Apple’s recent iPad announcement has sparked not only commentaries on its design, but also deeper reflections on the increasingly strained relationship between computer interfaces and innovation. Will the abstraction of interfaces and data kill off homebrew and how will that affect digital creativity?

Yesterday, Google released its highly anticipated Chrome OS, which pledges to revolutionize computing by moving every piece of data, from your personal documents to your applications, from your hard drive to the Web.
To this innovation, I say: “My money goes in a bank but I keep my data on a drive!”  Read on to learn about the history behind Google’s strategy and the great perils it poses to the freedom and vitality of computing.