Has the Shine Worn Off the Idea of a Chrome OS?

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Vol. 9, #100 - Dec 1, 2009 - Issue #408  Has the Shine Worn Off the Idea of a Chrome OS? Editor's Corner Has the Shine Worn Off the Idea of a Chrome OS? Follow-up: Giving thanks for technology Quotes of the Week Cool Tools Tools We Think You Shouldn't Be Without News, Hints, Tips and Tricks Another Mobile Internet Device (MID) running Windows XP Microsoft ordered to stop selling XP in China New Natal technology could someday replace remote controls How much sensitive information is stored on your phone? How To: Using XP Features How to restart Explorer.exe XP Security News Safari for Windows: update to fix security flaws XP Question Corner How do I print or save just part of a web page? XP Configuration and Troubleshooting Change the listening port for Remote Desktop Manage remote access to the registry on an XP computer Fav Links This Week's Links We Like. Tips, Hints And Fun Stuff Product of the Week All Office Converter Platinum Kiss Your Antivirus Bloatware Goodbye We asked users of antivirus products what they didn't like about their AV software. They told us they are resource hogs and slowed their computer down. They told us that scan times took way too long, and that the AV software nagged them. In short, old-style AV software takes too much Memory and CPU. Time to switch to VIPRE! It gives you malware protection that combines antivirus, antispyware, anti-rootkit and other technologies into a seamless, tightly-integrated product. Even if you run "free" antivirus software, it hijacks 20% of your PC, so it's really not free at all! Get VIPRE now and see how fast your PC can really be: http://www.wxpnews.com/3UDXV2/091201-VIPRE  Editor's Corner Has the Shine Worn Off the Idea of a Chrome OS? Google enjoyed a great deal of good publicity when they released the Chrome browser in 2008. It got good reviews and praise for its fast performance, and I know several people who swear by it as their primary web browser. Nonetheless, its market share is still relatively small, over a year later, at least in comparison to Internet Explorer and Firefox: 3.58% as of October 2009, according to the Net Applications web site: http://www.wxpnews.com/3UDXV2/091201-Browser-Market-Share Still, that's better than Opera (2.17%), which has been on the market since 1996, and it's less than one percentage point under Apple's Safari (4.42%), which has been around since 2003 and comes preinstalled on all Macs. Chrome was developed under open source licenses and thus appeals to those who don't approve of proprietary software, but it's had its share of problems, too. There was an uproar when the Terms of Service contained language granting Google a license to all content transferred with the browser (Google quickly changed to ToS). And although it's been touted as more secure, serious vulnerabilities have been found (as with all browsers). And it's been criticized for some of its security implementations: http://www.wxpnews.com/3UDXV2/091201-Chrome-Security All in all, the browser can be considered a success, having taken its place among the top five browsers - despite the fact that people aren't abandoning IE and FF in droves for it. Not long after the release of the browser, Google stirred a lot of interest by announcing that they were planning to follow it with an open source operating system: Chrome OS. The official announcement came in July 2009: http://www.wxpnews.com/3UDXV2/091201-Chrome-OS Last week, we finally got a look at the new OS - and most of the tech writers were ... a bit underwhelmed. It's not that Google didn't live up to its promises. The company said it was going to be simple, and it is. So simple that it seems to be little more than a browser itself. And that's essentially what it is: it runs on the Linux kernel, but the web browser is the OS interface. It doesn't run local applications; it's meant to be a "cloud" OS, you see. All the apps are out there on the 'Net. You're expected to store your data in the cloud, too; it doesn't support hard drives - although it will apparently allow you to store files on USB flash drives and SD cards: http://www.wxpnews.com/3UDXV2/091201-Chrome-Local-Storage The advantage of this is that, unburdened by the kind of code that makes an operating system, well, an operating system, you get faster performance - at least in theory. Read more about that here: http://www.wxpnews.com/3UDXV2/091201-Chrome-OS-Unveiling To be fair, this is just a beta. And it seems to be aimed primarily at netbooks, which are low powered machines that are suited to operating as terminals for a cloud-based experience. We'll have to wait a little longer to find out exactly how the Chrome OS shakes out. One of the biggest concerns expressed so far is that, in the words of The Observer, "The Chrome OS operating system may mean Google controls your netbook as Apple controls your iPhone." That is, all the software will come from Google and they'll control what you can or can't install and run. Of course, this limitation has been readily accepted by a few million iPhone users. However, many of us who have resisted the iPhone's siren call have done so, at least in part, because we don't like the idea of Apple having that much control over our devices. And it's possible that many computers will have a harder time accepting Google's control-freak approach when it's their computers, rather than "just" the phone, that's at issue. At any rate, it's interesting to hear the "do no evil" company being accused of threatening our freedom: http://www.wxpnews.com/3UDXV2/091201-Big-Brother The other issue, the one that the Linux lovers and Mac maniacs don't like to admit, is that when it comes to computers, most consumers just prefer Windows. That was proven by the netbook market itself. The first netbooks ran Linux. Then Windows netbooks came out. They cost a bit more, but buyers flocked to them, quickly gaining the vast majority of the market share: http://www.wxpnews.com/3UDXV2/091201-Windows-on-Netbooks Still, it's good to have options, and soon Chrome will be one of them. In fact, if you're game, you can try it out now. Google has released the code and you can install it in a VM, following the instructions here: http://www.wxpnews.com/3UDXV2/091201-Get-Chrome-OS Or if you have a Dell Mini10v, there is a compiled version available that you can run on that netbook. There is a link at the end of this article to the image file: http://www.wxpnews.com/3UDXV2/091201-Chrome-For-Dell-Mini A third option is to download a build that's "out there," compiled by someone named Hexxeh, and boot it from a USB key. This is strictly "at your own risk" (as it always is when you install beta software), but you can find the information on how to do it here: http://www.wxpnews.com/3UDXV2/091201-Chrome-OS-on-USB Meanwhile, even if the idea of working completely online does catch on, Chrome may have some competition in the "cloud OS" space. Another cloud-based OS for netbooks, named Jolicloud, also announced a pre-beta release version last week, and it has been tested with a large number of netbooks: http://www.wxpnews.com/3UDXV2/091201-Jolicloud And Microsoft, with Silverlight, can also provide a way to access complex applications through the browser - any of the top browsers, including Chrome. The latest version of Silverlight has new features that make it appealing to the enterprise, as well as consumers: http://www.wxpnews.com/3UDXV2/091201-Silverlight Maybe Google should focus on its other operating system, Android - a smart phone OS that is generating much more excitement than the Chrome OS. With the release of the Motorola Droid by Verizon in November, and with Sony Ericsson's gorgeous Experia 3 running the Rachael interface on Android, that OS is taking off and posing a real challenge to the domination of the iPhone: http://www.wxpnews.com/3UDXV2/091201-Sony-Ericsson-Android In fact, Google's co-founder recently said that Chrome and Android will probably merge somewhere down the line. Unfortunately, it sounds as if the convergence may take the wrong (in my opinion) path. One of the good things about Android is that it runs apps locally; the talk is about porting those to make them web apps, with the merged OS being more like Chrome in that it's totally dependent on the Internet connection: http://www.wxpnews.com/3UDXV2/091201-Chrome-OS-n-Android From my point of view, I don't think there's any reason for Microsoft to worry about the competition from Chrome. Those folks who want a full fledged operating system will be sticking with Windows (or OS X, or a full featured Linux distro). Chrome might take a portion of the netbook market, but I think most computer users are going to want the familiarity and continuity of having Windows on their netbooks, as they've proven when given the option of buying netbooks with other simplified versions of Linux. Most important, I don't think the average computer user is ready to live with his/her head permanently in the cloud. But hey, I could be wrong. Tell us what you think. Are you excited about the new Chrome OS, or does it seem like a ho-hum idea? Is an operating system that doesn't run local applications even deserving of the name "operating system" or is it just a web browser dressed up to look like one? Has the cloud's time come, or are you still wary of it? Given the choice and if the price were the same or close to the same, would you choose a netbook running Chrome over one with Windows or a more full fledged version of Linux? Would you be comfortable with Google controlling what apps you can run, or do you prefer the "simplification" of having those decisions made for you? We invite you to discuss this topic on our forum at http://www.wxpnews.com/3UDXV2/091201-Forum-Discussion Follow-up: Giving thanks for technology Last week, instilled with an attitude of gratitude as Turkey Day approached, I wrote about all the technologies for which I'm thankful. Readers responded with their own lists, with some naming technologies that I never even thought of because I take them so much for granted. As Mike said, the technology for which we should be most grateful is electricity, because most of our other technologies depend on it. JonM brought up another thing that I take for granted - being able to go to a web site and see pictures of products or services that I'm interested in. Many trips to the store have been saved because I was able to see what I would be getting without even leaving the house. And that reminds me that in the early days of the Internet, everything was about text. Transmitting photos took much too long over those slow modems, and when we were paying $25/hour for a connection, it was also too costly. Now we have glorious high resolution pictures that pop up instantly in our web browsers, not to mention high def videos. The visual element is certainly one for which I'm thankful. Even more fun are the suggestions that you guys put forth for technologies we don't have yet. I love Kenneth Fleischer's idea of an in-vehicle sound system with a USB port that would let you play your music by simply inserting a flash drive. The closest thing I have to that is my GPS unit that includes music player software and has an SD card slot. It also has an audio out jack and my car stereo has a mini-plug input, so (after finally finding the right cable) I'm able to run the sound from the GPS through the car's speakers. Especially interesting were the discussions about our dependence on technology. As was pointed out, humans have always been dependent on technology; as soon as the wheel was invented, we became dependent on it. One difference, I guess, is that wheels weren't going to suddenly disappear as is possible with our electronic technology. As lzmyyl noted, it's not the dependence itself that's a problem as much as being unaware of that dependence. It's definitely important to assess where our dependencies lie and prepare, as best we can, for what to do if those technologies become temporarily or permanently unavailable. What I'm most thankful for is the ability to communicate with so many great people, so easily. And I thank Tim G. and others for their kind words. You guys are the ones who make this job a joy. Many thanks to all who participated in the discussion, and for Sallymof: next Thanksgiving, I promise I'll stick to the positive aspects of what I'm thankful for and leave the concerns about the negative side for a separate editorial. 'Til next week, Deb Shinder, Editor feedback@wxpnews.com PS: Did you know this newsletter has a sister publication called Win7News? You can subscribe here, and tell your friends: http://www.wxpnews.com/3UDXV2/091201-Win7News And for IT pros, there's our "big sister," WServer News, at http://www.wxpnews.com/3UDXV2/091201-WServerNews Join the WXPnews Fan Page on Facebook! http://www.wxpnews.com/3UDXV2/091201-WXPNews-on-Facebook Quotes of the Week What we anticipate seldom occurs; what we least expected generally happens. - Benjamin Disraeli (1804 - 1881) Do not bite at the bait of pleasure 'til you know there is no hook beneath it. - Thomas Jefferson (1743 - 1826) I find that a great part of the information I have was acquired by looking up something and finding something else on the way. - Franklin P. Adams (1881 - 1960) Own a Single-user VIPRE? Upgrade Now To Home Site License For Just $19.95 You run VIPRE and love it. But what about the other PC's at the house? We have a special, limited time upgrade offer. You can upgrade now and just pay the difference (20 bucks) between the Single License and the Unlimited Home Site License (UHSL). But wait, it gets better. Your UHSL starts fresh and you get a new 12 month subscription! Do the math. Wait and pay 30 bucks later, or buy the upgrade now and get a whole year for 20 bucks. A no-brainer! Remember this is for a limited time only, get that upgrade now! Click here to learn more and order: http://www.wxpnews.com/3UDXV2/091201-UHSL-Upgrade  Cool Tools Tools We Think You Shouldn't Be Without ADVERTISEMENT 20 Free PC Performance Reports. The World's Most Comprehensive PC Health Scan is Free http://www.wxpnews.com/3UDXV2/091201-PC-Health-Scan Moving to Windows7 from XP? Did you know that senerio is NOT supported by MS? Keep your apps without reinstalling: http://www.wxpnews.com/3UDXV2/091201-PCmover Search for a driver and you get a ton of Driver Software offers instead. But how do you know which one is good? Try Driver Genius 9.0. Free scan. http://www.wxpnews.com/3UDXV2/091201-Driver-Genius Backups? Why back up when you can sync? Simply replicate every piece of data to another drive in real-time. Set it and forget it. http://www.wxpnews.com/3UDXV2/091201-GoodSync Spotmau PowerSuite Professional 2008: Fantastic! All the tools necessary to fix most common computer problems. Clone and backup too! http://www.wxpnews.com/3UDXV2/091201-PowerSuite PC Tune-Up: 4 Easy Steps That Eliminate Frustrating Slow Computer Problems: http://www.wxpnews.com/3UDXV2/091201-PC-Tune-Up Improve your English writing skills with WhiteSmoke a smarter solution for high quality writing. Download the free trial version here. http://www.wxpnews.com/3UDXV2/091201-WhiteSmoke  News, Hints, Tips and Tricks Another Mobile Internet Device (MID) running Windows XP It might be hard to find a new computer with XP installed now, but the OS is alive and well on smaller devices. Case in point: a new ViewSonic MID (Mobile Internet Device) was just unveiled running XP on a 1.1 GHz Atom processor with 1 GB of RAM. A MID occupies a space somewhere between a smart phone and a netbook. Interestingly, this one includes a TV tuner and antenna to receive digital TV broadcasts. Check it out here: http://www.wxpnews.com/3UDXV2/091201-ViewSonic Microsoft ordered to stop selling XP in China It's not always easy being a major vendor in a global marketplace. Now Microsoft has been ordered by a Chinese court to stop selling Windows XP in that country, because some of the fonts that are included in the OS allegedly infringe on another company's intellectual property. Those same fonts were also in Windows 95, 98 and 2000, but are not in Vista or Windows 7. Read more here: http://www.wxpnews.com/3UDXV2/091201-XP-in-China New Natal technology could someday replace remote controls The Wii popularized new ways of providing input to game controllers and now Microsoft is working to improve on the technology with their Natal project for the Xbox 360, but they plan to go beyond gaming and beyond hand gestures, to create a fully interactive experience that could also find its way to your computers and/or TVs. Read more about it here: http://www.wxpnews.com/3UDXV2/091201-TV-Remotes How much sensitive information is stored on your phone? If you carry a smart phone (or even just a "semi smart" model with text messaging and email), you might be surprised at how much someone could find out about you by examining the contents of your phone. "It's like a computer," says the forensics specialist in this article, but that's not quite right. The iPhone he was talking about is a computer, albeit a small one. Today's phones have faster processor, more memory and more storage space than our desktop machines had a short fifteen years ago. Raise your awareness: http://www.wxpnews.com/3UDXV2/091201-Smartphone  How To: Using XP Features How to restart Explorer.exe Sometimes Explorer.exe will shut down, leaving your XP desktop with no taskbar. That's not good. You can fix it by rebooting, but you might lose data that way, and it can take a while. You can restart Explorer.exe and get your toolbar back without rebooting. Here's how: Press CTRL + ALT + DEL to invoke Task Manager In Task Manager, click the Applications tab Click File | New Task In the "Create New Task" window, type explorer.exe Click OK This restarts the Explorer shell and you can get back to whatever you were doing.  XP Security News Safari for Windows: update to fix security flaws If you're running Apple's Safari browser on your XP computer, be sure to update to the latest version, which fixes vulnerabilities that affect XP, Vista, Windows 7, and Mac OS X. Another app that may need patching is Adobe's Photoshop 7 and 8. If you have one of these installed, get the recently released update to avoid a "moderate" security issue. Read more about both here: http://www.wxpnews.com/3UDXV2/091201-Safari-Security  XP Question Corner How do I print or save just part of a web page? QUESTION: Here is a problem I've wrestled with for years. Often I want to print an article, or just part of an article on a web page (such as one question and answer from a long Q&A article). Now so many pages have ads down one or both sides, or photos that I don't want to waste ink printing. Is there a simple way to control what part of a page I print? How about a way to save just a part of a web page as a file (not printing it)? Thanks. - Ted M. ANSWER: Printer ink doesn't come cheap, so it makes no sense to print more than you really want. There are a few ways to print just part(s) of a web page. If you just want to print a block of text, you can highlight it in IE, click the File menu, select Print and then under "Print Range," select "Selection." You can also do this with an image. For more sophisticated selection, you can use a program like Printee, which is a free download here: http://www.wxpnews.com/3UDXV2/091201-Printee That site also has a link to Klippy for IE, which lets you save clippings as digital files. Of course, if you want to save part of a page in a graphic format, you could also use the PRT SCN key to capture the page and then crop/edit it in Paint. Vista and Windows 7 include a great little tool for capturing part of a screen, called the Snipping Tool. If your XP computer happens to be a Tablet PC, you can install the Snipping Tool as part of the Experience Pack. You'll find a link to download the Pack here: http://www.wxpnews.com/3UDXV2/091201-Snipping-Tool For XP Pro or Home, you can install a similar program called Snippy, which is downloadable here: http://www.wxpnews.com/3UDXV2/091201-Snippy  XP Configuration and Troubleshooting Change the listening port for Remote Desktop Some firewalls are configured to block the default port that is used by Remote Desktop, which makes it difficult for you to connect to your Remote Desktop host computer from a network where you don't control the firewall settings. You can change the listening port to circumvent that problem, by editing the registry. To find out how, see KB article 306759 at http://www.wxpnews.com/3UDXV2/091201-Listening-Port Manage remote access to the registry on an XP computer It's possible to access and modify the registry from another computer over the network, but by default only Administrators (and on Pro, Backup Operators) can do this. If you want to grant access to others to access the registry remotely, you'll need to following the directions in KB 314837 and create a new registry key. See: http://www.wxpnews.com/3UDXV2/091201-Registry-Remote-Access  Fav Links This Week's Links We Like. Tips, Hints And Fun Stuff Disclaimer: WXPNews does not assume and cannot be responsible for any liability related to you clicking any of these linked Web sites. Give this vacuum cleaner a medal: http://www.wxpnews.com/3UDXV2/091201-Roomba-Hero For space shuttle fans: it may be antiquated technology, but it's still fascinating http://www.wxpnews.com/3UDXV2/091201-STS-129 Windows 7 Family Guy commercials unleashed http://www.wxpnews.com/3UDXV2/091201-MS-Family-Guy-Ads Snow puppies http://www.wxpnews.com/3UDXV2/091201-Snow-Dogs What would Earth be like if it had rings like Saturn? http://www.wxpnews.com/3UDXV2/091201-Earth-Rings Surprised Kitty (aka Cutest Video on the Internet) http://www.wxpnews.com/3UDXV2/091201-Kitty Amazing Christmas display with 176 channels and 45,000 lights! The show is so popular that it requires a crew of 3 people to manage the traffic. http://www.wxpnews.com/3UDXV2/091201-Christmas-Lights  Product of the Week All Office Converter Platinum All Office Converter Platinum is an easy-to-use but powerful document image conversion tool that every serious Microsoft Office user should own. It supports batch conversion of documents, web and images producing high quality results for business and individuals who need to improve save huge chunks of their time. With this powerful converter, you can create PDF file from a wide range of formats and convert PDF file to other versatile formats with superior output quality. Moreover, you can convert between different office document formats and web, images. It support a wide range of file formats: Word (doc, docm, docx), Excel(xls .xlsx. xlsm),PowerPoint (ppt, pptc, pptm),PDF, XLS, RTF, TXT, HTM/HTML, Website, JPG, BMP, GIF, TIF, WMF, EMF, TGA, RLE, PNG etc. This suite contains scores of products that if purchased individually would cost hundreds of dollars. WXPNews readers can download the trial version here or but it now. http://www.wxpnews.com/3UDXV2/091201-Office-Converter  About WXPnews What Our Lawyers Make Us Say These documents are provided for informational purposes only. The information contained in this document represents the current view of Sunbelt Software on the issues discussed as of the date of publication. Because Sunbelt must respond to changes in market conditions, it should not be interpreted to be a commitment on the part of Sunbelt and Sunbelt cannot guarantee the accuracy of any information presented after the date of publication. INFORMATION PROVIDED IN THIS DOCUMENT IS PROVIDED "AS IS" WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND FREEDOM FROM INFRINGEMENT. This newsletter and website and may contain links to other websites with whom we have a business relationship. Sunbelt Software does not review or screen these sites, and we are not responsible or liable for their privacy or data security practices, or the content of these sites. Additionally, if you register with any of these sites, any information that you provide in the process of registration, such as your email address, credit card number or other personally identifiable information, will be transferred to these sites. For these reasons, you should be careful to review any privacy and data security policies posted on any of these sites before providing information to them. The user assumes the entire risk as to the accuracy and the use of this document. This document may be copied and distributed subject to the following conditions: 1) All text must be copied without modification and all pages must be included; 2) All copies must contain Sunbelt's copyright notice and any other notices provided therein; and 3) This document may not be distributed for profit. All trademarks acknowledged. Copyright Sunbelt Software, Inc. 1996-2009. WXPnews Archives Looking for a past issue? Missing an issue? Accidently deleted an issue? Trying to find that article that pointed you to that cool site? All our newsletters are archived and are searchable: http://www.wxpnews.com/archives.cfm If you have feedback or wish to write to the editor, write to us at feedback@wxpnews.com Sunbelt Software 33 North Garden Avenue Clearwater, Florida USA 33755