Below is the latest edition of #w3w, my free newsletter about decentralization. If you would like to receive it in your inbox every Sunday, please subscribe here.
My laptop died on Tuesday. In the aftermath, I’ve found myself doing something that has frankly surprised me.I’m switching to a daily setup that divides the old functions of my laptop between a desktop PC and… a Chromebook?!?!?
I mention this precisely because I’m usually pretty hard on Big Tech in this newsletter. And I expect to be so in the future, frankly.
All the more reason to pause a moment and, in all fairness, give Google some well-deserved (and definitely unsolicited) props for what I believe are the very real strengths of the Chromebook product line.
The most obvious one, which Google itself has often touted, is affordability. As a computing option that starts under $100, Chromebooks definitely have had a role in democratizing access to the internet. This is no small accomplishment on behalf of the general public, even if it’s perhaps easy for more technical users to discount.
The other biggie, which should be easier for geeks to grasp, is that Chromebooks run on ChromeOS, which is a customized distribution (or “distro” in IT lingo) of the open-source Linux operating system. On some Chromebooks, there are even options in the settings to enable a Linux command-line interface. Or if you prefer, you can hack Chromebooks to install other distros of Linux you want, as the hardware is Linux-compatible by definition.
In other words, Chromebooks could be viewed a huge win for popularizing Linux, which has always struggled to gain adoption as a daily driver among desktop users. If you’re a big Linux aficionado, as I definitely am, this is also no small accomplishment for the Chromebook line as a whole.
Hence my new setup: I’m going to use a desktop machine running Ubuntu, another popular Linux distro, as my daily workhorse machine. That is the really main replacement for my old laptop, a Dell XPS that came with Ubuntu pre-installed.
But for times when I need productivity on the go, my remote option will be a Chromebook. I won’t really be relying on it as my primary computer, as a lot of people do. But I figure it will get the job done for email, word processing, browsing, et cetera.
My only lingering qualm is the Chrome browser itself, which notoriously sucks up a lot of user data on Google’s behalf. To address that problem, I’m already exploring ways to install the privacy-focused Brave browser on my Chromebook as an alternative.
This seems imminently doable given Linux’s flexibility. Will update you on how it goes from here.
Week In Review: June 9-15, 2024
- The Federal Reserve signaled on Wednesday it will cut its official target for U.S. interest rates just once this year, a more conservative approach than previously forecast. The central bank’s revised approach, which is tailored to further reduce inflation in America, effectively discourages riskier market bets. Thus token prices fell following the Fed announcement, with bitcoin posting a 4% decline for the week.
- According to a new survey by the Bank for International Settlements, 94% of central banks globally are considering offering their own digital currencies. But most are focused on offering the tokens to wholesalers, while enthusiasm for retail-level currencies for consumers is shakier. (Decrypt)
- Both U.S. presidential candidates are courting the pro-crypto vote. Donald Trump, who called bitcoin a “scam” during his presidency, has now flipped 180 degrees on the issue. He met with miners in Florida and pledged afterward to reverse the current administration’s regulatory crackdown if elected to a new term this November. Meanwhile, Biden White House officials are expected to attend an industry roundtable next month hosted by Silicon Valley congressman Ro Khanna and billionaire Mark Cuban.
- Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino said in an interview with Bloomberg that the stablecoin issuer expects to invest more than $1 billion over the next year in financial infrastructure, AI, and biotech.
- Fidelity International joined JPMorgan’s private network for tokenizing real-world assets. Fidelity has already used the platform to tokenize one of its money-market funds. (Blockworks)
- Japanese investment firm Metaplanet disclosed its third bitcoin purchase, bringing its total holdings of the token to $9.4 million. Metaplanet shares jumped almost 10% Tuesday on the news. (CoinDesk)
- The startup TipLink is offering a new service to ease account setup for crypto newcomers. It allows them to set up an in-browser Solana wallet using their Google sign-in credentials, without installing a browser extension. (CoinDesk)
Odds & Ends
- Tesla shareholders voted to reinstate Elon Musk’s $56 billion pay package, which had previously been rescinded by a Delaware judge’s order. (CNBC)
- Australia is using drones and other technologies for early detection to combat a surge in shark attacks. Yay? (Washington Post)
That's it for now. Thanks for reading the newsletter today!
To reach me directly with feedback, a story suggestion, or something else, email peter[at]w3w.media.
Best wishes for a healthy and productive week ahead.
ion. If you would like to receive it in your inbox every Sunday, please subscribe here.