Webs’ Random Ideas

Well no one but Google really knows for sure, but I imagine there will be many more programs we use day to day that will be available under Google on the web.  For instance, would it not be great to be able to write a document by just going to GOffice.com.  Then being able to send the file right to your Gmail or other storage location.  How about being able to do everything you can do with MS office, but not having to pay the money.  I know someone out there is screaming, "Hey what about Open Office?"  I know about Open Office and I am a big fan.  I try to ween everyone I can off of MS Office in favor of Open Office, but Open Office still has the overhead associated with it being installed on your hard drive, and because its on the hard drive you still have to worry about the security vulnerabilities.  The idea behind a GOffice is that it is all located on the web and accessible from the web.  If Google goes this route, then there would be little stopping network administrators from creating a GOffice server so that users could then do their office work on the intranet, or within a Local Area Network(LAN).  Then instead of needing to protect 200 users, you now only need to protect one system, the GOffice server (in terms of security vulnerabilities with an office suite).  If GOffice was written as good as the rest of Google's software then overhead of the program would be minimal, functionality would be amazing, and there would be little lag in the software.  This is something I am waiting for and would be very upset if it never materialized.

Since the price of networking technology has dramatically dropped, having a robust and fast intranet backbone is incredibly easy and is becoming more prevalent with companies and institutions.  This could bring back the whole dummy station idea.  Where people no longer log into a computer but a terminal that connects to a server.  Put the OS on the intranet and allow the terminals to pull it down.  Then every system would have access to only what people need, and again, the only system that needs to be protected is the server that houses what the terminals are pulling down.  A system like this is already being used for Boothbox Internet stations.  Boothbox is a Linux OS that allows administrators to create simple web kiosks or Internet portals, and very easily I might add. 

I still haven't completely convinced myself that the dummy station idea will take off, but I am very convinced that Microsoft's share of the software market is going to start plunging south.  If they don't change their whole paradigm of charging for non-open source software, they are going to take a hit.  People are going to start to get tired of paying for buggy and crappy software.  Educational institutions that are constantly fighting for State and Federal funding are going to start to look for other ways to save, and not paying for a software license for MS Office is one place to start.  Already many educational institutions have started using Open Office, and it wouldn't surprise me to see public schools do the same. 

I think Google's free software design will continue to win over people, and if their online software can make a strong enough appeal, people will make the switch.  There are always the nay-sayers that will say, "Ya but users like how things look with Microsoft, and if you give them something different they will freak out."  Point well taken, but if you look at the progression of Open Source software, it started as an underground, geeks only thing.  Now its spreading like wild fire, and I use Open Office everyday, and can tell anyone as a fact that I can hardly tell the difference between Open Office and MS Office.  And the transition to Open Office, doesn't have to be immediate, it can start out slowly with a couple labs and then progress to the whole network.  Either way, mark my words Open Source is here to stay and it is going to steadily take over.  Whether users are forced to learn something different or not, here it comes.