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Google And Open Source

Posted by Zonk on from the so-happy-together dept.

Nate writes "Former Slashdot editor, games programmer and consultant Chris DiBona talks about his new work at Google in a brief interview over at Linux Format. Most notably, DiBona points out that Google wants to follow IBM's lead in not attempting to control open source, and he also highlights the reasons why Google will never be a 100% open source company." From the article: "So I don't see the word 'sponsorship' as being appropriate. Because sponsorship also implies stewardship. We don't want to run open source, that's not who we are. I have to tell you, I've admired how IBM has gone about this. They've for the most part not screwed up: they haven't taken things over, they haven't managed to break anything, they've done a lot of good work. We're not going to use that as a model for what we want to do, because we're different companies, but I really want to get code out there, I don't want just... money. Money's not enough."

5 of 131 comments (clear)

  1. Money by saboola · · Score: 4, Funny

    I don't want just... money. Money's not enough.


    He can PayPal me any of it he does not want. I could sure as hell use it.

    1. Re:Money by biocute · · Score: 3, Funny

      The way I read it:

      I don't want just... money. [I want power and control too]

      Money's not enough. [It's never enough, I want more]

      --
      Virtual Betting on Facebook for non-geeks.
  2. Open Source, Schmopen Schmource... by RobotRunAmok · · Score: 3, Funny

    Tell him to post a new slashdot poll for old times sake.

    Hell, just tell ANYONE to post a new slashdot poll; that most-used-key-combo thing has been up there since LAST Valentine's Day...

  3. new name by syrinx · · Score: 5, Funny

    Oh, I thought "Google and Open Source" was going to be the new name for Slashdot.

    I should have known that was wrong.. if that were happening, it'd have to be "Google, Apple, and Open Source".

    --
    Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum sonatur.
  4. I thought Page Rank was open source?? by filesiteguy · · Score: 3, Funny
    Okay, I'm confused. I thought Page Rank was an OSS project.

    And then there are other things. We're never going to release PageRank [Google's trademark system for ranking web pages in its search index], we're not going to release things like that, because to release them would ruin them. If you release how you do the ranking function, suddenly every web scrambler in the world screws up the rank and Google search becomes useless. We don't want to do that.
    Now, if you recall, Google publishes EXACTLY how the Page Ranking works: http://www.google.com/technology/pigeonrank.html/

    It is all right there:

    As a Google user, you're familiar with the speed and accuracy of a Google search. How exactly does Google manage to find the right results for every query as quickly as it does? The heart of Google's search technology is PigeonRank(TM), a system for ranking web pages developed by Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin at Stanford University.
    Am I wrong?
    --
    The Kai's Semi-Updated Website Thingy