

Chrome OS Could Offend The Open Source Community - quoderat
http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=t&ct2=us%2F0_0_g_1_0_a&usg=AFQjCNERTtLH3ohfD2mOmZcR7NES3CGjBA&cid=1388158606&ei=52VXSqi8LaGQ9QSY3f-CAg&rt=HOMEPAGE&vm=STANDARD&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pcworld.com%2Fbusinesscenter%2Farticle%2F168202%2Fchrome_os_could_offend_the_open_source_community.html

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indiejade
Maybe not "offensive," but it does seem unnecessary. To me, Google represents
everything on the _web_ , all of the odd links and connections between people
who want to communicate, be heard, get feedback about their ideas, etc. It
actually did make a lot of sense for it to release a web browser.

So even though its basic mission is something like "To organize the world's
information, digitally," I don't know if that should really extend into the
private sphere. There is a lot of private data that people want/need to keep
offline. Separating its over-arching "www" mission from its hyper-aware
"blanket snapshot" of all the live pages on the web would be really tough.

It'd be heading in the direction of Microsoft, where when you go buy a new PC
at the store, and they include all those stupid-annoying icons glued to the
desktop.

I'm probably a bit biased because to me, an OS
[<http://oss.zentu.net/?q=forum/1>] should be like the local agent, there to
help me have more control over what the Internet and its many ports have
access to, on my local machines, at any particular time.

This lack of divide (the Microsoft OSes and IE browsers) and the lack of
_separation of control_ by one business to so many facets of a person's
private data is one of the primary reasons MS was targeted for anti-trust
issues.

Anyway, if Google does end up releasing a truly open-source OS, I might
possibly link to it in the directory. . . (the Chrome web browser is already
linked). But taking into consideration the number of OSes already out there
(37 in my directory alone w/a few more in queue), it doesn't seem like the
wisest choice or business move.

Besides, with all of the new offerings and "stuff" it is working on, doesn't
it already have enough on its plate? For such a relatively young company, it
seems like they might be attempting to take on a little too much. Healthy
growth life cycles and all.

