Comments on: Google pleads for openness

For all Google's missteps vis-a-vis open source, the company's dependence on and promotion of open technology is clear.

[MSSlayer]

Google believes in openness to the extent that they can turn it into advertising dollars.

They also believe in writing third rate apps that serve as a trojan horse to the idiotic masses who think Google is benevolent.

[jamesurquhart]

I'm sorry, but did Google suddenly decide to share the details of its own hardware architecture, or data center architecture, or even data center plans? Being an "open company" is a relative term, and Google is only "open" when it serves its purposes.

I'd love to see Google open source both the hardware architectures and management software code that they use in their data centers. THAT will "be messy, but its inclusiveness means that the barriers of entry are low, cost savings occur across the board, and the best ideas and practices will rise to the top, allowing companies to grow, become profitable, and benefit society as a whole..."

[farbuckle]

Matt could you explain how Google is open?

I go to their (monopoly) site and I type things into a black box. They give me answers, no explanation.

I download their closed source info, and it calls home when I use it, compromising my privacy in the process.

What, exactly, is open about them except their relentless attempt to commoditize others' technologies while keeping their own shuttered? Somehow "monopoly" and "open" don't go together in my mind.

[softwaredesignengineer]

Open??? Are you saying this because Chrome as your Alibi for Google's so called "Open source" contribution? For all the hoopla that Chrome is open source, there is just ONE (1, one) developer from the outside world who is not a google employee that is allowed to submit code changes.

Just because you can see code does not mean it's open source. Microsoft does the same thing with .Net. So they are equally if not more "open" I guess.