To pick an example, I think the mobile ecosystem would be a lot better right now were WebOS still a viable alternative. Instead HP left it to rot. How much progress did we lose there?

For branded Android/ChromeOS, AFAIK, you are paying Google for it the same way you pay for prebundled Windows. Insofar as the OS cost is discounted because you are an advertising target for Google, that's not that different from Windows PCs where the OS cost is offset because you are crapware target for third-party business partners of the system vendor.

And advertising revenue, isn't, I think, the only motivation for the low cost of consumer ChromeOS; low-cost consumer ChromeOS is the lever for building acceptance, knowledge base, and build a base of apps to motivate institutional sales of ChromeOS (sort of the way that getting Apple computers into schools was always a way to build commercial consumer and business markets for them.)

Sorry but this is not either or anymore. They will take your money and you will still be a product being sold. Just because you paid money doesn't mean they won't try to squeeze an extra penny off of your information if they can get away with it.

Agreed on Chrome OS. I'll stay with my cheap old Linux Thinkpad. My remote services run on my server at home anyway and they're pretty close to what Google offers, minus the sleek look (who cares, I'm functional).

The Apple app store is a flat-out threat to human freedom. I do not want to live in a world where the only software available is the software approved by Apple and the governments that have jurisdiction over it.

edit: Note that I take no warmth in it being Google. Yes, they are closed. The good news is that HP just offered up "Not Intel" and "Not Microsoft" preloaded in a laptop form factor. The hardware companies are retreating to neutral corners and leaving the OS vendors to duke it out on their own. This is good for free software and good for the web.

Google is the greatest machine for data gathering and mining in the history of humanity. (Perhaps the NSA or other 3-letter agency eclipses them, but in the private sector, no one outdoes them) Google's entire purpose for all they do is to get more information so they can show you ads. They have the capability (not the desire, I believe) to censor the Internet in monumental ways. (Imagine shaping search results based on political leanings that my search history suggests) They have a dossier of info on me they can turn over to whom they wish. (Probably won't, but a few public statements doesn't disprove the possibility) Which company, at face value, is "a flat-out threat to human freedom".

Generally, you remove a washer and you get developer mode. From that point you can change anything.

> (albeit arguyably, Apple also open sources it's kernel)

When was the last time someone managed to build a binary identical kernel to Apple's from the supplied sources?

What free software? Locked down behind SaaS walls.

Advancing the web still makes sense.

Anyhow, there's also plenty of online instructions on how to use Crouton to install Ubuntu onto Chrome OS, the point is that Chrome OS is a full, real Linux distro.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v031udlfY5E

Besides what is the point to pay $279 for a web browser?

Google could have locked it down as much as iOS if they wanted to. They didn't. Who do you think created developer mode?

The automated scripts that ease the task were created by individuals that don't work for Google.

This is hardly proper support.

If this was a desired way of using Chromebooks, options would be available to select it in a user friendly way.

If you dislike the paradigm that's fine, but don't claim it's hurting your freedom when

a) it's open source and

b) you can modify it the way you see fit.

Heck, you can change the Chromium OS source, recompile it and throw it on a Chromebook if you want...

All applications are behind SaaS walls.

And Chrome OS absolutely IS an OS. The fact that it's centred conceptually around the Chromium browser and Google's proprietary bits doesn't make this less true.

I'm pretty sure if you say "google" and "freedom" in front of RMS you'll get your head chopped off.

The best dictators spread the freedom mantra and the more gullible believe it.

Does a technology exist if nobody writes anything for it?

Unification of the two OS's keeps getting rumoured, but never happens.

Why do you feel this way?