I don’t normally gush over new tech toys on this blog, but I suspect that we are about to witness a sea change in portable computing:

The Touch Book is a netbook-but-more from a company called Always Innovating.  It reverses the fundamental design of notebook computing in that the processor/memory/storage is in the same part of the computer as the screen.  So what do you get when you make that screen a touch screen as well?  A tablet computer with a keyboard dock.

The idea behind Touch Book is making it as versitile as possible, allowing people to use it in different modes for different tasks.

Typing a document?  Dock it in the keyboard.  Watching a movie?  Reverse the screen and fold it into a stand, or use the magnetic backing to attach the screen to a steel surface (like a refrigerator).  Playing a game, reading a book, or surfing the web?  Use the touch screen by itself for convenience.

This will be the first netbook to use the ARM Processor, which means that it runs without generating much heat (no fans to run and long battery life – 10-15 hours according to the company).  It also means that it is an “instant on” device… no waiting for the computer to boot up.  It sports high resolution, 3-D graphics, and is supposed to do a great job for watching movies.  And it is very open… open source operating system, open architecture.  There is a lot of room for innovation with this device.

This computer isn’t perfect (and it isn’t on the market yet… so any of these claims could be exaggerated), but it is a definite jump ahead for mobile computing.  Microsoft has yet to announce whether Windows 7 will have an ARM version, so this may be limited to varieties of Linux and Android — but you will still be able to use it for anything the current crops of netbooks can do, with more versatility and for longer periods of time.

Here’s a demo video I found via Wired Blogs:

found via CrunchGear

Ubuntu 6.10 has been released.  The latest version of this free and easy to use operating system is available for download to try out and/or install on the computer of your choice!

I have found Ubuntu to be the smoothest version of Linux that I have tried, and expect it to become much more common as time goes on.

from OSDir.com

ComputerWorld is reporting that Google is looking into OpenSolaris to replace Linux as the server operating system that forms the backbone of the search engine.

This could get interesting; I have been wondering how broad the use of OpenSolaris would become since Sun spun off an open-source version of their operating system.

from OSDir

From the folks at Google and a team from MIT comes YouOS, an experimental “web operating system” which basically gives you a computer desktop that you access through your web browser.

Why is this significant? This is more than your basic web 2.0 site, or a remotely hosted application: this could mean a change in how we approach public access computers. With stripped down hardware (motherboard, processor, minimal memory, monitor, mouse, keyboard, high-speed internet access) you can have a full-fledged system without needing to maintain the operating system and related software at the computer itself.

Check it out. Sign up for an account and see how it works. Remember that this is not only experimental software, but they are at the alpha stage of development… don’t expect Windows Vista visual quality or Linux stability.

By the way… this may settle the debate going on for the past few years about whether Google has an interest in developing operating systems and competing in that arena.

from OSDir

No joke… the URI is http://www.whatwouldjesusdownload.com/

Of interest here, and for many people, is that Ubuntu has come out with a Christian Edition of their operating system.  This, as with the Educational edition, marks a possible trend of customizing linux for specific groups and interests.  I can predict a library/research version, a geneology version, and perhaps even a blog-centric version, each with pre-installed software to support each of those activities.

from OSDir