Comments on: Google Doesn’t Practice What They Preach For Open Source

By: stuart

stuart — Wed, 22 Dec 2010 17:01:43 +0000

For me google has the complete monopoly online for local search – local companies like yell.com no one advertises with them

By: will craig

will craig — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 22:32:49 +0000

to say that google Doesn’t Practice What They Preach, its a total joke comment

you talk about googles algo regarding search, a key element in there business, that keeps the business where it is, keeping this shut off from open sourse is the reason why your article was picked up in the first place.

If developers got at it, i would be reading articles about porn and corporate mince

the fact they are offering a free mobile software platfrom that 90% of phone manufacturers are taking up tells the real story

By: ned flanders

ned flanders — Sat, 26 Dec 2009 06:20:47 +0000

This is really a lazy and badly supported argument, so its perfect for link whoring.

“Google base their claim to openness on the fact that they have opened up the source code for the Android mobile operating system, ”

uh, no…. they dont base it on that. that is a recent development which no one takes into account.
I think the Summer of Code is a much better known occurence.

You see to be chasing 4 tails at the same time, are too lazy or uninterested to do 5mins of work.

Google is an open source company. Woop dee doo! Everyone is. Even Microsoft. Open is the new black. Microsoft even has TWO open source licenses so the meaning is totally watered down.
Many developers say that Google isnt open source when they really mean they arent free/libre software friendly and dont support the most popular open source license: the GPL (and all its variants) and its share with others mentality.
Google is not the GPL/free software’s friend but they are an excellent open source (and all its varied licenses) company and contribute upstream. They pay many top kernel guys like Andrew Morton to work just on the Linux kernel (which is GPLv2) and so on. I could name a dozen things that prove taht Google is a good open source contributor but I think its a waste since that would go in one ear….

We get the same story from developers when it comes to Canonical/Ubuntu and its poor participation in the kernel. It doesnt make them a bad free software company, its just taht some people (always) want more.

I dont think Google is a great free software/GPL company but in the (much) broader and distilled definition of open source, they are among the best.

Of course, I think whoever hired the chimpanzees who wrote this post shouldve known better but maybe they too thought that the Google algorithm-Firefox analogy actually made some sense.

Good thing marketing doesnt need any facts.

By: Russell

Russell — Fri, 25 Dec 2009 17:31:17 +0000

Well, it is certain that Google is executing monopoly business and there are a lot of business attitudes similar to microsoft,there
should be more options available so that we can avoid the feeling of being confined.