I think that a lot of people who complain publicly and frequently that Google isn't as ideologically pure or keen on Free as in Libre software as say Richard Stallman everytime they come up with a great idea that changes face of the internet, kind of miss the point.
When Richard Stallman gave a talk at my Uni he wore bare feet and picked his toes while he talked, IIRC (please bear with me). He is so not on the radar of the 5.99999 billion people who don't religiously read Slashdot it's not funny. Google employs lots of really smart people who want to change the computer industry but also want to eat. For Google to support Jabber rather than come up with their own completely proprietry IM system like everybody else is F$#king awesome in my opinion. They've said they want to interoperate with others. That probably means they're trying clean up all the stupid restrictive practices of major IM clients, the same way they cleaned up the search engine business (can anyone truly remember search engines before Google with masses of ugly flashing banner ads for offshore casinos and useless results because most of the top search results were probably paid for, and still dislike Google?).
Why are there so many articles critical of Google, and so few critical of say AOL or Yahoo? Why is Google held up to such a different standard to other companies, who wouldn't think of basing an important product on something Open Source that has some potential but hasn't really had a huge impact yet? Maybe Jabber enthusiasts could think "Hmmm, perhaps we're lucky that Google has taken an interest in our obscure technology, and is paying smart people lots of money to take it to the people". Last I heard, Google wasn't doing anything to hinder hardcore Jabber people from doing what they were doing before Google Talk came along, if they don't want to be a part of the happy masses.
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When Richard Stallman gave a talk at my Uni he wore bare feet and picked his toes while he talked, IIRC (please bear with me). He is so not on the radar of the 5.99999 billion people who don't religiously read Slashdot it's not funny. Google employs lots of really smart people who want to change the computer industry but also want to eat. For Google to support Jabber rather than come up with their own completely proprietry IM system like everybody else is F$#king awesome in my opinion. They've said they want to interoperate with others. That probably means they're trying clean up all the stupid restrictive practices of major IM clients, the same way they cleaned up the search engine business (can anyone truly remember search engines before Google with masses of ugly flashing banner ads for offshore casinos and useless results because most of the top search results were probably paid for, and still dislike Google?).
Why are there so many articles critical of Google, and so few critical of say AOL or Yahoo? Why is Google held up to such a different standard to other companies, who wouldn't think of basing an important product on something Open Source that has some potential but hasn't really had a huge impact yet? Maybe Jabber enthusiasts could think "Hmmm, perhaps we're lucky that Google has taken an interest in our obscure technology, and is paying smart people lots of money to take it to the people". Last I heard, Google wasn't doing anything to hinder hardcore Jabber people from doing what they were doing before Google Talk came along, if they don't want to be a part of the happy masses.