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panzer77
May 6th, 2005, 01:39 AM
This Fortune article “Gates vs. Google” got me doing a little pondering.

http://www.fortune.com/fortune/technology/articles/0,15114,1050065-1,00.html

How could Hybrid Linux distribution with an integrated Google or Beagel search tool change how we use our operating system. Could a company like Google, powered by 250,000 Linux servers give Linux the push it needs?

“Google's Linux cluster currently processes over 150 million queries per day, searching a multi-terabyte web index for every query with an average
response time of less than a quarter of a second with near-100% uptime.”

form: http://rakaposhi.eas.asu.edu/f02-cse494-mailarchive/msg00138.html

The Fortune article ends with some interesting thoughts... This one really got me going down this road.

“beating Google is the same as beating any of Microsoft's previous challengers. It's still about writing software that is easier to use, and the easiest-to-use software is always the kind that's integrated with what people already have-like Windows or MSN. Gates says that when Microsoft is done integrating search into future versions of Windows and Office, the world will look back at the way we are now "Googling" for stuff on the Internet and laugh. "The idea that you type in these words [in the search box] that aren't sentences and you don't get any answers-you just get back all these things you have to click on-that is so antiquated," he says, later adding, "We need to take search way beyond how people think of it today and just have it be naturally available, based on the task they want to do." For example, if you wanted to look up a factoid while you were writing a document, you might search for it without ever leaving Word.”

Just wanted to provoke a little discussion.

Thanks to all the folks that have worked so very hard on ubuntu. I love it! Maybe we could see something like Gotu – (Hybrid Linux, Google+ubuntu) with an Google/Beagel type search engine. :idea:

Psquared
May 6th, 2005, 01:46 AM
My personal opinion that Linux is moving ahead faster than Win-Gates ever will be able to. The combination of opensource, the community, improvements, and companies like Google will eventually push M$ over the edge unless they change the way they do business by opening Windows sourcecode. The funny thing is, if M$ did that Linux would not die out, but it would become anachronistic.

jordanau
May 6th, 2005, 04:05 AM
For example, if you wanted to look up a factoid while you were writing a document, you might search for it without ever leaving Word.”

First off, Oo.org developers, you HAVE to allow for text highlight and websearch in all of your apps now. Secondly, that is an excellent article. I suggest everyone read it. It is nice to read an article that is professionally written and not a windows or Gates bashing. I dont think that Google should make a linux distro. The article discusses that different companies that succeed in competition with microsoft do one thing and one thing well. They don't try to be everything to everyone. This seems to be a common thing for ubuntu as well. They arent out to take over the entire linux world.

I love google. It is a great company and they make browsing the web that much better. At the same time, google would probably profit from a linux distro by making it ad supported like everything else. (That could be WAY off, but everything else is ad-supported, why would they not make it?)

Google should continue what they are doing, writing simple but kick-software for the internet.

Its like football (American football), how many games have you watched where a team has a great strategy for the first three quarters and is winning. Unfortunately, next thing you know, they change their strategy in the fourth quarter and lose the game. Why should google change the strategy that got them where they are. Its the business "hedgehog principal" - innovate and continue to change, but make small changes that are not too far away from what you already do. If you make computers, don't start making motorcycles tomorrow, make something related to what you already do) It seems like common sense, but think about the different companies that go down the tube as a result of pouring millions of dollars in R & D trying to be something they are not.

weekend warrior
May 6th, 2005, 08:45 AM
The article is interesting. Thanks for linking it panzer77. Google's experience maintaining their huge linux cluster and their need for speed and reliability and obvious search functions might give them some interesting ideas for a distro. Dunno if I'd like using a distro with the http://www.google.com/images/logo_sm.gif logo on it though :-k I certainly wouldn't touch it if it were ad driven. Two things I picked out of the article:
"Microsoft can play its old game to compete with Linux and Apple. It has to play Google's game to compete with Google." The context here was undercutting Netscape, making Explorer free and bundling it. Then he went on to say it wouldn't work here because "Google is already free." So I thought, with Apple he might have a point, but with linux...? Seems to me the same thing mentioned later on about Google also applies to linux and ubuntu "it's their game to lose".

The other thing I caught was more ominous sounding.
The thinking is that the more a search engine knows about who is searching, the more accurate the results will be. That sounds pretty spyware-ish, very 1984-ish to me.

jayded
May 6th, 2005, 08:53 AM
All Google end user desktop tools seem to only be developed for Windows.
It doesn't seem likely that a desktop linux distro from Google would happen any time soon, if at all. Now a google linux server distro, that would be interesting...

panzer77
June 18th, 2005, 01:42 PM
Update: New link to an artical on GooOS (2004)

http://www.kottke.org/04/04/google-operating-system

SparkyDawg
June 18th, 2005, 02:05 PM
I doubt Microsoft can beat all of its enemies, it has so many. :-x

sonny
June 18th, 2005, 04:02 PM
I doubt Microsoft can beat all of its enemies, it has so many. :-x
That's correct... that is way he hasn't beat Linux, cuz there's so many distro's out there, if a project goes down, some-one else picks it up and put it an other name, that's why WE ARE INVENCIBLE :grin: ... well my opinion here is that if google lunches an OS ad supported it would be easy to erease those ads cuz we were going to have acces to the code, but I DO think that their OS could be google linked, you know a search tool at the panel, you can decide wether to look in your PC or in the web, and when you look in the web there will be ads... anyway, more competence aginst MS wouldn't hurt us, cus we all know google's OS would be Linux based.

skoal
June 18th, 2005, 04:41 PM
That fortune article was one of the best I have read in a long time - and page after page you keep wanting to read the next. I think the best line from the article was:

"In fall 2003, Microsoft briefly considered buying Google, only to realize that [...] Microsoft would have been left to explain to the world why it was now running a search engine built entirely on Linux instead of Windows." Priceless...

Distro? Why of course, yes. I for one welcome my new google distro overlord! Once it's launched, I'm sure their Windows apps like Picassa and Desktop search will already be integrated. sweeeet...

\\//_