引用一篇国外评论Windows和GNU/LINUX

hpotaddict

Google vs. Microsoft vs. GNU/Linux

Truly interesting times are here and ahead for the whole information technology world and consequently the whole culture which is nowadays so tied in with it (the internet mainly).

We've been seeing an evergrowing and probably accelerating adoption of GNU/Linux pretty much everywhere with Ubuntu being the latest example of how penetrating GNU/Linux can really be.

We've been seeing Microsoft identifying GNU/Linux as a great threat and trying to battle it with disinformation (get the facts) just to seemingly soften a bit as part of the yet another attempt to creep in on us as the enemy and figure out how to compete..

All the time, another company has been building a "small" empire of its own set up in the virtual "clouds" of the net, pumping cash with simple and smartly unobtrusive advertising that is now everywhere on the web (including even this site), but ever-expanding to various other areas from this base, from desktop search to google talk..

And now, all of a sudden everything seems to be escalating as the fall approaches. MS suing Google over a very important employee, Google suing it back. Media shifts from the usual "FOSS vs. MS" to "Google vs. MS" story. Microsoft shakes from top to bottom reorganizing the whole company and announcing the retirement of the guy who led the Windows development throughout the years, who was responsible for persuading MS to integrate IE with Windows (resulting in an antitrust lawsuit and getting MS on track to the ultimate monopoly), the Jim Allchin.

I've been reading through CNET news alot lately and it's talking about MS big time, as well as Google. People in comments are mostly dissatisfied with whatever MS has to say on anything from Windows Vista to their reorganization and future, usually waging little wars between Mac users and Windows users (GNU/Linux guys are actually mostly absent although GNU/Linux does get mentioned as one of the preffered alternatives to the giants OS).

And besides all this I keep hearing rumors about Google, from it making it's own operating system (old one) to the latest I heard, that it develops its own file system (just imagine how could this, especially if confirmed, fuel the Google OS rumors).

One guy in a comment to the CNET story about Google building an empire to beat MS says:

Quote:
Surely, a Google Distribution of an open OS is going to be their
major move.

Ubuntu seem primed to be the first home user friendly distro. I
could see Google making a move on them in the near future,
and bundling Google Earth, Picasa, Google Talk, Google Desktop
Search, GMail and a Web Application Office Suite into it.

They could also make the distro available to x86, x64 and
PowerPC processors, meaning not only could you run it on AMD
and Intel machines, as well as Mac's, but in theory you could run
it on the Playstation 3, Nintendo Revolution and of course, XBox
360.


Note that this comment was titled "Google Linux" and was the very first comment to pop up on the "Google Empire" story. Maybe I got caught by a hype, but this prompted me to start this thread as it so nicely sums up (although no, I wouldn't like Google proprietary software on Free OS) what in my view seems to be the clash of the decade maybe: Google vs. Microsoft vs. GNU/Linux.

MS is being attacked on two fronts, by Google and by GNU/Linux, but if Google does the move so many seem to be "fearing", it would have what it takes to seriously, and I mean seriously, endanger MS's desktop monopoly. And this guy in a comment says no nonsense. Ubuntu, a distro still backed by a commercial company, could well become a base for the new Google's GNU/Linux distribution.

It may very well be a speculation, but I think we'd be crazy if we'd not at least consider the possibility and ask ourselves the question that should be the main theme of this thread: How can Free Software community use this setup to their, that is our, own advantage? What should we do and how should we act?

If the discussion turns out to be good, thought in this thread may be forged into a new cooperative article for Libervis.com published as next months Libervised column.

Thank you
Daniel

Posted on: 9/23 2:47:59