Google Gears. Never heard of it? You will. It will one day be as known as Microsoft Office is today. A good thing? Opinions will come, but one thing is sure: it is open source (free*). You may have already used Google Docs and Spreadsheets or Google Reader, if you have you will note it is limited to when you are online. If there is no internet connection, you cannot use the programs. Google Gears has been developed to do away with that limitation and so much more. Google Reader has gone offline thanks to Google Gears and we can be sure that more applications will follow (even gmail). What is more, this opens up a whole gambit of competition to Microsoft. Since it is open source, other companies can build off of what Google is doing and funding, and develop their own versions and modifications of their open source platforms.
If Google is investing in this technology and making it open source, you can guarantee that Microsoft sees this as a direct challenge to their monopoly on the PC.
You can read more here.
Some questions:
-Do you think this competition is healthy?
-Do you think that Google funding this gives it more weight?
-Would you consider using Google's alternatives to Microsoft's products? Do you already?
- Can you see a day when Microsoft is no longer the software giant they are today?
*Open source does not always = free, but it does allow for a much less stringent user agreement.
1 comment:
As I'm already trying to kick anything Microsoft (Office, Winblows, etc.) out of my home, I love this idea. I mainly use Open Office and haven't tried any of Google's stuff yet, but I have friends that have used it and love it.
As far as seeing a day when MS is no longer the monopoly, I don't think that's on the horizon quite yet. When Linux can catch up and get out of the geek domain and offer something more user-friendly (ie, less command line junk), then the sun will start setting. In the meantime, everyone is going to be using the Virus - I mean Microsoft - because of it's "user-friendly"-ish ways.
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