Does it Matter if Android is Open? – I agree that it’s unlikely to matter that much, butI’m a little surprised that Steve is not taking on Google’s stance on open source more directly here.
Marco.org – Let us pay for this service so it won’t go down – interesting view from someone who used to be at Tumblr. “You must own any data thats irreplaceable to you. By relying on a hosted service with no direct alternatives or difficult outbound migrations, youre giving up a level of control that you shouldnt for something as important as your business email.” (side note: I also use FastMail.)
“I’m a little surprised that Steve is not taking on Google’s stance on open source more directly here.”
Maybe I should be, I’ll have to think about it.
But the salient details seem to me to be:
1. Google’s relative degree of openness does not appear to have a material impact on its relative adoption – which you appear to agree with, and
2. There are no credible alternatives available that are more open
So while I personally believe that Google’s strategy here is non-damaging at best and a long term concern at worst, I just can’t find any evidence to suggest that openness matters much in the short term.
The only real problem I have is Google’s insistence around messaging around same, because it creates a set of expectations that they do not consistently deliver against. In spite of the fact that it doesn’t appear to offer much benefit, as mentioned.
I agree with both your points. I have always believed that a singular vision creates the best products, as I’ve noted in my contrasts here of Android and iOS. I’ve recently switched from Android to an iPhone and I’m not (yet) looking back. I believe Android needs better UI tools, stricter app guidelines and better quality across the board in order to compete and I don’t think making things more open is a path to that end.
That said, if you stand on the mountain and shout about how your platform is open, you can’t expect people not to call you out when you start closing it up.
“That said, if you stand on the mountain and shout about how your platform is open, you can’t expect people not to call you out when you start closing it up.”
Well, it might be marginally more correct to say closing it back up since the project was originally created behind closed doors, but that’s really just semantics. The problem is here is one of improperly set expectations, in my view. And that’s on Google.
“I’m a little surprised that Steve is not taking on Google’s stance on open source more directly here.”
Maybe I should be, I’ll have to think about it.
But the salient details seem to me to be:
1. Google’s relative degree of openness does not appear to have a material impact on its relative adoption – which you appear to agree with, and
2. There are no credible alternatives available that are more open
So while I personally believe that Google’s strategy here is non-damaging at best and a long term concern at worst, I just can’t find any evidence to suggest that openness matters much in the short term.
The only real problem I have is Google’s insistence around messaging around same, because it creates a set of expectations that they do not consistently deliver against. In spite of the fact that it doesn’t appear to offer much benefit, as mentioned.
But I’ll think about it some more.
I agree with both your points. I have always believed that a singular vision creates the best products, as I’ve noted in my contrasts here of Android and iOS. I’ve recently switched from Android to an iPhone and I’m not (yet) looking back. I believe Android needs better UI tools, stricter app guidelines and better quality across the board in order to compete and I don’t think making things more open is a path to that end.
That said, if you stand on the mountain and shout about how your platform is open, you can’t expect people not to call you out when you start closing it up.
“That said, if you stand on the mountain and shout about how your platform is open, you can’t expect people not to call you out when you start closing it up.”
Well, it might be marginally more correct to say closing it back up since the project was originally created behind closed doors, but that’s really just semantics. The problem is here is one of improperly set expectations, in my view. And that’s on Google.