The Web as random acts of kindness

Amazing Talk..

Ideas

Microsoft Office Online

Microsoft makes storing and sharing documents online (just like Google Docs). It says 'FREE' in bold, all-caps.

But when I try to access it using my Firefox from Linux, it give me:

To use Microsoft Office Live, your computer must meet one of the following requirements:
* Microsoft Internet Explorer 6, 7, or 8 running on Microsoft Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, or Windows Vista. You can download Internet Explorer from the Internet Explorer page.
* Mozilla Firefox running on Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, Windows Vista, or Mac OS X 10.2.x and later. You can download Firefox from the Firefox download page.

If the suit is web-based, then why is it accessible from Firefox running on Windows and not from Firefox running on Linux? It's the same Firefox, isn't it?

Dear Microsoft, when you say 'online' and 'free', what do you mean by that?

Google is entering Operating Systems..

Google announced Google Chrome Operating System today, which they claim to be Open Source, Light weight, Simple and Secure. Check Out the announcement!

"It's been an exciting nine months since we launched the Google Chrome browser. Already, over 30 million people use it regularly. We designed Google Chrome for people who live on the web — searching for information, checking email, catching up on the news, shopping or just staying in touch with friends. However, the operating systems that browsers run on were designed in an era where there was no web. So today, we're announcing a new project that's a natural extension of Google Chrome — the Google Chrome Operating System. It's our attempt to re-think what operating systems should be." -Google Official Blog

It will hit the markets in 2010.

"Speed, simplicity and security are the key aspects of Google Chrome OS. We're designing the OS to be fast and lightweight, to start up and get you onto the web in a few seconds. The user interface is minimal to stay out of your way, and most of the user experience takes place on the web. And as we did for the Google Chrome browser, we are going back to the basics and completely redesigning the underlying security architecture of the OS so that users don't have to deal with viruses, malware and security updates. It should just work." -Google Official Blog

Google adds that the OS will be “running within a new windowing system on top of a Linux kernel”.

"We hear a lot from our users and their message is clear — computers need to get better. People want to get to their email instantly, without wasting time waiting for their computers to boot and browsers to start up. They want their computers to always run as fast as when they first bought them. They want their data to be accessible to them wherever they are and not have to worry about losing their computer or forgetting to back up files. Even more importantly, they don't want to spend hours configuring their computers to work with every new piece of hardware, or have to worry about constant software updates. And any time our users have a better computing experience, Google benefits as well by having happier users who are more likely to spend time on the Internet." -Google Official Blog

I think this can be a game changer. We might be seeing a major shift to lighter, more web oriented operating systems, keeping all major software on the cloud and giving you a faster, more responsive UI - specially when doing most of our work on the browser.

I also wonder whether Google OS can take on Windows? So far Microsoft is eating the most of the OS market. Even Apple cannot stand against it (with a less than 10% share). Yet Google has been the one company to present a serious challenge to Microsoft to-date, especially on the Web. Let's see what "don't-be-evil" can do here.

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