Degoogling: Yes, It Is a Thing
June 8, 2020
Can free and open source software “degoogle”? Probably not easily or quickly. Nevertheless Reddit user TheEvilSkely wants to try. You can dig through the details, explore the GitHub information, and follow the links at this link. The challenge is that most of the whippersnappers are just okay with the Google. Like Amazon, the service is just wonderful. Why make a change if everything is A-Okay?
News flash: Open source is not just tangled with Googzilla’s feathers (dinosaurs, according to modern research by thumbtypers, had feathers, bright ones too). The Redmond contingent is into open source. Imagine Linux in the really easy to update Windows environment. Amazon is driving its Bezos bulldozer through the thicket of new growth saplings like Elastic as I type this post. If you listen closely, you can hear the bulldozer shift into a lower gear to push annoying old growth software into the dirt. One doesn’t need to have an oracle to understand the earth moving concept.
Open source is a target for these reasons:
- Community software lowers certain coding costs and has enough bugs to make proprietary fixes a money maker
- Young developers learn open sourcey ways in college and arrive ready to earn and burn in their virtual frat and sorority duds when they become WFHers and on prem contractors
- Big companies love open source because they can devote resources to tweaking the software and have enough money to pay legions of certified advisers help out, license open source optimized cloud environments, and pay for proprietary widgets that don’t change the “no handcuffs” idea of non proprietary plumbing.
Worth monitoring, of course.
Stephen E Arnold, June 8, 2020