Micro$oft's needs (and methods) are different - they'd want to convert Window XP sheep into Windows Insert Name Here sheep so they can keep rakin' in the loot. Monopoly, anyone?
Monday, 15 February 2010
when you get real big
How I love the capitalist system - IBM used to be so big that it had to compete with itself. Now it's Google's turn, as Farhad Manjoo tells it on Slate.
Micro$oft's needs (and methods) are different - they'd want to convert Window XP sheep into Windows Insert Name Here sheep so they can keep rakin' in the loot. Monopoly, anyone?
Micro$oft's needs (and methods) are different - they'd want to convert Window XP sheep into Windows Insert Name Here sheep so they can keep rakin' in the loot. Monopoly, anyone?
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The author is confused. Google is not competing with itself; it's just doing its usual thing of throwing everything at the public and seeing what sticks. They have enough smart people and not enough of a clear idea of what to do, so this approach is what has worked best for them. The "competing products" he cites in most instances share much of the same code (and the same bugs); what they're doing is taking features from one and adding it to all the others, to increase their hold on the market.
ReplyDeleteMicrosoft, on the other hand, does compete with itself.
The IBM-Microsoft-Google progression is valid, though: Once upon a time, IBM ("Big Blue") was the big evil monopolistic company, and the young upstart Microsoft was much loved by IBM-haters. (Except the FSF/GNU folks, who have always been the only ones clear about principles.) Then it turned into a much bigger (and hated) monopoly than IBM ever was, and now it's Google turn.
One could split hairs but... yeah, and also they (Google's products) are free so there's no loss of revenue. Some great stuff 'stuck' like Gmail, but I wish they hadn't put some anti-privacy (publicity?) features as 'opt-out' in Buzz.
ReplyDeleteI think people equivocate 'big' with 'evil'. IBM and Google are big but aren't (on the face of it) evil, though Microsoft can be called that after trying to throw the (patent) book at Linux developers.