Last weekend I finished a home project I've been slowly working on for several months. I finally finished converting all the CDs in my collection from physical media to digital files.

My world is slowly but surely moving online, and I'm not alone in that change. I have several hundred books which I obviously can't view digitally, but once a decent viewing device using digital paper comes along (and by decent I mean I can use it safely in the bath) that's only a matter of time.

All these digital formats will be played and viewed on an amazing variety of devices, and Linux and other Free Software is the ideal platform to power them. None of these things will be a traditional “computer”, in the conventional desktop sense of the word. I'm in a privileged position here at Google and have been able to get my hands on a pre-release version of the “Android” phone. This phone is an amazing multi-function device, powered by Linux and Free Software (http://www.google.com/mobile/android). It's a music player, web browser, video viewer, and GPS positioning device, which also happens to make phone calls. Lest you think I've changed jobs and gone into advertising for Google, it reminds me a lot of my existing Nokia 770 Internet tablet device except that device can't make phone calls without a WiFi connection.

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