Google Chrome OS to Launch in Autumn

(Hopefully) A free product that does not require command line knowledge. Yeah, current Linux distros up to this point are pretty much at the stage where it's almost comparable with regard to ease of use for standard users, but every once in a while that kernel upgrade goes south or you can't get the wireless driver to work. If Chrome OS can be pre-installed on low-priced, higher-end machines (since Google has a ton of weight to throw around) that has great drivers written, it'll be very good for the market.

Chrome is aiming for something close to the iPad niche, I think. An always-connected instant-on fundamentally simple internet appliance. Something that hides the local machine, makes it merely a terminal.

Actually just tested Bespin today and it needs a lot more work before it becomes an IDE.

Right now it's just a browser-based text editor with some syntax highlighting for Javascript and HTML (XML doesn't work btw).

It needs a few more languages, code completion, code folding just to be a good editor.

Being an IDE implies also talking to some tools to compile stuff, deploy, debug, etc.

Let's say I want to code a Java application for Google AppEngine. Could I use Bespin (or anything else) to do this ? Not right now, and not soon.

Isn't Bespin more of an editor than a full IDE? I haven't used it in a while. Does it have build and debug functions now? Don't get me wrong, I think we'll get there eventually, I just doubt it'll be this year.