Google's own operating system?

Do you think that Google will put up their own os in the next few years? They could base it on UNIX/LINUX and build it for ease of use. Because otherwise they have to go through the painstaking task of writing software for Vista (and Microsoft won't be too happy with that and will make sure Google software is incompatible)

^ Anyway that's just a bit of speculation. I think that Google will just have online documents and spreadsheets etc. That way Microsoft can't really stop them. Google has always been into competing with this sort of thing, what do you think? Will Google build it's own os any time soon or will they do it the easy way and just do everything via the internet?

Nah, everything's going online ... that's the strategy. Google doesn't need an OS on everyone's machine, they just need servers for people to log into. As has been proven by MySpace and countless other websites, people don't mind storing some personal data remotely. The near future is all about server side apps and data storage with people using smaller and smaller always on devices as gateway's to the servers and little more.

haha... isn't it a little dodgy making everything server-side? :D ... it sounds like they're trying to take over the world. I certainly don't trust it. Not everyone can get broadband so it seems a bit stupid.

I'm always suspicious of this 'thin client' approach. That's how mainframes worked back in the 60's. It's like reversing the microcomputer revolution.

Why should they write an own OS? It's a pain in the butt to write an OS that is compatible with all those hardware out there unless we're speaking of Mac OS X.

Well at least with everythig remote, backups won't be an issue anymore for home users, nor virus killers, it'll alll be handled by google. However until Internet transfer rates rival current HD rate (i.e not for a little while) it'll be a bit crap for some things for sure. Imagine compiling over the net, yuk!

No. fedora/redhat are doing quite a good job of linux so far, but it's a very muddy pool to go for a dip in.

Linux sucks :-P
It's actually that simple ;-)

..once things become hard to resist so I will have to leave my personal data online in to 'someones' server, I will leave 'civilized world' and purchase about 10 sheeps, and live in peace with it..anyway, as John said..I just dont belive and trust that someones will take care about MY personal data, whatever it is, better than me..thats all..it seems that globalization crap going to hit microcomputers expansion..so far I can see its going to happen most probably on PC since its guided by M$ sickness...luckily I am already on to MAC, but I'm wondering will that happen over there..whatever it is, they cant globalize my 10 sheeps..

I -want- google to make their own OS with all the cool things I want in an OS and none of the bullcrap. But it won't happen.

Google is the only company I would trust to completely run my life. I wouldn't mind storing any kind of personal data with them, because I trust them to use it for -more- than sending me ads. I don't mind getting ads if there is also some content I get from it.

I'm not a very private person. I keep oodles of personal info online as it is.

Wasn't google one of the companies which censored according to the chinese government? Didn't they also submitt userdata of those who surfed censored sites to the government? Really sounds like a trustworthy company to me...

Yeah. Heavan forbid they compromise and bring google to the masses of china, rather than letting them block their address to all of china. That makes them SUCH bad people. They would have been censored in china either way. Least now the chinese people have the chance to work around the censorship rather than no chance at all.

I've often mentioned to people that there should be a Google OS, perhaps called Googlix? It's not so much about trusting the other Linuxes out there, it's more about Google having more weight and thus more chance of pulling it off.

@DampeS8N
Buddy they are not better or worse than others and like with any other company i would not trust them to store my personal data from my computers, remotely.

These client-server storage/computing models pop up every few years but i don't see it coming this soon, if ever...

No one ever bought them but at least SUN built some nice looking client machines for this concept.

They ARE better than other companies. They treat their employees very well, they do their best to not be evil, and they create things that people actually want, or otherwise are interesting and new.

They don't sell crap for an arm and a leg, they don't treat their customers like bags of money, and they do there best to find non-invasive ways to make money from people. In fact, they focus heavily on having the few who have, paying for the masses that don't.

I don't pay to use Google Desktop. I just have to see easily ignorable ads on the sides of the search pages.

Obviously I wouldn't trust google with my... Social Security Number, or the ability to access my bank account. But then again. Tons of people trust Visa and Paypal with both of those bits of information. If google had their own credit card company, I'd gladly trust them with the information they need.


In other words. I trust them to keep their word on things. I don't worry about google not supporting google desktop anymore, or one of the few products that they actually sell.

On the other hand, I don't trust Sony not to bend me over a barrel whenever they get the chance. I don't trust Visa to not screw me over, infact, I know that they do and I have no choice cause all the credit card companies do. My credit score isn't perfect, why? Cause I pay my bill in full and don't just make the minimum payment. I'm what they call a "Dead Beat".

When I talk about trust, that is what I mean.


Question: Why doesn't google have a system where they store your data and info exactly as you don't trust them to do?

Because they can't deliever it now in a way they can be trustworthy in. They don't do it, cause they can't make that promise and be sure they can keep it. That is why I trust them.

The problem is that google is just part of the system and they want to be successful and appear as nice guys to everyone. They simply agreed too quickly to what the chinese government was asking for. Storing data on usa computers under their creepy laws and so on...nah...doesn't make me feel comfortable.

You are too paranoid. I bet you think the US government is hiding info on aliens and UFOs too.

Nope as they would be way to silly to really hide it.

they would have to change it massivly from how most linux's work right now. For example, you cannot expect a typical home user to partition their harddrive, they just won't do it. Also, all the drivers will need to automcatically install, and the other problem is software support needs to be there, so they either need to reverse engineer directx, or make their owna nd convince games developers to port everything over to it.

Ok Mr. Andersen, go back to your hovercraft!

..I do agree with Taumel...I cant imagine how naive peoples is whos belive that their data is safe in someone elses 'hands'...manipulation with such a data can be pretty much what will every government do if they NEED it...I'm pretty sure there is no government body who will leave their data and sensitive 'personal' data about their activities and staff on such way, and I'm pretty sure they will like to have others data available on such a ridicioulsy simple way...so, basically i like to keep privacy on the place where it should be...private..

NA. So you don't have a credit card, bank account, you don't work and pay taxes or anything like that? All of those things reveal FAR more sensitive data than things google might want. Like your IP address, home address, phone number, or some such.

Seriously. You all give the government way too much credit. They have a 2 party system and can't get both sides to conspire against the public properly, how do you think they are going to do something as complex and keeping track of EVERYONE's personal data?

I dont have credit card, I have bank account, my taxes is payed by company I'm working for, anyway, I didnt mean on that type of privacy..ask M$ to leave on Google or anywhere else full source code of their Vista OS, away from their personal archive ways...yes they will do that..ahaaaaaaa

Are you drunk NA? You lack a certain... whats it called... decipherability to what you are saying.

That thing you said about Microsoft. Total Gibberish. Which isn't like you.

wait until next 3 beers..:)

After those 3, send me all your money. You can trust me. I'll give it right back.

LOL

heh, don't see the point of swapping MS for google. It would be nice for a couple of years and then go all pear shaped once they had established themselves.

Also, who said MS don't treat their employees well, I have several friends that work for them, and they love their jobs and all the perks you get.

Microsoft is a good company. Maybe they're a bit over the top concerning DRM but which software developer isn't these days? There are just 2 good desktop OS (Windows for PC and Mac OS X for Mac) out there and just 3 good server OS (Mac OS X Server, Windows 2003 and BSD).

Now who's being naive? You think your data is secure on your computer? What do you think the government (like say the secret service) will do if they need it? Ask Steve Jackson.

I didn't say anything bad about microsoft. But it isn't the DRM that bugs me. It is the fact that there are no real differences between XP and Vista that ammount for anything.

Yeah yeah. Pretty shiney Graphics. But there is still no good logical search tools, no proper tags, the same tired broken metaphors and they didn't even impliment things like leafable windows or anything that uses that 3D backbone. Least not that I heard of.

Google wouldn't do that. First, they would run the OS off a google desktop index and allow you to tag your files and use the search results much like a folder. That would be a dream. And they would include lots of other new or newly perfected ideas.

..well..if you trying to proove me that my data is less safe on my comp, or way I keep them safe than in someone else hands than byte me..I love this Duck..

Using Search to organize everything is over-rated.

Everyone except me makes a horrible mess out of their files as it is; how will Keywords and Tags help that?
They hardly name files properly, they definitely won't Tag them properly.

Besides that, what about the confusion that then erupts as people get confused as to whether a folder is a Dynamic Search folder or a regular directory? (Thus deleting files that look like copies, but are actually just listed in many places at once).

It is a nice thought, but hard to adjust to and really just another way to encourage horrible organization.

Don't get me wrong: A system that made it more easy and efficient to sort stuff would be good. I just don't think it is all achieved by this new-fangled "SEARCH, don't organize!" stuff. Search should work off to the side like it does now; it should not be in the middle of organization.

I think a great innovation would be a text parser that differentiates between titles, content connected to titles, subtitles, names, etc. (To finally achieve that fancy sci-fi thing where all sorts of data is easily found and presented via computers using simple commands).
Google and Microsoft have big budgets; I'm sure they could do it to improve their current indexing and searching tools.

"Besides that, what about the confusion that then erupts as people get confused as to whether a folder is a Dynamic Search folder or a regular directory?" Easy fix. Just don't have regular folders anymore. No need.

It isn't about searching and not organising. It is just multifaceted organisation. It is no different than the folder method.. I mean..

What. Do you thing there are physical folders inside your computer? No, it is all held in a big index. A proper search/tag system would load just as fast and be capable of FAR better ease of use.

think. something like the Ipod.

I read that google have own linux-based OS - but for google servers.

I think it not useful to do have a online OS. It is much complexer and slower, than run a OS on my own machine.

With Vista you can add you USB stick as pseudo-RAM. That'd be enough for me to get it (if I wouldn't save up my money for an iMac).

Google will go Linux. Distributor yes its a possible. :)

what's kindof funny, is that the chief of Vista in Norway was on webtv, and showed off Vista... on an iMac.. :p

I think we can all agree that our data isn't safe from the government. Having it hosted by a company is slightly different/dodgy though. Flameduck, you should read about Jeremy Hammonds for an interesting story about police raids :D ... scary stuff. If the fbi or whatever come to your door, throw your harddrive into a microwave (or so I've heard, I think I'll stick with magnets as theres less explosions involved)

Anyway, the Linux based Google OS strategy would be good. If they made it easier to do everything and offered free stuff I'm sure people would be interested. But hey, why not do the online-avoidance strategy as well and give Microsoft a nice two pronged attack? =)

Look. If anyone knows anything about building an OS and/or running an open-source community project. I have some fantastic design ideas and theory for the 'perfect OS' from a completely user interface design perspective. Which is the important part in my eyes. Better to work and be underpowered than to be powerfull but unusable.

So Like I ask sometimes. Mail me if you know about building an OS and wanna do that.

A co-worker of mine recently had a very big problem with Google.

Someone somehow managed to scrape his email address from a google group even though he had it set to private.

Before he knew it, he was subscribed to a whole bunch of *questionable* google groups (Without his permission. Didn't even email him to verify.)

His complaints to Google went unanswered for several days. Not even a form letter.

Then he got one from someone at Google that said it wasn't their problem.

Then another one that started asking all sorts of questions about the problem (which is more or less a back-pedal)

Every system is fallable.

Yeah. I didn't say google was God. I said I'd trust them to run my life (The world). Far more than I trust... well... God.

hihihihihii..

The best os in the world is absolutly Workbench 3.X. 256 colours etc.. only 4 floppys.. and it can do all windows can almoust. And dont need 1 ghertz to start.