Deploy Windows Applications with VMware ThinApp

VMware has a product called ThinApp (Wikipedia) (formerly Thinstall) which is an application virtualization and portable application creator suite by VMware that can package conventional applications so that they become portable applications. These thin apps virtualize the entire underlying Windows registry and device driver stack so that you can package and deploy portable applications on any type of storage device (i.e., USB drive, flash drive, etc...) Check it VMware Thinapp.

What makes ThinApp compeling is that users run applications on virtually any computer they have access to, including kiosk and hotel PCs. They won’t need to install software or device drivers and won’t need admin rights. Applications run directly from portable storage devices, including Flash drives.

Sounds promising... this is something to research in 2010.

Chrome on Linux Performance

I finally found the time to install, test and use Google Chrome (specifically Chromium) web browser for Linux. All I can say is wow! This browser is the fastest I have seen to date. In comparison to Firefox 3.5 on the same machine, this browser is blazingly fast. Especially YouTube for some reason. There apparently are some internal optimizations that Chrome implements or that YouTube exploits for video performance.

I installed the lastest Chromium on my Acer Aspire One Linux netbook and it just flies. Since doing this I have switched to using Chromium as my primary browser. The rough edges I see are Flash Player 10 support in some sites (like Hulu, Vevo) and some UI widget strangeness that are a minor annoyance. Overall, the lightning fast performance of Chrome on Linux far outweighs any of these minor annoyances which will be resolved as Chrome on Linux matures. Great job to the folks working on Chromium for Linux.

OS Dependency Dilemma

Google Chrome for Mac requires Mac OS X 10.5 or higher. The operating system version dependency appears to be universal today. I see these same issues on Windows (i.e., .NET 3.0/3.5 or greater requires XP or greater) and Linux also… Hmm… The announcement and wide spread release of Google Chrome OS in 2010 is just-in-time for mitigating the OS dependency dilemma. On my primary home machine, I plan to upgrade my MacBook to Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard so that I can use Chrome for Mac on it. I am currently running Mac OS X Tiger 10.4 since 2006 which is starting to show its age.

Based on the operating system dependencies and upgrade dilemma, it appears that operating systems now have a useful lifespan of approximately 2 years before you are forced to upgrade in order to the latest software to work (i.e., Google Chrome, Handbrake, etc.) For me, this used to be a 3-4 year lifecycle.

Anyway, I plan to upgrade to Mac OS X 10.6 (Snow Leopard) on my MacBook over the Holiday break later this month.

The New Wave

I received my Google Wave account last month. After playing with it, I can see where Waves will be beneficial in the future. For the short-term, I think understanding the concept, technology, and potential will take some time for the 95% of today's users.

"The Completed Guide to Google Wave" is the first book I have seen published about Wave. It is available online and for $6 you can purchase a downloaded PDF e-book. The book talks about how Google didn't choose Wave's name for the reason you might assume—as a play on the idea of surfing the web. Its engineers were paying homage to writer and director Joss Whedon's brief but well-loved science fiction TV series, Firefly (2002-2003). Very cool!