Warning to Steve Jobs: You can not win THIS fight

Warning to Steve Jobs: You can not win THIS fight

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-just like Microsoft launching Bing in response to Google's domination of the search market, Jobs doesn't really expect to "win" but the effort still must be made to place or at least show, least the competitor be granted the crown without challenge.

I personally like Google search and consider it the best thing to come along since sliced bread, however I am just not interested in going with The Cloud in a big way.

The future is likely in cloud computing. People won't pay for software... and technical means to prevent sharing will ultimately fail. They WILL pay for online data storage, cell service including mobile internet, real time backups for their stuff, etc.

OSX and Windows will probably both become niche products and die off, as will all proprietary software. Linux and/or other free software alternatives will serve as the portal to the "cloud," and that can't be changed. Apple will do fine with its line of ipods, iphones, and computers. Microsoft is the most vulnerable... they are all software. Microsoft Office is on its last legs already... Windows has a while still because of gaming and many apps that require it. Ultimately MS will wait too long but finally give office away for free on a cloud platform, but it will be too late.

joedymueller said:

If this OS does catch on it will have to have all the maintenance addons that windows currently has.

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Not necessarily so. I haven't read anywhere that you can actually install stuff on the Google OS. It could just provide a web browser, and the surface area of vulnerability would be miniscule compared to that of a monolithic OS such as Windows. The countermeasures to infection would also be much more specific.

The more of the maintenance that you can offload to the cloud, the less the consumer will have to do. The heavy footprint of MS software leaves a lot to break.

I think there is some under estimation of how narrow the profit margin is on netbook type devices. A large portion of revenue for MS comes from corporations which are not going to run out and switch to non MS products anytime soon, or ever as long as MS dominates the server market. If MS can make a few extra bucks putting Win7 on netbooks I'm sure they are happy to do so, but it isn't the end of the world if they lose this market share.
Also, for the portion of netbook users that want an OS not just an internet terminal, they will continue to use Windows. I wouldn't be suprised if MS is practically giving away Win7 Starter for free and then depending on 10% of those people to use Anytime Upgrade to make up the profits.


It is silly for Apple to go after Google, but I don't blame them for trying to protect their profits. It will be interesting to see how much market share the android phones pick up -- especiallly if there is a good selection of Free apps for them. If it gets the app support you will see iPhone market share to start to come down, or at the very least Apple's profits from the app store start to dwindle.

MS doesn't dominate the server market. Linux runs on more corporate servers than MS OS's, and their market share continues to grow.

You will never see Apple allowing anyone to buy a copy of the OS and install it. Think about it. They want you to buy their over priced machines to use the OS. If that restriction was lifted, hardware sales would plummet, much more testing, validation, and drivers would need to be written. Its just not gonna happen.

when giants like apple, Microsoft, and Google battle the only winner is you. They will under cut and try to buy your love for there software. Its the American way. The consumer (you) will always make out some how. I am excited to see the new Google chrome as I know most of you are, but linux is still not easy to use. The majority of users are apple fanboys or straight up Microsoft cause that is what they know. I am a newer Linux user and I have had to reteach, rethink my way away from the pack. But most won't. If apple picked a fight with Google then they have a war coming, and Microsoft will sit back and reep the rewards.....Quietly in the shadows. Google is scaring the hell out of major coperations with there into of google chrome and I for one will try it out.

usp8riot said:

I think he's old enough and wise enough to take care of himself and the company. Probably more than some random guy on a web forum.

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I'm inclined to agree.

We've all seen Apple pick up ye olde sword many a time and said "ok, come on".

They usually call it right though.

Almost every time I've seen Apple release a product I've thought "Ok, come on".

Every time their stuff sells like crack-- when crack was happening.

iPhone- I thought ok, that's stupid. It's a really high end PDA with a phone.

Sells like crack

New ipods every year that don't really offer anything new other than a few gimmicks

Sells like crack

I thought 'nobody's going to PAY for service packs' ie, OSX leopard, snow leopard.

Yes they are

Nobody's going to want a mac cube, or a mac mini, they're too weak, and most Mac users like heavy video work.

Wrong

Going X86 is going to hurt Apple

Wrong

Ipod touch is a stupid idea people will just buy iphones

Wrong



So, at a glance, I think, this is insanity. Nobody can compete with Google's ubiquitous, highly developed map features.
But then, Apple can call it man...

MRD said:

MS doesn't dominate the server market. Linux runs on more corporate servers than MS OS's, and their market share continues to grow.

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I should have put some context with that statement. MS doesn't dominate things like webservers, databases, etc. But they are squarely in controll of both the OS and server side of things like Domains and E-mail for corporations. MS makes mass adminstration of computers and users easy, you won't see an Apple or Google OS overtake that market anytime soon.

I'm not so sure of that. For example, my undergrad college is dropping its email system, which they've been running for over 20 years, and outsourcing college email to Google.

The type of mass administration of computers you discuss probably won't be necessary going forward, as local software will be minimal, and it will just be cheaper to outsource the whole thing.

College isn't really a good example because all the computers aren't owned by the university and connected to a domain -- they are individually owned and maintained by the students.

For businesses that own any large number of PC's windows really does provide the most practical way to maintain the computers. Even going forward in the future, businesses with mass numbers of PCs will always need a practical way of maintaining them.

I wasn't using the college as an example of maintenance, I was using them as an example of outsourcing email.

The point on maintenance is that the simpler and leaner the OS, and the more that is on the Google servers, the easier maintenance is and the cheaper it is. MS cannot compete with that.

DaveHCYJ said:

For businesses that own any large number of PC's windows really does provide the most practical way to maintain the computers. Even going forward in the future, businesses with mass numbers of PCs will always need a practical way of maintaining them.

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In many situations, possibly most, I'd agree.

There is a lot of business potential in virtualized desktops (VDI), thin clients, and similar technologies like GoogleOS... But there won't be a mad rush and replacement of desktop systems. For many tasks however, lighter alternatives which minimize the ongoing maintenance cost of a system are going to continue to look more and more attractive as businesses strive to get leaner.

After doing PC support for 5 years at a fortune 500, I can attest to the fact that there is huge potential for cost savings by downsizing the PC environment and using task oriented alternatives like the lighter technologies I mentioned above.

Having desktops in every office cubical is ludicrous - the maintenance, licensing, administration, and other costs are huge. Those who need mobilitiy should have laptops, potentially with good ol' windows on them. Everyone else should be working through some sort of appliance which does nothing other than provide access to a system hosted elsewhere - VDI, citrix, thin clients, GoogleOS are all targeting that opportunity. Ideally, the login would occur to a session, rather than a complete desktop environment hosted locally which must be managed and administered in a completely distributed fashion, like the old desktop PC model.

That said, there are still many very good reasons for having desktop PCs for certain purposes. The largest reason you still see a lot of this however is because people haven't yet figured out how to migrate to more sensible technologies in a non-disruptive fashion to current business practices.

I don't think most businesses can go totally thin client yet. I do think it is the future though.