From 64271f903c43d7cf81603dd0d3ef5455f2c74b47 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Matěj Cepl Date: Mon, 22 Jun 2015 08:31:08 +0200 Subject: Current state --- _posts/do-whatever.rst | 70 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 1 file changed, 70 insertions(+) create mode 100644 _posts/do-whatever.rst (limited to '_posts/do-whatever.rst') diff --git a/_posts/do-whatever.rst b/_posts/do-whatever.rst new file mode 100644 index 0000000..2b06fc2 --- /dev/null +++ b/_posts/do-whatever.rst @@ -0,0 +1,70 @@ +title: 'Do whatever!' +categories: + - computer + - culture + - Own cloud + - privacy +date: 2012-06-12T11:47:33 +tags: +--- + +(I had this post in draft queue for a long time, but for a moment I +couldn't get into one of my code.google.com projects which made me +panick; it seems to be fixed now, but now when this panic made me to +finish this post, I will publish it anyway.) + +I know that I am probably too late to the party discovering that Google +had thrown their original motto down the drain. However, I would still +like to write down a couple of points on their way which were somehow +missed by most of bloggers and journalists. + +1. First sign that something is wrong came very soon after Larry Page + took over CEO position in Google (I don’t think there is a link, + project had to be prepared long time before) was when Google released + `Offline Google Mail`_ working only for their Chrome, although it + should be possible to create virtually same application using + platform-neutral standard HTML5 capabilities. Since then all talks + about Open Web and platform independence died, Dart came (and so far + fortunately doesn’t seem to make any waves), and almost everything + created by Google is if not Chrome-only, then certainly + Chrome-first-and-if-it-works-somewhere-else-good-but-we-don’t-care. + Not mentioning that I am with Firefox nightly constantly bombarded + with ads that I should upgrade to “modern browser”. + +2. Just months after Mr. Page took his throne, `Google codesearch`_ got + killed (don’t be mistaken, what’s there now searches only through + Android codebase now). I don’t think it cost Google much (after all, + if I understand correctly, they still go through all those pages and + index them), but it was clear signal, that Google fallen victim to + Apple envy and they turned their back on developers and want to be + mass-users company for those “normal” people. + +3. Of course, no whining against Google would be complete without + mentioning of Google+. From start completely closed and although + support for open API has been promised since start, it never + materialized (and probably it is not on horizon). Just by its + popularity among hackers it finally killed OStatus and status.net + (noise of shatters banging in empty status.net accounts is really + deafening). There seems to be still some life in Diaspora, but one + wonders for how long now, when its users will never come (I am + afraid). It isn't about privacy (that's relevant, but something + else), but about trust. It seems to me that trust is getting to be + really most important currency on the Internet for long-term growth + and many (I should probably mention Facebook here, right?) don’t get + it. I thought that Google did get it, but lately they seem to loosing + tons of trust every action they make. And although trust could be + supported by `sharing and giving back`_, in the end deed shout louder + than words. + +Friends of the free software used to have a friend in Mountain View. I +am afraid, that we have lost one friend, and although I believe in +possibility of repentance even on the dead bad, I honestly not expect +anything than final turning of Google into AOL. Good luck and hope we’ll +meet again on the crooked paths of the computer development. + +.. _`Offline Google Mail`: + https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/ejidjjhkpiempkbhmpbfngldlkglhimk +.. _`Google codesearch`: + http://google.com/codesearch +.. _`sharing and giving back`: + http://magazine.redhat.com/?s=Alan+Cox -- cgit