Google has a new browser, called Chrome. That’s now old news. The Wall Street Journal recommends that it’s all about taking on Microsoft, and it’s probably right. Glyn Moody cogently argues that this isn’t about browsers at all, but rather about shifting the ground under everyone’s feet to the “Google operating system.” He’s probably right, too.

Chrome, however, lacks the very same thing that Android and every other Google product lacks, with the exception of its Search/Page Rank technology:

Community.

Mozilla Firefox has community in spades. Mozilla isn’t the one developing killer extensions to Firefox like Adblock Plus, Forecastfox, etc. The community does.

Even Microsoft has community in spades, though on the operating system side of its business, not its browser. Look at the ecosystem around Windows and Office: pretty impressive.

Google, however, seems to want to go it alone, whatever the collateral damage. It is telling that Chrome was a secret leaked and then announced to the world, rather than a transparent, community effort. Google did the same thing with Android, creating a closed-door community that left would-be Android developers riled.

Does it matter? Or is Google powerful enough to take on Microsoft by itself, community or no community?

… Source:The Open Road

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Google has a new browser, called Chrome. That’s now old news. The Wall Street Journal advocates that it’s all about taking on Microsoft, and it’s probably right. Glyn Moody cogently argues that this is not about browsers at all, but rather about shifting the ground under everyone’s feet to the “Google operating system.” He’s probably right, too.

Chrome, however, lacks the very same thing that Android and every other Google product lacks, with the exception of its Search/Page Rank technology:

Community.

Mozilla Firefox has community in spades. Mozilla isn’t the one developing killer extensions to Firefox like Adblock Plus, Forecastfox, etc. The community does.

Even Microsoft has community in spades, though on the operating system side of its business, not its browser. Look at the ecosystem around Windows and Office: pretty impressive.

Google, however, seems to want to go it alone, whatever the collateral damage. It is telling that Chrome was a secret leaked and then announced to the world, rather than a transparent, community effort. Google did the same thing with Android, creating a closed-door community that left would-be Android developers riled.

Does it matter? Or is Google powerful enough to take on Microsoft by itself, community or no community?

… Source:The Open Road

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Most lists of “companies to watch” are put together by the PR firms that shout loudest to the writer. “Ten open-source companies to watch” by John Fontana over at NetworkWorld, however, strikes me as pretty interesting, on balance.

It’s also a great testament to how far we’ve come …

Source:The Open Road

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Google has a new browser, called Chrome. That’s now old news. The Wall Street Journal advocates that it’s all about taking on Microsoft, and it’s probably right. Glyn Moody cogently argues that this isn’t about browsers at all, but rather about shifting the ground under everyone’s feet to the “Google operating system.” He’s probably right, too.

Chrome, however, lacks the very same thing that Android and every other Google product lacks, with the exception of its Search/Page Rank technology:

Community.

Mozilla Firefox has community in spades. Mozilla isn’t the one developing killer extensions to Firefox like Adblock Plus, Forecastfox, etc. The community does.

Even Microsoft has community in spades, though on the operating system side of its business, not its browser. Look at the ecosystem around Windows and Office: pretty impressive.

Google, however, seems to want to go it alone, whatever the collateral damage. It is telling that Chrome was a secret leaked and then announced to the world, rather than a transparent, community effort. Google did the same thing with Android, creating a closed-door community that left would-be Android developers riled.

Does it matter? Or is Google powerful enough to take on Microsoft by itself, community or no community?

… Source:The Open Road

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While it’s significant that the Mac has risen to nearly 8 percent market share in operating systems (with Windows dropping from its lofty heights to a still-lofty 90.66 percent), according to Net Applications, I find the iPhone’s rapid increase even more impressive:

iPhone Browser Market Share Climbs …

Source:The Open Road

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Keeping Warm with The North Face

(Credit: Matt Asay)

I’ve noted before that when it comes to my hands, I’m a wuss. Last year I found the first pair of gloves that actually kept my hands warm: The North Face Patrol glove.

While I still consider that glove the gold standard (among Mountain Hardwear and other brands I’ve evaluated), I really liked the North Face Vortex II and North Face S.T.H. gloves that I evaluated this year, as well, though for entirely different reasons.

Skiing last month in Las Lenas, Argentina, the weather was perfectly suited to The North Face S.T.H. glove for the first day: relatively warm, spring-skiing conditions. The North Face S.T.H. glove is the glove you’ll want to have when shoveling snow, but also the one for spring skiing or simply when loading up the car at the end of the day.

North Face Vortex II Glove

The North Face S.T.H. glove is water-resistant with a highly breathable Apex ClimateBlock stretch shell. This means it will keep you warm and dry in milder conditions, but not for much of the rest of the season.

The S.T.H. is also a super-supple, contoured glove, which means you can actually do things like dial a number on your mobile while wearing it.

The North Face Vortex II glove, on the other hand, will keep you warm on much harsher conditions, like my second day at Las Lenas where the resort received roughly nine feet of new powder (plus a fair amount of wind to keep things cool). I found that the HyVent two-layer shell kept my hands dry despite swimming through a heck of a lot of powder, and I never felt cold.

Given how wimpy my hands are in the cold, this states a lot.

… Source:The Open Road

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Mozilla’s Mitchell Baker somewhat nonchalantly noted on Tuesday that Google and Mozilla have renewed their vows for another three years. She should have ordered serious fireworks.

Why? Because Google’s beneficence has allowed Mozilla a tremendous amount of leeway in figuring out a way to sell Mozilla’s open-source …

Source:The Open Road

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The open-source dilemma

(Credit: Matt Asay)

At the Utah Open Source Conference yesterday I presented a dilemma. Briefly, the idea is that as open-source buyers grow comfortable with open source they’ll stop spending money on open source. This leads to tragedy of the commons-type problems and a difficulty in encouraging the creation of more open source.

I therefore asked the question, “Who will pay for open source in the future?” I (and the audience) recommended that the problem might resolve itself over time as enterprises come to recognize that their failure to replenish open-source communities with either cash or code may come to harm the code commons from which they derive increasing amounts of value. I also recommended that Eclipse, Mozilla, and other non-profit foundations provide an answer.

Lastly, I recommended that governments might get involved to shore up funding for open-source software development. As I noted, governments derive huge benefit from open source (and from IT spending, generally). Why not fund more of it?

Europe cares about open source. Why not fund it?

(Credit: Matt Asay)

I did not, however, have a clear idea as to the right way for this to be done. France, as noted in InfoWorld recently, suggests a way, as does TechDirt, which suggests that military spending could create the next Silicon Valley (so why not an open-source Silicon Valley, given how much the US military is buying into open source?).

France, the second largest market for open source outside the United Says, does a range of things to promote open source, but its focus on open source for the rising generation is perhaps most important:

… Source:The Open Road

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Novell beat Wall Street’s estimates with a solid third quarter, but the real story is in its continued Linux growth. Net revenue rose to $245 million from $237 million in 2007, but Novell’s third-quarter loss quadrupled to $15.1 million from $3.7 million in 2007. The company …

Source:The Open Road

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Mozilla’s Mitchell Baker somewhat nonchalantly noted on Tuesday that Google and Mozilla have renewed their vows for another three years. She should have ordered serious fireworks.

Why? Because Google’s beneficence has granted Mozilla a tremendous amount of leeway in figuring out a way to sell Mozilla’s open-source …

Source:The Open Road

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