I think google is fighting the wrong war

[jkiley]

Several decades ago, Microsoft fought the war with IBM on OS, and won. Then they fought the war with Mozilla on internet explorer and won, then they fought the war with Goggle on search engine and lost.

Now, google is starting a war with MS on operating system. They will loose. Most of us who are in IM business know that it is not the product, it is the marketing and user base. Microsoft is 20 years ahead of google in OS teritorry.

When internet started, microsoft couldn't see the value in search engines and google saw the opportunity and seized the market. Now, google is trying to get into market which microsoft dominates. Instead of this, they should focus on "future" technologies, or some other company will come and beat them. Instead of focusing on future, they are focusing on past.

Operating Systems is a past thing, search engines is the current thing. Some 'X' will be the future thing. Whoever gets into 'X' today will be the winner in the future. If they spend their skills, and money and time in the past then how are they going to win the future?

[Aljiro]

I don't think Internet Explorer defeated Mozilla The war is not over

BTW I don't have a stand yet about the OS thing but I agree that MS is ahead on the OS thing.

[kentaiwan98]

That's exactly what Google are doing... don't assume their OS will look anything like the one you've got now. With all their properties, they're not going to directly compete with MS, not on the Desktop at any rate. They're planning to outflank MS on the Internet Side of things: They're planning to take enterprise customers, too. So they have no real choice but to take on MS.

I think they're being quite sensible: building on what they've got, developing their strengths and playing for a whole new range of devices. If MS doesn't get its s**t together, they'll be left on the sidelines. Look at the range of offerings n the mobile side of things: MS barely matters there at all because they were late to the game.

With a lot of services going online, experience doing the first Google OS, gOS, an effective browser that is cross platform, and increasing ability to tie all of their products together, I think that Google could be well placed to become a serious contender in the future. MS would be ill-advised to ignore this threat: if anything, Google is much more dangerous than either IBM or Netscape/Mozilla ever was in terms of its potential to steal real mass markets that haven't been fully realized yet, fund its growth and outmaneuver its opponents.

Google isn't fighting yesterday's war: it's fighting tomorrow's already.

Kenneth

[Steven Carl Kelly]

Google is ahead of the curve, not behind it. They're preparing for the day that the internet IS the OS, not something that runs on your PC.

[Bill Farnham]

Microsofts' OS is so bloated it's almost worthless. Look at what they did with Vista. It's total crap interspersed with a few good ideas. There's no way to clean up the code in any meaningful way.

When XP came out it was reported that if you printed the code out on standard letter size paper it would stack as high as the Statue of Liberty.

Look at the code for a website built with Frontpage vs a modern website software such as Dreamweaver. There's no comparison.

When Bill Gates said he missed on the internet phenom he wasn't just talking about the opportunity, he was also referring to that code that MS uses.

There is almost a universal cry for a new OS that is streamlined and allows the USER to do what they want to do vs what the SOFTWARE wants the user to do.

It's about time somebody understakes the task, and Google understands what people want a whole lot more than MS does. And they own the data to prove it. Hence, they would be the natural company to accomplish the task.

This isn't about going backwards, it's about moving forward. MS can't, won't, and isn't in a position to create a product to displace its' flagship OS. Window 7 is probably nothing more than a different color lipstick on the same old pig. That's how MS operates.

Future technologies will require a new platform as a base to provide structure that allows for growth. Personally, I'm hoping for Google to pull this off. My new machine uses Vista and although I had heard all the horror stories about that OS I had no idea what a piece of junk it was until I started using it.

Good bye MS, hello something better.

KJ

[Steven Carl Kelly]

BTW, Windows 7 kicks ass. And I don't like MS in the least.

[Bill Farnham]

Originally Posted by Steven Carl Kelly

BTW, Windows 7 kicks ass. And I don't like MS in the least.

Care to elaborate?

KJ

[metafever]

I don't agree with this assessment. (marketing wins the war) while it might be true in IM, its not in OS technology.

I think there is a evolution in technology in general.

People care less about the name and more about functionality.

I went to best buy and saw a ton of these little laptop tops that look like big phones.

Windows is no where to be found and they are much cheaper.

Their purpose? to email and get online.

The trick for any OS is going to be compatibility with THOUSANDS of software out there (not marketing).

I tried to use a Mac one time, but I failed to make the switch because of 50+ tiny pieces of software that I use for SEO / PPC etc.

If there would have been versions of all those small software made for Mac (or a way to effectively use them - with out heavy mods) I would have made the switch instantly.

again - its the useability - not marketing that will win the war.

[zoobie]

seems like lots of people don't like MS... their OS personally think is really crap. Bill gates just copied the ideas of Unix and replace whatever programs they have in Unix to pre windows stage called DOS. IE is the same. They just copied from Mosaic. a Unix web browser... But their codes sucks... leave too many loopholes for hackers to hack in. So why there are many virus or so called trojan horse. All exploit the loopholes found in MS... It;s a pitty.

[BurgerBoy]

Look at the code for a website built with Frontpage vs a modern website software such as Dreamweaver. There's no comparison.

There is now. Fp had a name change to Expression Web 2 and it is now on steroids.

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I have both Dreamweaver and Expression Web 2 and Expression Web 2 is far superior to DW and much faster too.

I work with php in it all the time.

Amazon.com: Microsoft Expression Web 2 Upgrade:...

[Steven Carl Kelly]

Originally Posted by Killer Joe

Care to elaborate?

Really hard to do in a post. Download the latest release candidate and try it out for yourself on one of your extra machines, or check out some of the vids.

[paulgl]

Steven Carl Kelly....Google is ahead of the curve, not behind it.

People who discounted the internet 10 years ago, are now catching up.

Microsoft has been way late on the web and search front.
IE has followers because it is bundled.
10 years ago netscape WAS the browser of choice.
They lost out, but regrouped. AOL found out the hard way.
Firefox IS the browser of choice for those who have and
want a choice. Look at blackberry, palm, etc. All have
a semi OS. Google recognizes the fact that each and
everything will be done online, from wordprocessing,
data storage, etc. You will turn on your computer and
be online. Google recognizes this and is getting an early
start. People are looking at this the wrong way. Google
is not trying to overtake windows, but to be the so-called
OS of choice when it comes to being online.

When google has a dud, it is gone forever. When MS
makes a dud, people remember. MS has a ton of haters-
but-users as there is little alternative. People remember
vista, windows me, etc. and they are not fond memories.

I'd say the google brand is now a super brand. Much like
MS was in the early 90's. But the internet has been bad
news for MS. They remind me of the US auto companies.
Rapidly becoming a dinosaur as they are stuck in PC mode.

Paul

[Steven Carl Kelly]

I'm enjoying my Google Voice service, I can tell you that much.

[Wakunahum]

The assumptions that I don't like in most of these discussions is that every time someone makes a product/tool it's not always their goal to "win".

Firefox for example was a group of people wanting a more secure and easier to use browser instead of having to put up with Internet explorer. I love the product and will use it whether 100% or 1% of internet users approve of it. They would have continued to work on the project even if it wasn't adopted main stream.

Things like the new google os or whatever are there to offer choices to the market. There are places and times to use various tools, browsers, operating systems, etc. and the more we have the better tool we can use for the job in the way we personally use tools.

Google has come out and explicitly said that they aren't making chromium to conquer other operating systems, so it's not always the goal to "win."

I think it's great we have lots of groups competing and trying to create new and better things... especially when these creations are free to use.

[shooting_star]

microsoft browsers are so full of holes i stopped using them a long time ago. Use firefox instead. Microsoft OS is weak and i can only wish a company like Google would come out with an OS at a fair price that isent crap. One thing we have to remember above all else. In the beginning Bill Gates had the vision and the will to see what needed to be done and he did it. Without Bill Gates And Microsoft where would the world be right now with home computers and even the internet? of course thats just my opinion but i give credit where its due and i also call em like i see em

[IMcruiser]

I'm looking forward to it. The OS as it stands now needs a lot of improvement. The only issue I would have is the amount of control Google would have, they track as much as they can even now, Imagine if they controlled your OS. They could literally see everythjing you do.

They might not do it but I can see a fair amount of targeted advertising creeping in on just about everything we view or do

[Peter Adamson]

Originally Posted by Steven Carl Kelly

BTW, Windows 7 kicks ass. And I don't like MS in the least.

This is irrelevant. MS has never managed to dominate anything that was not an OS or where the OS could not be leveraged to unfair advantage. They lack the vision and imagination to do it. They cannot compete on a level playing field. Come to think of it, if they ever found a level playing field they'd probably fall over thinking it was tilted.

As late as 1996 MS was pushing MSN (it actually was a network then) as an alternative to the Internet. They actually believed that they could force people to abandon the Internet and use their network instead!!! They failed to dominate the web server market. They had a temporary victory with IE, again only because they could virtually force people to use it. They never made it in search. They never made it in mobile phones or personal entertainment. mPhone or mPod anyone? XBox is nowhere near a market leader in its field.

At present their core markets are being eroded by Linux, Open Office and a host of other products. When you propose enterprise server products to corporate accounts, they want Linux. If your product only runs on Windows servers this is seen as a negative.

Google is learning to dominate the cloud in the way MS dominated the desktop in the 1980's, with a cheap product. Postini is not as good a product as its enterprise scale competitors but it is free for small businesses and very cheap for large ones. A small business with up to 100 email users can host their email domain for free. They get free spam filtering, and the highest uptime in the industry. 100% email availability, you can't beat that. For free. Google knows what business wants. They are doing in the cloud what Citrix and MS are doing on the LAN. What is the difference? The only thing holding the cloud back is bandwidth. Where I live you can get 50Mbit Internet access for £35 a month. With the bandwidth limitation gone, there is nothing but uncertainty to keep people from hosting their apps with Google.

Don't forget that 30 years ago businesses bought source code and had software professionals compile it on their computers. When pre-compiled software came along, users were suspicious. It took time to get used to the idea of letting someone else compile your code. This is not longer a problem. Once users get accustomed to the idea that their data are safer encrypted on a carrier-class server run by Google than they are in their own offices, they will have less resistance to hosted apps. When there are no bandwidth limitations and no psychological obstacles, cloud computing will just happen. And who is ahead of and who is behind the curve in this new field? (Hint: they're in alphabetical order)

[askloz]

I think it's a load of crap, I haven't found it to be very fast at all. Mines already fast with 24GB DDR3 @ 1866Mhz, RAID 0, and i7 Quad Core. And no difference in application speed or boot up.

Originally Posted by Steven Carl Kelly

BTW, Windows 7 kicks ass. And I don't like MS in the least.

[Easy Cash]

Google's operating system is free isn't it?

Enough said.

As soon as you provide quality products that are free, and make money from other sources, your competitiors are forced to adjust.

[monsur]

As a newbie I got new idea from your post.
Thanks

[UBotBuddy]

At some point MS will be in this game for dollars. That is their motivation. They lost out on total world domination. They lack Trust.

Google on the other hand has significantly more Trust. They have not tried to back stab us with Extreme cost (most everything is free) and Bug riddened products (everything works pretty well).

Hmmmm, that is a formula for success.

Tacticality, it makes sense for Google to do this. Bleed their competitor(s) from another swipe of their sword.

Google is a new kind of Microsoft battling an old foe Microsoft (what used to be IBM).

When the new Google OS is available it would not surprise me if it weren't free, based upon the Linux engine and integrated with Chrome in a much better manner than Microsoft's Window model and IE. Which is still unreliable.

[loybond]

Originally Posted by askloz

I think it's a load of crap, I haven't found it to be very fast at all. Mines already fast with 24GB DDR3 @ 1866Mhz, RAID 0, and i7 Quad Core. And no difference in application speed or boot up.

I don't think it's a load of crap, but I don't think it's awesome either. I find it funny when people say it's "so much better" than Vista. It's basically the same thing, just "spun" - most Warriors should understand that concept. Vista 1.1 if you want.

[askloz]

I never said it was better than vista. As a PC Engineer by profession, I haven't noticed any difference, few little tidying up done here and there, that's about it. Other than that, no point in upgrading when vista does the job just fine.

Originally Posted by loybond

I don't think it's a load of crap, but I don't think it's awesome either. I find it funny when people say it's "so much better" than Vista. It's basically the same thing, just "spun" - most Warriors should understand that concept. Vista 1.1 if you want.