On Feb 1, 2006, at 11:30 AM, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
Josh wrote:
--- [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
Personally, I have trouble imagining that Google
would want to get
into the Desktop OS business. Ubuntu isn't bad, but
the only way
anyone will profit is if they sell computers in
volume with Linux
pre-installed.
Try telling that to RedHat, or any of the other
linux distro vendors.
As the article states, one possibility is a version
of Ubuntu
tweaked for internal use. That would make more
sense. But they
wouldn't go to all the trouble of re-skinning then.
There has been talk about Google OS for a long time. It would be
extremely profitable for Google. They
could gather more data about users and provide lots of
additional advertising.
This presupposes that people are going to put the new OS on their
hard drives more than they are doing now. How are they going to get
people to do that?
They could release it as a secure (encrypted filesystem) distro on a
USB drive that used Google's back-end for storage, and would run either
hosted on top of Windows (already known art) or bootable on a semi-
modern PeeCee, either as USB only, or able to allocate part of the
HDD for
storage, or heck, a "full install" once people understood that they
could still do what they want and need to.
The thing is, Google would have better luck making Windows software
that accessed this new network. People are far more likely to
install new software than install a new OS. As for Goobuntu, if it
exists, I suspect it is for internal use:
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20060131-6087.html
Ask yourself, what's their market for YALD? Geeks? None of us would
tolerate such an invasion of privacy.
Yet all of us use Google now.
N00bs? They try Linux if a Geek helps them.
Or Google promises to end the days of malware on their PeeCee.
The efforts of Xandros and Linspire are just a drop in the bucket.
Ah, but erosion is happening in the markets dominated by Microsoft.
Erosion is a powerful force.
We live on land that has been changed over time by countless drops of
water.
Corporate customers? Those that try Linux typically put it in servers.
And 10 years ago, very few (if any) did so.
A few companies have tried Linux on desktops. Either way, no
company wants the kind of snooping Google is capable of.
