Google and Oregon Launch Open Source Initiative 189
* * Beatles-Beatles tells us that Google is entering into a $350,000 joint open source technology venture with both Oregon State and Portland State Universities. From the article: "With the grant, the universities will collaborate to encourage open source software and hardware development, develop academic curricula and provide computing infrastructure to open source projects worldwide. The universities will also help provide a bridge between Oregon's universities and Oregon's growing open technology industry." Google also has their version of the announcement on blogspot.
Google in State Universities? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Google in State Universities? (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Google in State Universities? (Score:2)
Perhaps, but it's also policy for Slashdot to have at least 80 Google stories each week. Just trying to fulfill their quota, you understand.
Re:Google in State Universities? (Score:2)
I see why Google wants in (Score:1)
Google will need some of that $38 Billion goodness to keep its stock from stagnating.
A prediction (Score:3, Interesting)
While it's a good thing that this university is helping to develop open source software, this sort of zealotry on slashdot makes it difficult to take any points it offers on closed or open source software. Open source zealots ultimately hurt open source software more then closed source software. So perhaps think about the points you make before you start preaching to the choir.
Re:A prediction (Score:5, Funny)
Open Source = Good
Closed Source = The Devil
Re:A prediction (Score:2)
Open Source Zealot (not z34107) (Score:1)
What was that, Addain? I thought that code in and of itself was neither inherently good nor inherently evil. Lollercost, here I was thinking it was just human-readable instructions to a interpreter/compiler. I suppose closed source might be evil, insofar that "they" (the man, or men? Penguins, maybe.... shift+1) would force only evil source to close itself...
But then again, you could just be a zealot nerd (not affiliated with myself, of course) who believes that anyone trying to make money is somehow
Re:Open Source Zealot (not z34107) (Score:2)
Re:Open Source Zealot (not z34107) (Score:1)
Re:Buying the silence of critics (Score:2)
Re:A prediction (Score:5, Insightful)
It's not as though open source = Good! closed source = Bad! all the time, it's just that in this situation, it seems clear open source is a better choice and doesn't apply to what you said.
Re:A prediction (Score:2, Interesting)
In fact thats just what Oregon State University did [osuosl.org] when googles prices were too high. They replaced thier Google box with Nutch Search Engine [nutch.org] and saved around $100,000 a year. Fortunatly Google apparently does not have any (or enough) bad blood about this to prevent them from taking the initiative to promote open source.
Re:A prediction (Score:1)
Re:A prediction (Score:2)
Zealotry is an excess of zeal. Excess is bad. Even when it's for a "good cause."
Zealotry denotes zeal in excess, referring to cases where activism and ambition in relation to an ideology have become excessive to the point of being harmful to others, oneself, and one's own cause. (zealotry - Wikipedia, emphasis mine) [wikipedia.org]
Re:A prediction (Score:3, Insightful)
A key difference is that it's unlikely Microsoft would give a University that kind of money with no strings attached and say "do unspecified good things with it". I've never seen them do so. This is what Google did, and I think it's pretty amazing.
Re:A prediction (Score:5, Interesting)
-------
Microsoft gives free version of Visual Studio
Draw whatever conclusions you like, I for one feel good about owning a valid Microsoft CD key for the first time since I played Zork. Then again, I liked Crystal Pepsi and the band Styx, so YMMV.
Re:A prediction (Score:1)
Software freedom should be valued for itself. (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Software freedom should be valued for itself. (Score:2)
Not to mention the practical ramifications. Non-free software brings lock-in and lack of flexibility, it's even against free market principles most of the times by helping monopolies and hurting free enterprise (especially small companies).
Re:A prediction (Score:5, Insightful)
While I might agree with some of the philosophical ideologies common on slashdot, I do get tired of the seeming group think sometimes.
regardless, your comment seems ill thought out..
If Microsoft contributed money, time, resources and influence to promote closed source software through American Universities, all it would add up to is a sponsored marketing effort, no different than coca-cola or pepsi sponsoring a high school to get their vending machines exclusively represented on campus.
Google dumping money into open source projects (while it obviously provides them with some good PR) directly benefits everyone. *Everyone*.. or at least, everyone that's not supported by closed-source companies.
cheers..
Re:A prediction (Score:1)
Re:A prediction (Score:1)
I look forward to the day that Slashdot admins sell their Google stocks so there can come other news stories than these Google stock price nursings.
Re:A prediction (Score:2)
The only people who are zealots are people who speak about open source.
"However I can't help but think that if Microsoft worked with a state and university to en
Re:A prediction (Score:2)
Not true. Despite what you see on slashdot, there are people out there that use open source because it gets the job done best (or they wouldn't use it).
Because closed source is bad open source is good.
That is zealotry.
Re:A prediction (Score:2)
No that's just a belief. I believe in democracy too does that make me a zealot? I belive that sharing is good does that make me a zealot.
Re:A prediction (Score:2)
No, that makes you a communist. Thanks for playing.
Re:A prediction (Score:2)
Re:Microsoft and Benderyishness (Score:2)
Last I checked it was windows.
"Ever think that all open-sourcey people might just be scared of the Windows API?
It never occured to me. I doubt it since MS is in the process of throwing it away anyway. The API is a great tool for them because it prevents competition but I don't think anybody in the open source world is afraid of it or even wants to deal with it (although some have to).
Re:A prediction (Score:2)
First off, 3 years ago, I tried to get Colorado to do something similar to Oregon's part. [wbtllc.com]
Second, based on the above response, I would say that MS was here doing exactly what you suggested would cause problems. [wbtllc.com]
Re:A prediction (Score:3, Insightful)
ROCK ON, PORTLAND!
Face it: We're fighting a battle, and we see signs of winning! What's not to be excited about?
Don't be shocked that we're happy and cheering!
I don't know of any good effort that succeeds without room for clapping & celebration over small victories.
Re:A prediction (Score:4, Insightful)
well, they do (Score:2, Informative)
Re:A prediction (Score:2)
I can't help but think that if Microsoft worked with a state and university to encourage closed source software and hardware development, develop academic curricula and provide computing infrastructure to closed source projects worldwide that everyone would say how dare a company try to buy a university into spreading it's FUD.
Open source is a feature of software that benefits some users and purchasers of software. Closed source is the lack of that feature. With that in mind, I think I would object to a
Re:A prediction (Score:2)
Excuse me but how would the microsofties make any money if they gave away all the software to universities with unlimited licences for the students (their work gets graded and passed around and openly reviewed), after all the is the inherent specific difference between Windows an
Me want info! (Score:3, Insightful)
I'd like to know what would qualify you to computing resources...
I'd also like to know if this is intended as philantropy or investment...
Both (Score:2)
Re:Both (Score:2)
I'm rather cynical about any matter involving any form of power... because I know how human beings are.
But, hey, yeah, I agree... the interim period of competition will be very good at the very least
Why was Oregon U Chosen? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Why was Oregon U Chosen? (Score:5, Interesting)
I'm just surprised Portland State [pdx.edu] and Oregon State [oregonstate.edu] don't have anything about it on their front pages.
Re:Why was Oregon U Chosen? (Score:1)
Re:Why was Oregon U Chosen? (Score:1)
On the other hand, we've got Intel. And Linus. There's actually lots of tech here, it's just cheaper to live.
Re:Why was Oregon U Chosen? (Score:2)
The Silicon Forest of Portland, Oregon is going strong.
Nike, Adidas, Columbia Sportswear, Freightliner, and a few other companies call the Portland area home, as well as others mentioned.
I've never had too much issue finding work when I needed it in Portland either.
Portland is a great home for a geek.
Re:Why was Oregon U Chosen? (Score:2)
Commercial real estate is not too bad here, with over-capacity after the internet bubble burst. But, it's not exactly cheap compared to the rest of the country.
Housing prices are insane (2 bedroom condo for $500K, small houses for $1M).
Salaries are higher than other areas (though, not high enough to pay for housing).
Silicon Valley is the land of the high roller startup, getting 10s of millions from VC firms. Obviously, this is not the standard operating procedure
Re:Why was Oregon U Chosen? (Score:2)
Yeah, I bet they totally feel that way. The poor Oregonians have to spend all day looking at cute semi-naked gothic girls, listening to indie pop music, and buying Diesel Sweeties T shirts. I'm sure they really miss your non-stop tech revolution.
* I haven't actually been to the US. But when I will, Portland Ore
They're doing too much stuff (Score:4, Funny)
Re:They're doing too much stuff (Score:1)
and that brings up a good question...
do we still like google?
or are they starting to resemble a large, unstoppable giant?
also, slashdot should create a google section to organize all google stories
Re:They're doing too much stuff (Score:2)
Re:They're doing too much stuff (Score:2)
Re:They're doing too much stuff (Score:1)
OSH? (Score:5, Interesting)
Ok, I can see open source software development being done at minimal cost, but hardware? Not trolling here, I'm genuinely curious, can someone explain to me how open source hardware development can be economical? I mean let's face a little reality here, if someone is going to undertake the (rather expensive) industrial task of hardware development, at the very least the need to recoup their investment, and ideally they'll make a profit -- at least that's the goal, or else they wouldn't bother in the first place.
Sooo... Anyone care to chime in here and explain this to me? Thanks in advance.
Re:OSH? (Score:5, Informative)
Seems they share schematics for the design. I'd imagine you could sell the hardware for profit (binaries) so long as you made the schematics (source code) available to those who bought it. Seems like a reasonable idea.
Re:OSH? (Score:1)
Re:OSH? (Score:4, Informative)
Open hardware is like open source; it's about designs, schematics, PCB layouts, FPGA codes, etc. There are several existing open hardware projects at Portland State, notably Portland State Aerospace Society [pdx.edu]'s rockets and a Software-Defined Radio [pdx.edu] project built on the open-hardware Universal Software Radio Peripheral. More are expected.
Re:OSH? (Score:2)
Core curriculum (Score:5, Insightful)
Learning ONLY about OSS software is just as bad as learning ONLY about proprietary and/or closed source software. Students need to be educated in all aspects of the field so that they can make good decisions when the time comes and not try to apply one solution to every problem.
Re:Core curriculum (Score:3, Insightful)
CS-students learn about computer-science primarily, and only a distant second about licensing. In-depth studies over licensing is law, not CS. Sure, CS students should know the very basics, enough to avoid breaking the law themselves, or atleast enough to know when to consult a lawyer, but licenses are not central to a CS-curriculum.
You can only usefully learn from a program you can study. You can only reasonably study a program where you are allowed picking the program apart and look at the innard
Re:Core curriculum (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Core curriculum (Score:2)
Where do you get that idea that they are going to learn "ONLY about OSS software"?
Also, a piece of code is a piece of code no matter what license you slap to it. I doubt there's such thing as OSS skill set and closed source software skill set. Of course there's different experience depending on the environment you work in, but I doubt they can teach that in school anyway.
An attack on Microsoft (Score:3, Insightful)
Now I ask you this, creatively think of ways of what Microsoft can do with little investment that can be interpreted as an attack on Google.
Re:An attack on Microsoft (Score:2)
There's no reason to say that this is a shot across the bow of Microsoft. Google is just encouraging an ideal of openess that happens
Oregon Trail? (Score:1, Funny)
Re:Oregon Trail? (Score:2)
Welcome (Score:4, Funny)
Meh, give 'em a break. (Score:2)
After having three Microsoft articles in a ROW yesterday (or the day before?), we oughta give GOOG some (more) time.
Read a random Google page [bleb.org] while you wait for that precious non-Google story, I guess...
not sure... (Score:3, Insightful)
While I think its a "cool" "fun" "nice" thing Google is doing, it isn't creating revenue or raising the bottom line (other then the media having pre-mature orgasms over it).
Google is turning into an amazing manipulator of the media, but they still don't have any tangible revenue streams other then their click ads revenue. They are following the path of all the dot bombs to date.
Even look at GMail, wich many of us love, it has a puny share of the email market (hotmail and yahoo), and creates no real revenue.
I hate to say it, but Bill Gates is right. Google is just in a long honey moon phase prolonged by being a media darling. They are just throwing money around like there is no tomorrow.
It concerns me as an investor. PayPal/eBay won't go down without a huge fight. Google's attempt to cut into Amazon's market with Froogle flopped, and quite frankly, I don't see them unseating eBay anytime soon.
I say give them two more years and their stock will be below yahoo and dropping fast.
Re:not sure... (Score:2)
Google's attempt to what? Does Amazon have search engine that finds the lowest prices? Google isn't actually selling anything with Froogle. They seem like completely different services to me.
Re:not sure... (Score:1)
Re:not sure... (Score:1)
great logic.
Re:not sure... (Score:1)
Re:not sure... (Score:3, Interesting)
Froogle wasn't meant to compete with Amazon because Google never stocked products. But pretend Google gets a good micropayment system going. GMoney lets you buy from vendors that show up on Froogle. Or GMail/GTalk gives you an ad from a GMoney accepting vendor. So Google makes money from the ads and from the GMoney transaction fees.
GVideo? Yep. Micropayments.
GData? Don't use Microsoft. Jus
Re:not sure... (Score:5, Insightful)
So you can support OSS with an eye on the bottome line. Maybe not the bottom line this quarter or next quarter, but sometime in the future. Look at IBM. They won't make a dime directly off of Linux, but they can use Linux to help them sell their servers. So it is in their interest to keep Linux improving and moving forward in performance. With IBM it's easy to see why they would want to support Linux. With Google it's a bit harder because they benifit from Linux in their daily operations of their company and services, which isn't directly seen by regular users.
Re:not sure... (Score:1)
1) Google employees loads of systems and software engineers. Giving money to a university based center like OSU, PSU, and the Open Source Lab seems pretty smart. Does it generate an immediate ROA? no...But lot's of companies looking to get into Open Source are complaining about access to talent. Contributing to cirriculum and research
Re:not sure... (Score:2)
Re:not sure... (Score:2)
Why do you ask anyway? Does it need to be said someplace else? Is it a shocking thing to imagine that Ballmer wants to kill google or any other company on the planet?
Re:not sure... (Score:2)
It was a sworn testimony in a court of law. The chances of it being true are way more then 50/50 because the person saying it is risking perjury. Also the statement is in keeping with Ballmers personality. This is not the first time somebody has reported profanity laden tirades from the MS executive boardrooms.
"Stop trying to make up ammo against MS by holding them to standards you would
Google must be pretty forgiving... (Score:1, Insightful)
WOW. (Score:1)
Re:WOW. (Score:1)
Other Google projects (Score:2)
I understand the 'broadband over powerlines' might get stalled because of protests by ham radio people.
How to kick M$ in the shin... (Score:2)
Google mentioned more than Yahoo or Linux in Oct (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Google mentioned more than Yahoo or Linux in Oc (Score:2)
Re:Google mentioned more... (Score:2)
Maybe there were no more than 3 interesting news pieces about Yahoo. I don't say that all 22 stories about Google were either, but most of them were news for nerds, stuff that matter.
Really Committed to Open Source? (Score:1)
Or do they only want other peole to make their source code open?
If they were really committed they would practice what they preach.
Re:Really Committed to Open Source? (Score:3, Insightful)
Makes me wonder.. (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Makes me wonder.. (Score:2)
Why should Google release software for an OSS platform when that platform will do it cheaper, easier, and "better" than the code they produce? Think about this: If they stay true to implementing and releasing standards-compliant products, then OSS can provide reference designs. Many of their services already work well with OSS projects already.
I'm broke. (Score:1)
Gotcher Back... (Score:2)
Re:Gotcher Back... (Score:2)
Hrm. A close friend of mine is a CS graduate from Oregon State, and is currently taking 'Classical Languages' at Portland State. Maybe she should sign up. Oh, wait... Her 'Classical Languages' program is Greek and Latin, not Pascal and Ada. (Yes, she has a CS degree, and is now pursuing archaeology as a career.)
A whole 350K (Score:2, Troll)
Is that even enough for the furniture? (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Is that even enough for the furniture? (Score:2)
In other news... (Score:1)
News at 10 (Score:3, Funny)
Re:News at 10 (Score:2)
No! Ducks are the other school. They should be advised to Beaver.
Possible the dumbest Slashdot title ever (Score:2)
So when is OSU going to use open source itself? (Score:2)
If Google wants to promote OSS, why not support Cal State, which is using OS directly for learning management systems, at CSU San Francisco [sfsu.edu] and CSU Humboldt?
It works, too:-) [logogle.com]