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First, How does this have anything to do with the alt-right? That's just a distraction from your argument that we shouldn't criticize the actions of Google bec
by batty_alex 8y ago
First, How does this have anything to do with the alt-right?
That's just a distraction from your argument that we shouldn't criticize the actions of Google because they give away some research. Google, and others, have turned open source into a free marketing campaign. Most of it is only open source in the "source available" sense.
You could fork it, but the sheer size and magnitude of insider contributions makes it as useful as packaged software that came with source code.
- jacksmith21006 8y agoIt appears a lot of the negative Google stuff I read is driven by emotions upset with the alt right thinking they are against them. Seems to have started with firing Damore. I have ZERO problem criticizing anyone. But if we look at all the tech companies there has never been any tech company that give away more IP than Google. Nobody even close. So my post is a lot more about removing the social politics emotions and look at actual data. It is crazy giving away Borg and the K8S trademark. But Google has open sourced so much stuff. We have five OSs today. iOS, OS X, Windows, Android and ChromeOS. Two are open source. Yes I realize there was a OSS of Apple OSs but that is NOT what is used today. But then Chrome and well so many other things. But look at giving away Map/Reduce and GFS and so many other things in papers. I tire a bit of the bitching on HN and really worry Google will end giving away stuff. It is hard to see why they continue. There is little in it for them.
- scarface74 8y agohave ZERO problem criticizing anyone. But if we look at all the tech companies there has never been any tech company that give away more IP than Google. Nobody even close. Google only "gives away" IP that isn't part of their core business - just like Apple, Amazon, and Microsoft. Where is the code for Google crawler and search algorithm? Gmail? Google Play Services? The back end for Google Docs?
- jacksmith21006 8y agoWould argue nothing is more core than Borg. So would disagree. I do think they are holding back some stuff and a big one is SDC stuff. Plus we do not get the info until next release. So we got gen 1 TPUs after Gen 2. We will probably get gen 2 details with gen 3 release. But Google shares so much more than any other tech company. I think possibly ever?
- scarface74 8y agoWhat has Google open sourced that would put it at a competitive disadvantage if a competitor uses it? Android? Earlier on they really didn't have a choice if they wanted to compete with Microsoft with the OEMs. When they became basically the only game in town for device manufacturers, they closef off much of what made Android Android to most people. Even Apple open sources stuff when they want to gain traction in a market as does Microsoft. How is Google's strategy any different from Microsoft's and Netflix's? It would have been unthinkable a few years ago that MS would open source .Net and make it cross platform or gone through the trouble of creating Visual Studio Code that supports almost every popular language.
- jacksmith21006 8y agoAndroid and Amazon using for the Echo and much of their hardware?
- scarface74 8y agoGoogle didn't have a choice but to "open source" Android to compete for OEMs against Microsoft. But as soon as they gained dominance, they started closing off more and more of what makes Android what it is to most people. Look at how many of Google Services are not only not available on Amazon devices, Google actively blocked YouTube from being on Amazon devices. Besides, Android itself doesn't make Google money - advertising and to a lesser extent Google Play does. Why else would Google pay Apple $2 billion a year to be the preferred search provider on iOS?
- 8y ago
- virgilp 8y ago> We have five OSs today. iOS, OS X, Windows, Android and ChromeOS. > Two are open source. Did you just ignore the likes of Linux & BSD? :D (I mean, there are plenty more OSes of course, saying "we have 5 today" is incredibly far from the truth; but I expected at least these 2 to sound familiar for most HackerNews readers)
- pjmlp 8y agoThere are so much more OS out there than a plain 5.