Copper Bezel
August 29th, 2011, 09:41 PM
So, Google is slowly taking over my Ubuntu. It's certainly not Google Chrome OS and I'm not doing everything from the browser, which I think is still a bit silly, but Chrome is slowly replacing things nonetheless.
For a while, I used Evolution for my e-mail (connected to my Gmail account) because it had some nice integration with the desktop and all of that, but it wasn't entirely reliable. I'd get errors and resend messages only to have them turn out to have sent properly in the first place, or not have new messages appear as expected. With the Chrome --app argument, I ended up making a Gmail launcher in my dock instead, and keeping it minimized, I can hover it to check my inbox and receive desktop notifications when something new comes in. Click the notification, and I get a new Gmail window for that message that stays under the Gmail item in the dock. Nice. Couldn't ask for better integration.
Bonus that Google Voice rings through my Gmail box. So, that's Skype gone, too.
At this point I was still using Opera as my primary browser, but I still needed Chrome for some Flash items. I'm on a netbook, and something about the form factor makes me really appreciate minimalism, one tool for any given task. I like having one reliable browser that does everything rather than depending on different browsers for different jobs, and with a few tweaks in about:flags and a handful of extensions, Chrome really did turn out to do everything I was getting from Opera and more. On my current install, it's the only installed browser; I don't even have Flash installed outside of what's packaged with Chrome.
Now it's a bit weirder. After some strong initial resistance, I got to like the Chrome PDF viewer. It renders quickly and accurately and includes all the features I need. So, the other night, I decided to make it my default PDF viewer (with the --new-window argument passed.) A part of me thinks, well, if the feature's already built into Chrome, why bother with a separate viewer?
Is anyone else experiencing this - Chrome gradually taking over your desktop? I mean, I still have GIMP, gedit, LibreOffice, Qalculate, etc. - for now. But I'm starting to think of my operating system as a thing that runs my hardware and handles window management functions for a variety of differently-flavored windows of Chrome.
For a while, I used Evolution for my e-mail (connected to my Gmail account) because it had some nice integration with the desktop and all of that, but it wasn't entirely reliable. I'd get errors and resend messages only to have them turn out to have sent properly in the first place, or not have new messages appear as expected. With the Chrome --app argument, I ended up making a Gmail launcher in my dock instead, and keeping it minimized, I can hover it to check my inbox and receive desktop notifications when something new comes in. Click the notification, and I get a new Gmail window for that message that stays under the Gmail item in the dock. Nice. Couldn't ask for better integration.
Bonus that Google Voice rings through my Gmail box. So, that's Skype gone, too.
At this point I was still using Opera as my primary browser, but I still needed Chrome for some Flash items. I'm on a netbook, and something about the form factor makes me really appreciate minimalism, one tool for any given task. I like having one reliable browser that does everything rather than depending on different browsers for different jobs, and with a few tweaks in about:flags and a handful of extensions, Chrome really did turn out to do everything I was getting from Opera and more. On my current install, it's the only installed browser; I don't even have Flash installed outside of what's packaged with Chrome.
Now it's a bit weirder. After some strong initial resistance, I got to like the Chrome PDF viewer. It renders quickly and accurately and includes all the features I need. So, the other night, I decided to make it my default PDF viewer (with the --new-window argument passed.) A part of me thinks, well, if the feature's already built into Chrome, why bother with a separate viewer?
Is anyone else experiencing this - Chrome gradually taking over your desktop? I mean, I still have GIMP, gedit, LibreOffice, Qalculate, etc. - for now. But I'm starting to think of my operating system as a thing that runs my hardware and handles window management functions for a variety of differently-flavored windows of Chrome.