OK, Google, it's about time you stepped up to the pinata and took a swing. You're finally launching your own operating system.
Maybe at last the proprietary monopoly will be shattered.
- I had hopes when Apple went with a BSD core. Apple let me down.
- I had hopes for the ReactOS project. They crawled off and died somewhere.
- I had hopes for Ubuntu. It doesn't want to play ball.
- I had hopes for Sun Open Solaris. They wimped out.
- I had hopes for Oracle when they adopted their own Linux. They're asleep.
- I had bigger hopes when Oracle bought Sun. Nope, they're still asleep.
So it's Google's turn. I'm 0.1% happier than I was a minute ago. Now, Google, here is what you can do:
DON'T SCREW THIS UP!!!
Here is my guide to Not Screwing It Up:
Market!
Plaster it! Saturate it! Find a new Billy Mays and scream it in late-night infomercials! As pitiful and pathetic as Microsoft's sorry excuse for marketing is, I expect the 26th and 27th richest people on the planet to be able to show them how it's done.
Do not mention Linux!
Normally, this is the kind of heresy that I would cut out my tongue for, but this time it's the right thing to do. This has nothing to do with technology; this is about what is in people's heads. Average consumers, if they've heard of Linux at all, have been force-fed 20 years of brainwashing FUD by Microsoft to the point where Linux = evil. Keep your brand name (Even John McCain praised "the Google"!) and "Chrome", that's enough. Wait until you've conquered the market, then wait ten more years, then if you want you can go "Surprise! You've been using Linux!" That's fine.
(And to my beloved brethren and sistren in the Linux community: put your ego away. This isn't about Linux getting desktop recognition, this is about breaking the global dictatorship. Details can come later, if ever.)
Expect trouble in the US!
You will be thwarted. Microsoft owns too much of the US government for you not to be harassed. So don't worry about the US market. Remember, the Metric system caught on everywhere else but the US, too. The US will be your toughest market, even without bought-off senators and officials throwing themselves in your way like salmon.
Ignore the siren song of asstroturfers!
Don't be stupid like a few other open source projects and listen to the thousand flaming trolls in a comment page - they are paid to derail you. Google, you have done very little wrong so far; what market share you've acquired, you've earned fair and square. Don't start doubting yourself now.
Fight for OEM!
On the shelf, installed systems. For sale. In stores. Commercial stores. Chain stores. Big Name Retailers.
Gooood luck, Google! No company in the history of business has had the battle on its hands that you have on your hands today.
If all goes well, within my lifetime I should be able to tell people on the street that I use something besides Microsoft and not have them look at me like I just beamed down from Mars sporting two heads.
That's all I really ask in life.
PS Yeah, I know, some of the assertions and assumptions I made here don't stand without citations, and they're not getting them. Being pedantic right now is a big waste of time.
Comments:
It's taken the massively flawed market a long time, but invisible hands on invisible keyboards, and holding invisible credit cards, are pushing back.
ivan
I'll start cooking those molotov cocktails you mentioned a couple of posts ago. There's a shitload of servers to burn.
If worst comes to worst, it has Linux as the kernel. Most likely it has GNU coreutils as well. That means I can install anything and build up the system the way I want. Don't have to use Chrome.
Going by historic record, Google does not do lock-in. For example, even though they have their own attempt at a Wikipedia rival, Google Maps will still link to Wikipedia if you're hovering over a location famous enough to have an article there.
...yeah, shattered and replaced with a new one!
"Going by historic record, Google does not do lock-in."
Yet. They don't do it yet, but the game changes once you have a majority.
I still welcome our new overlords, but I'll keep the rose-coloured sunglasses off and accept that this will simply be a "regime change".
It's just like I told you Obama-tards that a politician is exactly that foremost and anything else afterwards. Do you like how he's 180'd on almost every campaign promise he made? Surprised? Suits you right for being naive!
I'd like to quote a little Douglas Adams, if I might:
"Take me to your lizards."
"It comes from a planet of lizards?"
"No, it comes from a planet of people. It's just ruled by lizards."
...
"Because if they don't vote, the wrong lizard might get into office."
The background fact that any group will either be ruled by one member, or exist with a total disregard for the wellbeing of all individual members, doesn't mean that we should do away with groups. You just have to remember that the group preserves itself, whether or not that destroys any one member.
Ok, enough rambling. My point is that the Microsoft's trouble and Google's ambition don't mean that Google will displace Microsoft. We could always have the lucky, and unlikely, result of something more closely resembling a bazaar, or democracy, or pick your imperfect metaphor.
ivan
I suppose one could be all depressed because it's inevitable that one monopoly be replaced by another, but I'm just a bit psyched that the transition will not be seamless.
sorry bout that
ivan
Hey, thanks! That Prison Planet link is comedy gold! I especially liked this part:
"admission that Google were planning on teaming up with the U.S. government to use microphones in the computers of an estimated 150 million-plus Internet active Americans to spy on their lifestyle choices and build psychological profiles which will be used for surveillance and minority report style invasive advertising and data mining"
Yeah *wink wink* because people NEVER disassemble and build their own computers. But it's good to know where this stuff is coming from, at last.
You suck, Penguin Pete! Just back here you said you'd quit torturing yourself hoping for change that never comes, and here you are again with your Polyanna hat hoping the world will finally become your little Utopia! When will you ever learn?
OK, I'm done...