Now with a subject! On Thu, 30 Sep 2010, Mike McGrath wrote: > I'm no lame duck, I swear. This is a pretty dramatic proposal, my hopes > are it will generate much discussion. It's no secret I'm not big on the > future of the desktop[1]. With great reflection and further research I've > come to realize something else. Google is about to destroy just about > everyone. There's a tiny handful of people that don't like the idea of > cloud computing and information "in the cloud". The majority of the world > though in love with it or will be and not know it. The problem: Free > Software is in no position to compete with the web based applications of > the Google of tomorrow. > > What am I talking about? HTML5 and javascript. Javascript has gotten > significantly faster in just the last two years. In some cases over 100 > times faster then just 2 years ago. Who drove that? Google and Chrome. > Why did they do it? They realize HTML5 is disruptive technology. What we > think of advanced "web technologies" today, are still based on html 4.01. > Not changed in over 10 years. Ajax was a nice addition 7 or so years back > but the foundations, the primitives are 10 years old. > Think about how much computing has changed in the last 10 years. From > 2000 to 2010. They will change that much if not more in the next 10 > years. > > HTML5 adds some amazing new features. Local database, offline storage, > canvas and inline SVG to name just a few. If you do a little research > you'll see Google employees are tipping their hand. Many are releasing > youtube videos of the work they're doing. Google has a great deal of > institutional knowledge about HTML5. Very interesting since the standard > isn't even complete yet. When it is, they'll be ready and those > applications won't look ANYTHING like what the web apps today look like. > They'll look like native desktop apps. > > Take this example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XhMN0wlITLk > > Imagine that technology applied to actual applications.... That run > anywhere HTML5 does. Our idea of the desktop is gone. > > This next part is VERY important. > > > > > > > This is an opportunity. > > > > > > > So what am I proposing? I think Fedora should slowly transition itself to > be similar to how the Apache Software Foundation is setup. We should put > more resources into fedorahosted and grow it. (Perhaps our new > infrastructure lead would agree? ;) but the infrastructure is only one > tiny part of it. We build these applications, get communities around them > then let OTHERS actually run them. We'd need engineering coordinators, > architects, planners. Not just from Red Hat but from other major > stakeholders as well. We create these tools for others. > > Our best plan for Google isn't to take them on directly but to build tools > that let everyone take them on a little bit at a time. Clearly this isn't > something that will be done next month. This is an ambitious, long term > goal that would take place over the next several years. The reason it > will work is we'd be getting on the HTML5 bandwagon early. Very early. > Others are already doing work here. Like Mozilla's skywriter: > > http://mozillalabs.com/skywriter/ - https://bespin.mozillalabs.com/ > > Take a look at that thing. That's the future of office/productivity > applications, the future of communication, the future of computing. > Don't just admire what skywriter does. Imagine what it will do, what it > could do. Imagine what Google's applications will look like when they're > converted. > > Businesses are already moving to cloud computing for their backend. What > are they going to run on the front end? At the moment? Not free > software. We're no where near that market right now.. But we can be. > > There's no reason in the world we can't spread free software via web > applications / cloud computing. Even though someone chooses to run > windows or OSX, there's no reason they can't do their primary computing on > free software. Perhaps provided by their ISP, their business, other ISPs. > > -Mike > > [1] http://mmcgrath.livejournal.com/35659.html > _______________________________________________ > advisory-board mailing list > advisory-board@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx > https://admin.fedoraproject.org/mailman/listinfo/advisory-board > _______________________________________________ advisory-board mailing list advisory-board@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx https://admin.fedoraproject.org/mailman/listinfo/advisory-board
