Think of Google’s Chrome OS. Now think of what’s wrong with that – not least of which, security pitfalls which have already been noted less than two months after the official release of the Chromebook (until Chrome gets NoScript, I’m not touching it again). Google’s got everything now – your search, your mail, your navigation, your blog, your browser, your phone, your music, now your OS. All your data is theirs, in their cloud, at their mercy. Now, once upon a time, I took a kind of pride in being a Google whore. I like their products and their development and workplace philosophy – even though pretty much everything they release is half-baked and their official support is pretty much nonexistent unless you’re an enterprise. But I had an epiphany which you can read about if you want. I’m not gonna get into it. Short answer: I’m not a G-whore anymore.

So here’s my plan, because I like Chrome OS and think that a browser UI would be kind of neat – though if you talk to some of the old greybeards, they’ll start grumbling about why the hell would you want a computer that doesn’t do anything (and they’d be right) – a default Firefox UI. Alt-F2, you get full-screen Thunderbird for your email. Alt-F3, you get VLC, or maybe Miro, for your media. Alt-F4, you get a bash console. Naturally, we’ve got eight other function keys (and a zillion more you can map though then memorizing them becomes a problem) for whatever else, like FTP or BitTorrent clients (my vote is for OpenSwarm, which means Java – but we knew that’d have to happen anyway). But if you’re looking for mostly a web/media machine, we’re taking the hybrid approach here – and it’s totally open, and your data is yours, to the extent that you choose to make it so. None of that 16 GB hard drive nonsense. Have your hundred gigs of music if you want – on your own hard drive.

All that said, I’m going to start working on this project. I’m not going to release it unless people ask me to – and then I might have to consult with a lawyer to sort out all the licensing issues. I’m beginning with Linux From Scratch. Updates as they come. Let me know what you think in the comments.