WANT!

Google is entering the OS market -- code available later this year, appearing on a new netbook near you next year. For obvious reasons, the news puts me in a state somewhat short of orgasm but definitely beyond mere arousal.

I've been keeping one lazy eye on development of the Crunchpad, a piece of on-the-way hardware.

The Crunchpad is a touchscreen machine -- light, thin and inexpensive (it's supposed to sell for less than $300). Its default is a "virtual" onscreen keyboard, but it will supposedly be able to accommodate the real thing via USB. That's a personal hard line for me -- I can live with no mouse if necessary and the virtual keyboard sounds nice for being out and about, but I'm gonna need physical keys for everyday home use. I type a lot.

Forget installing apps to a hard drive; the Crunchpad is designed for people whose computer activity is 100% web-focused. If you want apps, you'll have to find them in the cloud (and for the most part, they're there to find). I believe it has a small built-in flash drive for caching and data storage, a la a netbook. Originally, the idea was that it would boot directly into Firefox (and perhaps include Skype), running over a Linux kernel ... and that would be it.

Now things seem to have shifted: "This is a Linux based operating system and a Webkit based browser." Firefox uses the Gecko layout engine. Chrome uses Webkit. Do I hear wedding bells?

I've been looking to move into a new machine for awhile now, but not out of necessity: I'm able to do everything I really need to do on my "obsolete" machine. Running a very light OS (Puppy Linux) even lets me do it fast. I'm not sure I'll fall for the Crunchpad, but something like it sounds about right and I'm willing to wait for the right combination of low price, portability and an OS that doesn't hog all the machine's resources for no good reason.

Update, 07/08/09: Dvorak thinks that Google is bluffing and that the whole point is to discommode Microsoft. He thinks that Android will be the "real" Google OS. He bases this conjecture mainly on the fact that Google usually doesn't "announce early."

I think he's wrong. This isn't about kicking Windows 7 in the shins to hold some prospective market share for Android. It's about convincing people that the Era of the Everything + Kitchen Sink OS is over, that both Linux and "the cloud" are ready for prime time (hey, Google says so!), and that consumers should kick back for a few months, save their money instead of giving it to Bill Gates, and await Something Shiny Coming Real Soon Now For FREE FREE FREE. Remember, Google is talking about the new OS being available pre-loaded on new machines next year ... they're releasing the code into the wild later this year. "Early adopters" will hopefully be running it (and raving about it) by Christmas.

Update, 07/10/09: Becky C. doesn't trust Google. I'm pretty sure this means she also hates America and likes to spend her evenings kidnapping puppies, stuffing them in sacks and drowning them. Or something like that.

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Give'em an inch, they'll take a mile

Letting them march in Skokie is one thing. Letting them set public policy in Kirkwood is another thing entirely. I'm just sayin' ...

OK, feel free to cart me off to Godwin's Gaol now.

When the levee breaks

The banks are getting nervous about taking IOUs from Sacramento.

Who can blame them? There's a $24 billion $26.3 billion chasm separating what California's politicians want to spend this year on one hand and the allowance California's taxpayers are willing to give them on the other.

Those politicians continue to handle the situation in typical politician style -- in other words, like one of those poorly behaved three-year-olds you see at the store. You know, the kid with a toy in each hand, writhing around on the floor and screaming bloody murder when mommy says he has to pick one and put the other back on the shelf.

Federal bailout? I don't friggin' think so.

Handing over $24 billion and one of those big rainbow lollipops to one state, no questions asked, isn't going to play well with the other 49 states. Dead on arrival in Congress because those other 49 states have Representatives and Senators, too.

Round-filed at the White House as well -- even if Obama is personally inclined to go all "unitary executive" on the matter, he knows damn well that if he bails out one state he'll have 49 other governors lined up outside the Oval Office carrying burlap sacks they'll expect him to fill with cash.

Besides, the federal government's own "budget gap" is in the trillions, and its IOUs aren't as attractive as they used to be either.

Yep, Arnold's definitely got his teat in a wringer on this one. He's probably kicking himself silly for getting himself into this whole Governator thing.

Cryin' won't help you, prayin' won't do you no good, Bubba. Sooner or later -- and with this development it looks like "sooner" -- the politicians are going to have to either cut back on their spending addiction or else assert some kind of arbitrary "emergency power" to turn the people of California upside down and shake more change out of their pockets.

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