Google Shuts Its "windows" blames windows OS for security breaches.....

[mahesh2k 0]

Actually, I dont agree that if its free it'll kill the economy or the product. Look at it this way. When you work for a closed source product for which you get paid, I see the money as the main compensation that you get. But, when you work for a open-source product out of your free time, you get a special happiness out of it. I'd say for all the open source developers, this far outweighs the financial compensation that they would get for it and they'll put in lots of effort, probably making a product superior to its closed source counterpart in much lesser man-hours.

Does this happiness from open source buys food for family ? Does this happiness help pays the rent,bills ? Does happiness from open source helps economy at all ? What if tomorrow people start to demand free logos and design, why not give them for free ?See, once this free thing is entered in mindset customers hardly bother to pay for it. This hurts economy a lot. Creating something free for recurring solution does prevent irritation and saves time. But creating everything free as counterpart for commercial project is indeed hurting economy. I think this is going off-topic but let's carry on wrt google's action.

In my country, once people start to get taste of free they'll demand everything free that is associated with that thing and will never pay for labor in programming and installation or support. I know this mindset in people of my country and that is why i hate this free OS concept. I'm sure like my country there are many other countries who have people with similar mindset will come up with excuses for money and hardwork of others.

Upto certain extent open source/free does help but if it starts to affect economy then it's not worth it. Though even if google moves to linux nothing new will happen as there is freedom for google employees to use OS. Their work involves in web development and not on desktop apps(some exceptions) so unless some sites need it they don't advocate certain platform and language. Some of google's projects use C#, ASP.NET while some projects use python and java. That way, google is working on most of the languages and platform. Even if they decide to move to another OS, their work will revolve around multiple platforms and language cause they want to serve people and make money with it. They'll not just move to another platform killing another entirely. Then again, i don't know its about promoting linux or something as some of the other here post cause they failed in their OS project(though they got netbook offer from sony there is not much progress in their OS). I see no reason they'll waste their money on linux projects that don't convert into profits. Funding to projects that doesn't give financial returns is foolist business,it's like digging their own grave.

[The Simpleton 2]

Hmm now the discussion is shifting towards whether or not open source is beneficial to the economy or not. I'll just say a quick thing regarding this. Open source fans will fiercely maintain that it is very beneficial to the users who cannot afford to pay for quality software (either that or they do not want to pay). Commercial software vendors will say that they are losing their business due to the open source market which doesn't earn much and is ruining the game for everyone else. Wouldn't it be better if there was some sort of balance between these two communities? The pricing would come under control and at the same time people wouldn't be restricted for choice at any given time. I'm not sure what this "balance" means exactly, but it's a small possibility that could help both the communities support each other.Coming back to google, it's not as if they've ditched Windows completely. They're just trying out new measures to increase their security and it's a good decision that they've taken. Mac already gets a lot of publicity on its own, thanks to Apple.So let Linux hog the limelight for now

[magnafrost 0]

Does this happiness from open source buys food for family ? Does this happiness help pays the rent,bills ? Does happiness from open source helps economy at all ? What if tomorrow people start to demand free logos and design, why not give them for free ?See, once this free thing is entered in mindset customers hardly bother to pay for it. This hurts economy a lot. Creating something free for recurring solution does prevent irritation and saves time. But creating everything free as counterpart for commercial project is indeed hurting economy. I think this is going off-topic but let's carry on wrt google's action.
In my country, once people start to get taste of free they'll demand everything free that is associated with that thing and will never pay for labor in programming and installation or support. I know this mindset in people of my country and that is why i hate this free OS concept. I'm sure like my country there are many other countries who have people with similar mindset will come up with excuses for money and hardwork of others.

Upto certain extent open source/free does help but if it starts to affect economy then it's not worth it. Though even if google moves to linux nothing new will happen as there is freedom for google employees to use OS. Their work involves in web development and not on desktop apps(some exceptions) so unless some sites need it they don't advocate certain platform and language. Some of google's projects use C#, ASP.NET while some projects use python and java. That way, google is working on most of the languages and platform. Even if they decide to move to another OS, their work will revolve around multiple platforms and language cause they want to serve people and make money with it. They'll not just move to another platform killing another entirely. Then again, i don't know its about promoting linux or something as some of the other here post cause they failed in their OS project(though they got netbook offer from sony there is not much progress in their OS). I see no reason they'll waste their money on linux projects that don't convert into profits. Funding to projects that doesn't give financial returns is foolist business,it's like digging their own grave.

I do not agree that open source is ruining the economy. Say, tomorrow if I decide to make a software and give it out for free instead of asking people to pay for it, am I ruining the economy ? No. In case of open source, there is a balance. They've consciously made a choice. They chose to compromise on the price for the sake of advancement. Do you really think its ever possible for as many people to work on a Firefox or Linux if it is not open source ? For the sake of technological advancement, both routes have to be followed. Windows has its own strategies and innovations that are adopted by Linux. Linux has its own advantages too. It is upto the customer to decide which one he wants. The companies cannot blame open source for spoiling their market because its their job to beat it. Come up with features that are so powerful that people choose you over free alternatives. You cannot honestly expect everyone to pay for every single software they use. There are paid versions of everything! Right from email to blogs to development tools and everything else on the planet which has a free alternative. If people are looking for a minimal set and are not looking for reliability, I dont see any reason why they should pay for an expensive commercial software. For instance, all that my parents use in Microsoft Office is Word, and all they use in Word is text, font formatting and tables. Office is too big for them and Wordpad or Notepad too minimal. OpenOffice is perfect for them as it just doesn't make sense for MS Office. Is it not the same as free vs paid blog hosting ? Just because free blog hosts are there, it does not mean the paid ones disappeared. Its a healthy competition. No single company can give a challenge to the big players on their own. Microsoft had started stagnating, and Linux came in with competition which made Microsoft go up a notch. I hate Vista. I love Windows 7. You know very well that it is even more true in the case of browsers. IE was starting to get hopeless and Firefox changed the picture completely. IE is just catching up and is doing very well now. Can you imagine getting stuck with IE6 now ? Its hardly a few years behind but seems like ages.

But yes, like he said lets stick to the topic. Marketing is definitely not the reason google chose Linux. Its just increasing the focus on using Linux machines which makes perfect sense. They'll just make a more conscious effort in choosing the OS which is good for everyone. In case this triggers a competition for more security the way it was for browsers, and Windows emerges the winner, I'll be more than happy.

Phew. My longest post so far

[The Simpleton 2]

I still stick to the old school when it comes to gaming. Windows windows and more windows! Pressing the windows key mid game and shouting at your friends to pause the game while you struggle to get back kind of appeals to me But seriously, get dual OS on your system. Use linux for everything, and windows for gaming. You'll be happy I promise

 

Usually whenever I mention using Linux, I also say that I do have dual-boot and use it rarely; I guess I forgot to put in that line this time My Windows 7 PC gets a very rare visit and that is only when I'm too bored with everything else. I don't dare to connect to the internet when in Windows because somehow it just feels too vulnerable, and more importantly, too slow.

 

For a company like Google, which has a racing spirit, the slow Windows isn't a good choice at all

[rpgsearcherz 5]

Usually whenever I mention using Linux, I also say that I do have dual-boot and use it rarely; I guess I forgot to put in that line this time My Windows 7 PC gets a very rare visit and that is only when I'm too bored with everything else. I don't dare to connect to the internet when in Windows because somehow it just feels too vulnerable, and more importantly, too slow.

 

For a company like Google, which has a racing spirit, the slow Windows isn't a good choice at all

 

I tried the dual-boot thing but it didn't work out well for me. I play games too much so I was on Windows more than Linux.

 

So then I tried WINE -- a few games worked, most didn't.

 

So then I virtualized Windows inside Linux. Slow, laggy games.

 

So sadly I've made the full-on switch back to Windows, although I do have my Ubuntu CD sitting right in front of my monitor, taunting me for making the wrong choice.

[magnafrost 0]

Usually whenever I mention using Linux, I also say that I do have dual-boot and use it rarely; I guess I forgot to put in that line this time My Windows 7 PC gets a very rare visit and that is only when I'm too bored with everything else. I don't dare to connect to the internet when in Windows because somehow it just feels too vulnerable, and more importantly, too slow.

 

For a company like Google, which has a racing spirit, the slow Windows isn't a good choice at all

 

Thats the perfect combo! Windows 7 and Linux give you maximum security and flexibility. But .. does the OS really make that much difference w.r.t speed ? Both from client side and server side. I would have thought they'll be pretty much the same .. no ?

[rpgsearcherz 5]

Thats the perfect combo! Windows 7 and Linux give you maximum security and flexibility. But .. does the OS really make that much difference w.r.t speed ? Both from client side and server side. I would have thought they'll be pretty much the same .. no ?

The speed is very, very different. Windows 7 brought them a little closer together but Ubuntu is still way ahead of it.

For example, Ubuntu can do full boot-up in 14 seconds (from power on to fully loaded desktop), on systems where Windows 7 takes 36+ seconds to do the same.

Loading programs is faster on Ubuntu due to better memory management and the fact it organizes your files in a way that no fragmentation can take place (which Windows 7 does not do).

But at the same time, write speeds are faster on Windows 7 than Ubuntu (in terms of the HDD -- discs seem about the same).


Overall they are very similar when you consider that for each thing one does faster, the other does something else faster as well.


One interesting thing I find about Ubuntu is that the 32 bit version recognizes 8 GB's of ram still. It doesn't manage it properly (it blocks it off into Int blocks rather than differentiating between char, float, etc.) but it still has the ability to use all of it.

[magnafrost 0]

The speed is very, very different. Windows 7 brought them a little closer together but Ubuntu is still way ahead of it.
For example, Ubuntu can do full boot-up in 14 seconds (from power on to fully loaded desktop), on systems where Windows 7 takes 36+ seconds to do the same.

Loading programs is faster on Ubuntu due to better memory management and the fact it organizes your files in a way that no fragmentation can take place (which Windows 7 does not do).

But at the same time, write speeds are faster on Windows 7 than Ubuntu (in terms of the HDD -- discs seem about the same).


Overall they are very similar when you consider that for each thing one does faster, the other does something else faster as well.


One interesting thing I find about Ubuntu is that the 32 bit version recognizes 8 GB's of ram still. It doesn't manage it properly (it blocks it off into Int blocks rather than differentiating between char, float, etc.) but it still has the ability to use all of it.

You are right. But I was actually talking about it from google's perspective.

For a company like Google, which has a racing spirit, the slow Windows isn't a good choice at all

How does it matter to google how long your system takes to say , boot up or save a file ? So, I'm talking about things like latency and load times. True, if google is running windows one server might support 1000 requests(just making up a number) but linux might support 10,000. But i see that more as a cost issue than a speed issue. I'm wondering about difference in load times between, say, the following 4 scenarios.

1) Google Linux Server -> Client Linux machine
2) Google Windows Server -> Client Linux machine
3) Google Linux Server -> Client Windows machine
1) Google Windows Server -> Client Windows machine

Here I'm talking about everything from google search to gmail to gtalk to even other IMs like trillian.
Edited July 13, 2010 by magnafrost (see edit history)