As early as May 1995, three months before Netscape initial public offering sparked the dot-com boom, Microsoft executives were worried that the nascent WWW could one day become a significant threat to the Windows franchise. Another memo is also making the rounds. This internal memo, written in 2005, argues that Google threatens Microsoft and the company's crown jewel, Windows.
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Member since:2005-07-06
Therefore, I don't see a big threat to MS from Google in terms of Google creating an OS or making the idea of an OS obsolete, but Google is a threat
But they can be a bigger threat if they offer the complete platform with linux OS.
Here is my dream:
1) Google brings out a linux Distro thats capabable of being both a thin client and a thick client (for power users, notebooks and offline usage).
2) The GDE (Google Desktop enviornment) can run on Linux (or even Windows to aid migration) but also completely inside a web browser (firefox).
3) They use a form of XUL to create network transparent apps that can run in browsers or standalone on a desktop.
4) the entire platform can be entirely managed by servers - this is the killer app for enterprises which you wont get with a huge monolithic OS like windows.
5) For non-enterprises, Google provides its own servers to host all apps, storage, games, email etc.
6) Google branches out into high end games and TV on demand via their servers.
Google ends up controlling the network and the content on them or IOW they win complete control and MS is locked out forever.
Member since:2005-07-06
Member since:2005-07-12
You are trading one monopolist for another. If history teaches us anything, it's that those with eccess power often abuse it in order to maintain it. Rather, once you are on top of the world, you'll do anything to keep yourself from coming down. Remember when IBM was huge and everyone hated them but loved MS? You may wish to see MS crushed, but please don't wish another company to become the grandious monopoly of the future. That's not good for anyone.
All the big tech firms are gearing up for the battle of the century because they all realize that if they win they'll own the industry for a long time to come. Let's hope that this time around no one comes out a clear winner.
Member since:2005-06-30
"Google ends up controlling the network and the content on them or IOW they win complete control and MS is locked out forever."
I hope your dream doesn't come true. You are hoping for a future where Google controls your PC, entertainment and software. A Google of your dreams would become a nightmare to users as well as Microsoft. They would control EVERYTHING you do on your PC, and not just the OS like Microsoft currently does.
You want to replace a company with limited monopoly (OS/Office) with a company that has a monopoly on everything? Do you really want a single commercial company with that much influence and control?
You general vison (Sun tried this) is great, but it's better when there's competition and where you can choose from a range of free, commercial, open or closed solutions.
Member since:
We are imagining a scenario in which Google turns into a sort of giant distributed mainframe, and what are now home PCs turn into thin clients hanging off it through ethernet, and what they run is something other than Windows or MS applications....
[snip]
As part of this, PCs must become totally different animals. The consumer hard drive vanishes? Probably. It gets replaced by network storage in your account. For all your mp3's? And notes to your girlfriend? I guess so, the scenario assumes you no longer have a PC in the form we have them today.
I think there's a middle road here: Just because web apps are getting more advanced doesn't mean we'll give up power/storage on the client side. First, because people don't always trust online storage and web apps. Second, because people still want to be able to work offline. Third, because bandwidth/online storage is still expensive, and transfers still aren't instantaneous.
When I can keep all my 30GB or so of data online and have access to them as quickly/reliably as access from my hard drive, I'll consider online storage for everything, but not until.
So things like our mp3 collections and pictures, we'll keep locally. Maybe we'll back some of that up online. (I'm becoming more impressed with Apple's iDisk/Backup stuff now that they're up to 1GB) Still, maybe in the near future, you'll find that e-mail clients become a thing of the past, in favor of web apps. Maybe we'll get to the point where you can sync your Word/Excel files to an online account and access/edit them through the web also.
I guess what I'm saying is, I don't foresee the thin-client/mainframe taking over home PCs anytime soon, but if there are lots of open standards and most things can be accessed through a web-interface, then what OS you're running becomes far less important. G-mail is G-mail, whether accessed through IE, Safari, or Firefox.
Therefore, I don't see a big threat to MS from Google in terms of Google creating an OS or making the idea of an OS obsolete, but Google is a threat. They are one of many factors that loosens Microsoft's strangle-hold on the market, and it's the strangle-hold, not the quality of product, that keeps Microsoft successful.