> And so begins the destruction of Free software :(
>
> Moving to the cloud (using the linux kernel, no less!) will only make it
> easier to provide closed and proprietary systems to the user. Sure, they
> may be free as in beer, but try getting a hold of the sourcecode for gmail,
> or flickr, or facebook. You can't. Yet, these dominate the world of even
> GNU/Linux free software nuts. The web is not as open and free of a place
> that the world makes it out to be.
>
> All in all, a scary turn, and I fear that google is silently breaking its
> "don't be evil" mantra, though its doing it in the slyest and most profound
> way: By using free software against itself. I suppose it's time to do as
> Bob Elzer says and "be a real man" and set up dIMAP account on KMail...
>
> A sad day, imo,
> Ryan
The entire system will be open sourced, so everything necessary for innovation
will be available to developers. I've never really sold into the whole "Open
Source EVERYTHING!" mantra, I simply don't care provided the software strictly
adheres to standards. With the platform being the web, it will be sort of
difficult for that not to happen.
If you limit yourself to open source software, you're doing yourself an
injustice. Either way though, this means a lot more Google engineers directly
contributing to the Linux kernel and other important technology, so it's a win
for everyone. Not every company wants to open up their code, that will never
change, even if they become the minority. What ever happened to "Best tool for
the job"? I'm not saying web apps will always fit that bill, but making poor
choices based solely on an idealistic belief isn't particularly smart if you
ask me.
I'm personally thoroughly looking forward to trying the new OS, and I hope
they deliver considerable innovation - I've been using the same software
paradigms for 20 years, it's about time someone rethinks the operating system!
As an aside, I think current Linux companies will start to align themselves
with this new initiative... people like IBM, Oracle, and Red Hat must be
salivating knowing they already have the infrastructure and offerings to cover
a lot of what will be needed to manage and host custom web apps while not
having to compete with native apps on this platform. I predict everyone in the
industry not affiliated with Microsoft will be extremely happy, and I hope it
speeds up the adoption of many of the HTML5 additions like the canvas
functionality. There is no reason web apps can't be just as powerful as native
apps... especially with Native Client and Google Gears moving a lot of the
overhead onto the PC rather than sticking to the browser and server for
everything.
Then, nothing has officially been presented about the OS yet, just an
announcement, so only time will tell I suppose.
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