Skype and Facebook woes, Google+ to the rescue

Twice did I nearly punch my keyboard in frustration recently: First Skype was bought up by Microsoft then Facebook deleted all photos uploaded from KDE Linux.

Evil, dumb or both?

Granted, Skype merely went from proprietary and closed to proprietary, closed and owned by the evil ones. I did consider looking for an open source, cross platform alternative and so did others. The Skype protocol was reverse engineered and there was some downtime issues shortly after. But I haven't cared enough about the issue yet.

And granted, the deleting of photos uploaded with a common KDE plugin used by some photography software (including my beloved Digikam) was temporary. Others were quick to complain. Imagine the uproar if it had been all photos uploaded by iPhoto that had been removed. But apparently, Facebook has people working for them that think stuff coming from this Linux-something is too suspicious and will actually hit the red button.

Add to the above that Facebook - with its history of privacy issues - are working with Skype to integrate their networks. We should all be panicking for alternatives and reverse engineered protocols. But then again...

Google: Not evil, not dumb

Google+ has something called Hangouts which is actually group video chatting. They are not open source but they have a history of being not evil and they are fully cross platform in being a cloud service. Their Picasa, neatly integrated in G+, beats Facebook's photo albums by any measure. So, Google+ is if not a full solution, then at least could be a great relief. And some badly needed competition.

Add to that this interview with Googles Open Source Boss, Chris di Bona: Besides creating Android, a major Linux success story, Chris tells:

"We have released something like 1,300 open source projects to the outside world in the last five years. That amounts to 24-25 million lines of code, using a variety of licenses. So basically whatever device or computer you use it most likely has some code from us in there, be it through our compiler or our application work. [Among the projects Google contribute to are] GCC. But also the Linux kernel and all the compiler tools, languages like Java, C++ and Python. Also we found that things like OpenSSL is super-important to us, also FFmpeg [...] We have Linux, a very very small amount of Windows, and a fair number of OS X machines. If you'd look at laptops it's maybe 70 percent Mac OS X and most of the rest is Linux, we are a huge customer of Apple. Engineering Desktops are overwhelmingly running on Linux. We have our own Ubuntu derivative called "Goobuntu" internally for that, integrating with our network"

Shouldn't the caption go "I can't wait for Google+ to let me spam everyone that blocked me on Facebook"? Which the creep will have no success with due to the Circles concept at G+ :-)

Now, if G+ will be "successful" or not? I predict a crowd of communication people and social media experts (people in need of getting head butted) giving Google+ bad reviews. Simply because Facebook was finally a service they could figure out using. Don't trust these pro spammers. Many people will join G+ because if you already use one or more Google services there really is little reason not to.

I already got the protest a couple of times that, since everyone's already on Facebook why should anyone create a G+ profile? Besides the arguments above, I'll throw out an example of how it adds to the services: I have a public album of my own wallpapers on Picasa (Google+ Pictures). These will not fit on Facebook in any way, because there pictures can be no larger than 600-and-something pixels on either side (can't even be full size of most wide screen monitors are at Flickr). And they don't need to be on Facebook because there are no people to tag in them - even if they had I still can tag in Picasa. That doesn't mean I'll head over and delete all my photos on Facebook though.

Upgrading software: jokes, cash and YaST vs App Store

"An update is available for your computer" found at Geekosystem / Sticky Comics.

Of course I shelled out the ~ 20 euros to upgrade iMovie and iPhoto from 2009 to 2011 versions. Took me some time and the closing of quite a few in-program upgrade advertising popup windows to take the step. But my rants should be about current software versions. Meanwhile we're waiting for the next entirely free release of SUSE: openSUSE 11.4.

To the credit of Apple it must be said App Store is very easy to use. Brings a smile to your face watching the animated installs while thinking back to the times of running virus prone .exe files, searching the net for needed drivers and reinstalling when bugs had accumulated. In that respect Apple App Store and YaST are actually quite similar: open, search, select, install. Biggest difference is YaST tells you which other software must be installed to get your selection working, App Store probably charges you some money in the process.

But using the App Store requires an account there (I actually - unsuccessfully - went to IRL physical shops to look for an iLife DVD). Now that I got it I'm taking the opportunity to run Genious and Ping in iTunes; probably comparable to the Last.fm integration in Amarok? The opportunity to have Apple scan my computer for media files and send back a report - couldn't miss that! A quick tour through these AI/social plugins gives me the impression of a scam and the impulse to turn on Amarok again. Less functionality, too many links to purchases, works from inside iTunes only. Possibly subjects of future rants.

Apples and oranges

One blogger ditches Linux for Mac OS X. Another blogger corrects the first blogger on the uneven playingground in the comparison. This is  something I am painfully aware of, something that makes it harder to get writing here. But since this Stuart has written such a nice piece for now I'll just rip that off a bit...

[Linux and OS X are] quite different things – a complete solution purchased from Apple with an unsupported and free software install on Apple hardware [...] Mac users in my workplace are already impressed by my Plasma Desktop, but not by the big, grey, noisy Dell box that powers it, or the ugly Dell keyboard. With Apple, you get the whole package: nice hardware, nice software – working together. [...] Make some real Linux hardware, better quality and better presented than anything from Apple, with a Linux distro and Plasma Desktop tweaked to work perfectly with the hardware and sell it as the ultimate home computer. It would take money (big, established vendor money) and balls (no one ever got sacked for selling Windows, you might for this) but maybe, just maybe, you could be the next Apple. But free.

There is wisdom in the comments too:

If you choose a random computer, Linux is much more likely to work on it than Mac OS X. [...] Apple does not just sell a sleek computer with very user friendly software. Apple sells an image and a status symbol, a “lifestyle” if you will. [...] Whether an innovation spreads in society depends on a lot of factors and it being better is just one of many. So even if one sold the perfect “fully controlled” amazing looking computer with KDE and invested a lot of money in PR, it would by no means necessarily be commercially viable. [Zanoi]

 True enough, it appears that everything “just works” – but as with Windows this is true only if you do things the way Apple (Microsoft) decide you should work. [Kjetil Kilhavn]

OK. Now I'll go back to comparing apples and oranges: Just today I have been annoyed with the many links to Apple's iTunes store from inside iTunes, I gave up listening to some OGG-files, I gave up having it show album covers and I can only shake my head at the iPhoto application in comparison to Digikam. More complaining to follow, no doubt.

Also read Windows v Ubuntu at Linux in Exile if you can stomach another silly comparison. Hilariously concludes with "a narrow victory for Windows 7".