[clug] Linux Google OS coming..

[Paul Wayper]

On 08/07/09 17:37, Alex Satrapa wrote:
> On 08/07/2009, at 17:23 , steve jenkin wrote:
>
>> Google is too good to *not* use ...
>
> I've been getting by quite nicely with iWorks (Pages, Numbers, Keynote)
> and Bing.com for the last little while.
>
> Saying Google is "too good to not use" is like saying, "crack is too
> good not to take..." Sure, once you start using it you just can't leave
> it alone. Best bet is to not start using.

Both these approaches ('too good not to use', 'do not get hooked') are the 
sorts of arguments applied to people don't know any better, or don't think of 
the consequences.  We also need to talk about the other 90% of us who don't 
impulse-buy whatever's advertised on a search page.

The purpose of Google OS seems fairly clear to me.  Make the web experience 
both blindingly fast and amazingly secure, and people will want to do 
everything via the web, which is where Google dominates the advertising space.

The thing that Google struggles constantly with is the speed of various 
browsers - IE's Javascript performance is lame, and it controls 40% of the 
browser market according to 
http://www.w3schools.com/browsers/browsers_stats.asp [1].  They also have to 
deal with various incompatibilities in rendering, and all the methods for 
working around these problems make pages larger and add to the delays and 
bandwidth.  Making an OS optimised for one task - browsing - with a really 
fast Javascript interpreter makes a lot of sense for Google.

And the other thing that drives people away from using the web is security 
fears.  Malware, spyware, and worms all threaten your privacy and make 
browsing inherently risky - having an OS that has absolutely minimal exposure 
makes a lot of sense.  There's still the risk of where your data is stored - 
man in the middle attacks, phishing, and the inherent 'where's that cloud 
again?' problem - that isn't solved this way, but fundamentally these risks 
are reduced when Google can lock down the control of both browser and OS.

The big question is: will they allow other apps?  Will you be able to run 
Firefox on GoogleOS?  If not, why not?  If so, then where do they stop?  At 
what point does it cease to be a customised Linux distro and start being a 
single application that happens to have its own OS to support it?  Will it be 
just a bootable image you can write to a USB stick or CD, or will you have to 
install it to a hard disk?  All of this depends on exactly how much Google 
want to work with the outside world.

Judging by Android, Wave, Code, Maps, and a bunch of other cool stuff that 
Google do, I don't think we have a huge amount to fear.  Yes, they have a 
corporate agenda.  But I think we'd know by now if they were going to suddenly 
decide to gouge everyone for advertising bucks and make their next trillion. 
When I look at Google's size and diversity and their manifest involvement in 
the world and FOSS, I think it's increasingly unlikely that they'll do 
something really ludicrous just to earn a buck - they're already doing that 
just fine with their existing policies.

In short: healthy scepticism is a good thing, but let's not go inventing 
conspiracy theories about evil empires just because we've been burned by them 
in the past...

Have fun,

Paul

[1] Why did I not hear the FOSS or Mozilla worlds explode with joy in February 
2009, when Firefox became officially more used than IE (at least, according to 
that page)?