul 8, 2009 at 10:08 AM, larry price<[email protected]> wrote:
> completely unsubstantiated rumour has it that chromeos will be running > a framebuffer with a specialized version of XMonad. Not an unattractive rumor. :-) XMonad is cool. I got it running awhile back but haven't found the time to really dig into it. It's definitely lean and mean on the dersktop. Not sure how useful multiple workspaces tiled on the display would be on a tiny netbook screen. But it could have a substantial Gee Whiz factor in marketing. XMonad also has a fair bit of extensibility for other eye candy effects, judging by the contributed extensions. A Chrome OS vs. Windows 7 eye candy contest for the netbook market? :-) Google would have the price advantage but at least an initial disadvantage in browser extensions. Microsoft is way behind Google in free cloud offerings with substantial uptake, albeit mostly on the consumer as opposed to enterprise side. But netbooks are supposed to be about the consumer market, yes? Shifting the topic a bit, there was a perceptive take today by the Wired magazine editor in chief on the contrast between Microsoft's and Google's wielding of quite different "free" software as a competitive (anti-competitive?) weapon. <http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/07/08/anderson.google.antitrust.law/>. I do recall a fair size body of case law on the subject. IIRC, the thrust is that a legal line is trespassed if your loss leaders are intended to harm or have the effect of harming for-profit competition in the relevant market. Always wondered why the Justice Department didn't lob that one Microsoft's way in the MSIE bundling case. Likewise why it's never come up in other IT contexts such as other crippleware business models, Sun distributing OpenOffice.org, far below cost, etc. But that's off the top of my head. I haven't looked at that line of cases in several years. Beyond doubt, I've at least over-generalized that which is full of nooks and crannies. Best regards, Paul -- Universal Interoperability Council <http:www.universal-interop-council.org> _______________________________________________ EUGLUG mailing list [email protected] http://www.euglug.org/mailman/listinfo/euglug
