Comments on: Why Google Worries Me

By: Paul

Paul — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 22:04:46 +0000

with all due respect, I disagree with you about Android.

“While Android is based upon Linux, it is NOT a Linux OS. Android operates via a simple framebuffer driver – meaning no X Server.”

It IS a Linux OS because Linux just refers to the kernel. They are not obligated to use desktop userland tools. What is so sinful about coding their own userland if it works better for mobile?

And if you have these problems with Android, why recommend OSX mobile or WebOS? OSX mobile is more closed than Android and WebOS has its own userland built on Linux, just like Android.

Why not recommend a handset built on LiMo or the Nokia N900 built on a “real” Linux distro?

By: Tanner

Tanner — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 18:10:45 +0000

Thanks for the comments, Neil. Certainly some things have changed since April (like Apple’s shocking mind-games with iTunes syncing), but I believe my original comments about Android remain valid today. It’s important to see the Android comments as part of the larger article, as opposed to a stand-alone critique.

The iPhone OS is an invalid comparison to Android because it is not open source. When developers write iPhone apps, they must realize that they are bound by whatever requirements Apple sets forth. That is Apple’s prerogative as the complete owner of their OS.

Android is different because Google is building it off existing open-source components. As such, my complaints against Android are two-fold.

1) By creating a unique run-time environment for Android apps, Google is preventing Linux users from using Android apps (despite the fact that Android wouldn’t exist without Linux). I can’t necessarily fault Google for this – after all, they understandably want to control the distribution channels of Android software – but I find it very much against the principles of FOSS.

Canonical is working to circumvent this (see here, for example), but it’s unfortunate that this is the length current Linux distros have to go to in order to make use of Android software.

I am admittedly not enough of an expert in WebOS to know whether or not their FOSS attitude is anything like Google’s.

2) Android is more worrisome as part of the larger Google ecosystem, where Google is attempting to unify an entire human computing experience under the Google logo. Palm and Apple are less worrisome in this regard, IMO, because they lack web services similar to Google’s.

By: Neil

Neil — Sun, 09 Aug 2009 11:14:54 +0000

Some valid points, but you’re criticism of Android baffles me. Especially when when you go on to recommend the Palm Pre and iPhone. Both of which do not improve upon Android with regard to the criticisms you list.

Apple are constantly changing the sync process to actively prevent users syncing content without using iTunes – so that they can tie every user into their product model (as an iPhone owner and linux user, I can now no longer put any music on my iPhone thanks to OS3.0).

The fact that HTC, Samsung, Motorola and Sony Ericsson are planning Android phones this year surely means there’s some benefit to at least partly open-sourcing Android (okay, when you wrote this in April you may not have known that). Where are the devices by 3rd parties running iPhone OS and Palm WebOS?

By: Mats

Mats — Tue, 12 May 2009 14:51:34 +0000

“is Microsoft IE7 faulty or did Google intentionaly create Maps that would be difficult to view in IE7.”
Who knows? What we DO know, is that MS tried just that trick with MS sites, to “prove” Opera didn’t handle CCS correctly…
What goes around, comes around? :-)

By: Tanner

Tanner — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 15:47:27 +0000

As you can imagine from this article, I’d recommend something other than Chrome or IE7 – Firefox. :) Firefox is an excellent browser, and once you get used to plugins it’s hard to ever go back…

Regardless, thanks for the comment, Al.

By: Al Remetch

Al Remetch — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 17:27:34 +0000

This article is very interesting. Just last week on my blog I talked about the same thing. I and a lot of other people were experience major problems with Google maps when using IE7 but Google Chrome worked perfectly and much faster. My question was is Microsoft IE7 faulty or did Google intentionaly create Maps that would be difficult to view in IE7.

Bottom line, I’ve developed a habit of always choosing IE7 as a browser, but I’m starting to get into the habit of using Google Chrome more often.