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The growing confrontation between Google and Microsoft promises to be an epic business battle.
The New York Times
The story "Google gets ready to rumble with Microsoft" published December 16, 2007 at 10:25 AM is no longer available on CNET News.
Content from The New York Times expires after 7 days.
"No, he says, there was no thought of a Microsoft takedown when, earlier this year, Google introduced a package of online software offerings, called Google Apps, that includes e-mail, instant messaging, calendars, word processing and spreadsheets. They are simpler versions of the pricey programs that make up Microsoft's lucrative Office business, and Google is offering them free to consumers.
Still, Google Apps aren't anything other than a natural step in Google's march to deliver more computing capability to users over the Internet, Schmidt says.
"For most people," he says, "computers are complex and unreliable," given to crashing and afflicted with viruses. If Google can deliver computing services over the Web, then "it will be a real improvement in people's lives," he says..."
"Tuesday, December 11"
"3 Things (and more) Elvis and OS/2 Have In Common"
http://techiqmag.com/2007/12/11/3-things-elvis-and-os2-have-in-common/
"Hey, IBM! Set OS/2 Free!"
"What's toughest about getting IBM to open OS/2 up, though, is the amount of third-party code within the system, which would have to be replaced or removed entirely. Some of that code is courtesy of, you guessed it, Microsoft, which worked closely with IBM to create some key portions of OS/2. (This happened back when there was some possibility that OS/2 would also form the basis for what became Windows NT.)
If anyone out there still has a toe or two in the OS/2 pool, speak your minds!"
http://www.informationweek.com/blog/main/archives/2007/12/hey_ibm_set_os2.html
It isn't open and free like Linux.
OS/2 Wart cannot compete.
IBM also poured 1 billion or more into Linux.
So they have an investment in Linux.
Wake up and smell the Linux kernel.
:)
It has no interest in OS/2
Why don't you move on also?
[b]? First, Elvis and OS/2 both are dead. Second, both are badly decomposed. And third, thousands of fanatics won?t let these two deceased entities rest in peace.[/b]
He forgot a couple:
* they both died amidst a lot of crying and puking
* the vast majority who liked them when they were alive would never publicly admit to doing so now.
/P
The above quote is so wrong.
I don't want what they say I want.
I want to do all things online and from my mobile, especially if I can dock it into a station and use a large monitor and mouse when I want.
Installing software and getting viruses and administering a clunky PC is so yesterday.
Microsoft is officially old fashioned.
Thanks to Google for their vision and innovation.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ksFqjI3gyAo
OS/2 beat Microsoft, Google and Linux hands down - OS/2 was way ahead of its time and the whole world knows this and the reason that it is on its way back to the desktop in particular where Linux has failed. It is the Operating System that 90% market share (Microsoft) fears the most.
Proof that Microsoft inhibits innovation.
Thankfully for the consumer Google chose to compete. I wonder how many other great services never came to be because of fear toward the illegal monopolist?
There is a large slew of products that where destroyed by Microsoft. But when you look at them, did Microsoft destory them or did they Destroy themselves?
Wordperfect...
Corel...
Novell...
Lotus...
Dbase....
Paradox...
Light Speed Pascal...
Wordstar...
Original Netscape...
I am sure the list is a lot longer but these pop to mind. And when I look at each and every case, 100% of the time the company did them selves in, and MS was there to reap the benefits.
They either a got to smug, and just assumed there market share would remain, or they just sat there and watched in Dismay as people moved to easier and better applications, and in many cases those came from MS, who saw something another company was doing and made it into the VW for the mass's.
Google has done well, but it turned out 60% of the issues I had with my system was due to google. To me it seams the past year google products have become less polished.
Strangely over the past few months I have used other search engines since I just could not find what I thought was simple in google, and more then a few times now I have hit seach only to get an HTTP500 error from google which left me scratching my head in dismay.
The new google desktop is a lot of nice push ad's to me thank you software. No thanks.
Googles money comes out of advertising and tracking, so there motives leaves me curious at times.
There APP's ? well How many people do you know that use them? Or even know they exist?
Schmidt? Well how well did he do with Sun? You know that company that every large enterprise had there HUGELY expensive servers? You know that company who's sales reps had multiple Harleys in there driveways one for Saturdy and one for Sunday? Where is SUN today? Its market being carved up by MS, and Linux.
Then Novell, you know Novell? You know that company that use to have 90% plus of the server market in the 90's? When being an MCNE was King? You know that company that bought WordPerfect? Wordperfect what?
So does Microsoft destory innovation? Or do they take Innovation and move it out to the mass's in a user friendly environment?
MS's only way to Destroy Google is to do it better then google. And only Google is master of there own fate.
I wish every want to be software giant would stop blaming anyone but themselves for there failure. Opera? Whats that.
Boycotting XP will take the oxygen out of MS. Maybe they will come up with a better OS than Vista.
I believe some player will arise who will have nearly equivalent services, but with contractually guaranteed privacy. Maybe it will be MSFT. Kim Cameron, the MFST identity guru, certainly "gets" the issue, and MSFT seems to be giving him the lead. We'll see...
Of course, they already have a bog-monster of a machine called Vista. I'm afraid if they add too much more to it to lock things in their favor, it's gonna bust.
Then there's this:
"[i]Google's push into the business market began in earnest only this year, but Girouard is already encouraged by the results. About 2,000 companies are signing up for Google Apps every working day, he said. Most are trying the free version. That's fine, he says, because those users also generate more search-related advertising revenue for Google. After a 60-day free trial, companies with more than 50 users are beginning to sign up for the Google Apps Premier Edition at a charge of $50 a year per user, which includes customer support. [/i]"
...ouch. 2,000 per working day. Do you have any idea how many marketing outfits would kill newborn infants with their bare teeth to get those kind of numbers... and make money off of each demo, no less?
[i]"Microsoft dismisses Google's optimism as wishful thinking."[/i]
Raikes, you're an idiot. A naive, blinkered idiot. Buying studies isn't going to get you the answered you [i]need[/i], it will only give you the answers you [i]want[/i].
I mean, when research firms are saying stuff like this:
[i]"According to Compete.com, a research firm, Google Docs is gaining popularity. It had 1.6 million users in November, seven times as many as a year earlier.[/i]"
***? 700% year-on-year growth for Google Apps' userbase is "wishful thinking"? Cripes... that's not 'wishful' anything... that's an explosion!
[i]"That's a nice lift, but the Microsoft Office suite, containing programs like Word and Excel, is nearly two decades old and runs on some 500 million PCs"[/i]
Err, not so fast, Hoss... Many of those Office installs are wildly incompatible with each other at the file format level ('95, '97, 2000, '03, '05(?), '07, etc). The cheap/freebie OEM installs of "Microsoft Works" don't really count as useful either. OpenOffice can open most MS .doc/.xls/etc files as well, so it's not as if everyone is going to magically start buying Office 2007 license packages.
[i]"Inside Microsoft, there are engineers and product managers who sound a lot like Googlers."[/i]
Err, wannabes need not apply. ASU ditched MSFT's offer because MSFT has too many irons in too many fires. I hope Raikes gets used to that phrase, because he's likely going to hear it a lot in the coming months...
/P
Do you even have 1/10000000th of a clue as to how often you get a product line that rakes in 2,000+ brand new potential customers per day with very little advertising to get 'em and near-perfect margins to boot?
Damn - I'd like a piece of that "dream world", please.
/P
Here's a fool or dreamer if I ever saw one. First, the day the small business can't fire up their app because a local utility company has cut through fiber optic trunk across the street. If this business relied on present day cloud computing they would be screwed. Service could be out for a week in such an instance, perhaps more. I know first hand, because it happened near my business during the dot com boom.
Second, try building relation database driven line of business app with today's online services. Not gonna happen my friend.
Third, there simply aren't enough applications suitable for running a business. Cloud computing is really still in it's infancy and will be so for years to come. I'd prefer to had the rich assortment of Windows applications (in the tens of thousands) at my disposal rather than rely on the meager pickings available on the Web today.
Cloud computing will happen, but as the saying goes it ain't ready for prime time now, particularly for vulnerable small businesses with lean pocket books.
* any web-based company is screwed anyway if the "local utility company has cut through the fiber"...
* You do know what the acronym "SLA" stands for, right?
[i]"Second, try building relation database driven line of business app with today's online services."[/i]
Just because [i]you[/i] are incapable... also notice that Google isn't trying to do that at all - they just seek to replace the ubiquitous (yet strangely expensive-as-hell if purchased from MSFT) commodity bits. Exchange replaced by GMail, MS Office replaced by Google Apps... that alone would let small businesses keep a very healthy chunk of money where it belongs - in their own bank accounts.
It also makes life far, far easier when the BSA (an org funded heavily by MSFT) shows up to extort a little license discrepancy settlement money. ;)
[i]"I'd prefer to had the rich assortment of Windows applications (in the tens of thousands) at my disposal..."[/i]
Such as?
Here's a clue: Very few common business apps can't be moved to a web-based app. A/R and A/P, HR, Sales... many functions related to these are happily outsourced to some other business, even today. In fact, it seems that things like SalesForce (you've heard of them, right?) and ERP rig-ups are more commonly found "in the cloud" than on a local server. ADP sure hasn't been hurt from becoming a remote DB repository and check processor. Most of the hoopla of "cloud computing" is already being done, most notably by the now decade-or-more-old outsourcing the HR, benefits, and accounting department apps and functions for a whole lot of small businesses.
If they pretty much do it anyway, why not move the Office apps out there while we're at it? Even MSFT wants to do that - badly.
Sorry kid, but your Emm-See-Ess-Eee ain't gonna get you all the way to retirement, yanno?
/P
While I love Google apps; they are still 'tethered', to use the authors word, to a net connection. For most consumers; that's OK because if the net connection goes down, they just wait until it comes back up to finish what they were doing. For those of us that rely on our apps to pay the rent; it's just not a viable solution yet because as a small business owner; I can't afford 1500 a month for a dedicated internet connection that the ISP guarantees a backup for if the main pipe goes down.
To repeat the commenting author's sentiment; we'll get there but certainly not in the time frame that Google's CEO is looking at.
- Finally! Down with M$!
- by chash360 December 18, 2007 4:52 PM PST
- I have been saying it for years, finally someone is going to rock the boat! Software does not cost even one tenth the price that is charged for it, by M$. The basic functions of Word Processing and Spreadsheets, etc. were written years ago, and they simply add different window dressings, and a smattering of templates. There is virtually no production costs, it is almost all R&D. Google has the opportunity here to expose this huge gouging thats been going on, and capitalize upon it. Micro$oft will desparately try to maintain their bloated profit margins on their office software, while trying to compete with Google providing essentially the same basic needs for free. Because Google does not have to fool itself spending huge sums of money every rev to redesign apps so that it appears they are so new and improved (to convince you to buy it), they can win if they stick to it. Ask yourself, what does my new version of Word, do for me that I require, that the last version didn't? and was it worth the expense? All you have to do is get away from the idea of making money like Micro$oft, if it costs only $100 to do something, but I sell it for $1000 then, as soon as someone comes along and sells an equivalent for $110, chances are I will go out of business, because I got too used to selling it for $1000.
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- yup
- by FutureGuy December 18, 2007 7:53 PM PST
- MS last quarter growth was the fastest since 1990, they sure are going done in a hurry, don't hold your breath though you might turn blue.
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(43 Comments)