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The thing to remember about Google and software is that consumers don't see the vast majority of the software it produces and uses, from the distributed filesys
by compiler-guy 5mo ago
The thing to remember about Google and software is that consumers don't see the vast majority of the software it produces and uses, from the distributed filesystem colossus (https://cloud.google.com/blog/products/storage-data-transfer/a-peek-behind-colossus-googles-file-system https://cloud.google.com/blog/products/storage-data-transfer...) to an enormous number of other internal projects just as complicated as that.
It's user-facing stuff may or may not be great--and the consumer level flops are legendary--but that is only the tip of the software iceberg.
- taeric 5mo agoCertainly fair. But they have tried some amusingly ambitious projects that make it pretty easy to raise eyebrows. Stadia alone is enough to make me nervous on any efforts they announce that are ambitious.
- rossjudson 5mo agoStadia was pretty technically awesome, and also a rounding error on Google's overall engineering budget. "Ambitious" engineering means something very different inside of Google. Example: Spanner. Infra Spanner is correctly described as a "generational achievement". Very few people outside of Google have any idea that it exists, or what it does, and that's fine.
- taeric 5mo agoStadia was yet another platform that Google tried to make and failed. Yes, it was a rounding error in their budget, but that is largely the point! They have become a financing company that is looking for where to spend money to make money. That they are spending a lot of money on developers will only last as long as that makes them money. Again, this is not, necessarily, bad. I just don't trust them to make a software product that will survive outside of their garden.
- jimbokun 5mo agoLike the most widely used browser and most used mobile phone operating system?