Whoa! It’s On!
I think I just read the most angry anti-Google blog post I’ve ever seen. Krzysztof Kowalczyk, pissed that Google’s Adam Bosworth requested a database fix from the open source community, basically calls Google a parasite, in his post “Google - we take it all, we give nothing back“. His accusation: Google takes free software and cheap computers, and lets everybody else do all the effort. He says Google’s slogan may be “Do No Evil”, but it also does no good.
This all comes via MSN Spaces project manager Dare Obasanjo’s blog, and Dare gets his licks in as well:
I doubt that this is the kind of response that Adam Bosworth was expecting when he posted his plea. The fun thing about corporate blogs is that it gives people more places to read between the lines and learn how a company really thinks. I suspect this is why Google doesn’t have many authentic bloggers and instead has favored the press release page masquerading as group blog approach at http://www.google.com/googleblog/.
Ouchie. Seems like there’s a lot of bad blood on the Left Coast.
The only real question is, who’s right? Is Google wrong for being the multi-billion dollar corporation that takes everything for free? I think it comes down to a simple question: Is Google taking the open source software because it is free, or because it is better or just as good? Either way, even if Google’s motives are totally “not evil” (and they aren’t entirely; Google does look to save money, a lot), Google still has a responsibility to give something back to the open source community. If even Microsoft has begun working to give back to open source, surely Google can?
I have to agree on the commentary regarding the official Google blog. I stopped even looking at it because I didn’t feel it was anything special or even much of a blog.
Comment by Matt | December 30, 2004
Yeah, I’ll pretty much let you know if anything interesting happens
I look at the blog this way: If I don’t already know the news before they post about it, I haven’t been paying attention. It’s about 90% stuff that’s covered in press releases, in an only slightly friendlier style.
Comment by Nathan Weinberg | December 30, 2004
Anything worth doing is worth doing too soon. Real obstacles don’t take you in circles. They can be overcome. Invented ones are like a maze.
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[…] Last week, I noted some back-and-forth blogging between Google’s Adam Bosworth and MSN’s Dare Obasanjo. Well, ladies and gents, it has gotten nasty… […]
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