Too Much Innovation Can be Fatal: the Case of Google Chrome
Posted by Ahmad Barirani in 
In an attempt to prepare the introduction of it browser-OS, Google introduced a few novelties in its Chrome browser. These novelties all fall inside one category there is no toolbar in Google Chrome. Users are complaining about the fact that Google Chrome doesn’t work with Google Toolbar to the point that Google had to write a support page about using Google Chrome. The page explains how Google Toolbar functions are part of the browser but not in the shape of a toolbar. Taking into account that those using Chrome are early adopters, this seems to be just another case of too much innovation not being well received by the market.
Good timing is the recipe for success
An important factor playing in the success of an innovation is the timing of its market introduction. If a product is too disruptive, people won’t be able to connect with products they already use. Visionaries must therefore take it easy with their creative swing and not forget the today’s consumer. In the case of Google Chrome, things went wrong because people are used to have a very tiny browser that is extended with plugins. They are not yet used to the idea that the browser is going to be the operating system.
People are used to the tiny browser
To better understand this phenomenon, we must take into account that browsers weren’t the most used application in the early days of the Internet. As more web applications answered day-to-day needs, plugins were built on top of the tiny browser to provide a better and more productive user experience. Today, the Browser is the most used application and the Internet has evolved to a point were a browser is all we need. In tomorrow’s Internet, everything is going to be on the cloud. Our desktop will not do anything else that allow us to click on buttons that are on a remote server.
Being the Internet leader, Google is taking the right bet of getting the market rid of the heavy desktop client (Windows) and replacing it with something lighter (Chrome OS). Only the push seems to be a very clumsy one and has to work harder to bring innovation in a more fluid way.
Ten Linux Tools for Windows: Take Advantage of Open Source Software
There are tons of Linux tools for Windows and they just do a great job. Of course, most developers use a lot of GNU software on Windows, especially to port their Linux-developed applications on Windows. But things are not limited to developers. Open source products are actually targeting a wider audience. I have compiled a list of then great tools that are destined to Linux but that have great port to Windows platform.
- Knoppix: this one is actually a Live Linux distro. What does it have to do with Windows? Well, it can be useful to recover data from a broken Windows installation. If your Windows doesn’t start for some reason and that you can’t repair it through Windows’ own repair utility, use Knoppix to restore a few files. My best story is when Windows wasn’t able to read one of my external hard-drive’s partition table but that Knoppix was able! Another story is when I wanted to downgrade to XP and that I had to use Knoppix to remove the ’sticky’ Vista hard-drive partition.
- MinGW (Minimalist GNU for Windows): contains the great GCC compiler and can be used to build native Windows applications. The good thing is that you can then use the same source code to build the application on Linux. Among all the Linux tools for Windows, this is the one that is most popular.
- GIMP: this is actually a great tool that was also initially destined to Linux but that has been ported on Windows. GIMP is a raster graphics editor, which means that it is in the same category as Adobe Photoshop with the difference is that it doesn’t cost a fortune. Besides being free, GIMP offers pretty much the same functionality than Adobe’s popular product.
- Inkscape: this one is a vector graphics editor, which means that it competes with Adobe Illustrator. Again, it offers the same functions as Illustrator.As you can see in the image below, it can produce quite impressive images. Most users won’t need more sophistication.
- XAMPP: XAMPP stands for Cross Platform (X), Apache, MySQL, PHP and Perl which were all originally built for Linux. Being later ported on Windows, the package can actually be very useful for Windows web servers that would incorporate both ASP.NET and PHP web applications. Lets say you would like to use Wordprss for your ASP.NET MVC web application’s blog. XAMPP will give you all you need to run Wordpress on your Windows server.
- CVS: this is one of the best source code version control system. It is open source, cross-platform and super stable. This thing has been working for decades and is very reliable. This is very subjective, but I personally prefer CVS to SVN because of it’s branch management model.
- Clam Antivirus: initially built for mail servers on Linux, this free anti-virus does a great job and is in constant development. Its Windows port, WinClam, has progressed a lot and will soon compete with other known anti-virus brands.
- Dia: a lot of people know about OpenOffice as an alternative to MS Office. But Dia is less known as an alternative to Visio.
- VNC: this tool is for desktop sharing and did a great job on Unix/Linux systems. So much that i was ported on Windows and it can be used, for example, to have remote desktop on cheaper Windows Edition (like home versions).
- OpenOffice: of course, this is a must. If you ever get fed up with paying a fortune for Office, then use OpenOffice. It is compatible with Office Suite, so a lot of people are considering this alternative.
Windows to Linux Migration: Now or Never
I mean in the early days of Linux, Windows to Linux migration wasn’t an easy thing to do. The simple task of installing the operating system was so difficult that a few hardcore geeks did the move. But today, changing to Linux is easier than ever.
Easier Migration
First of all, the installation itself is more easy. Now, installing Ubuntu distro is so simple that slightly computer-savvy users can consider Windows to Linux migration. Here is link to a step by step installation guide for Ubuntu 9.10 where you’ll see that the installation is done within 5 installation wizard steps. So the days of Microsoft FUD campaign against Linux complexity are over. If you know how to install Windows, then you have enough knowledge to install Ubuntu.
Better Compatibility With Windows Software
90% of people user computers for email, Internet surfing and productivity software. All these three things can be done using Linux. Of course, when more than 25% of surfers using Firefox and that Firefox is available in most important Linux distros, a lot of people can make the change to the open source operating system. Also, email standards aren’t proprietary Microsoft standards which results in great compatibility between email clients. Evolution, the default email client for Ubuntu, is very similar to Outlook in terms of functionality. The big question remains around productivity software and the replacement of MS Office with OpenOffice. In fact, .doc and .docx file formats’ domination of the productivity market makes it risky to switch to the productivity alternative.
While OpenOffice becomes is more and more compatible with MS Office, the is a third option and that’s Google Docs! Google Docs has something to offer that Office doesn’t have: it is cloud-based, which means that files are stored on Google Docs server hard-drive. If you are working on the same file from multiple computers or if you work in collaboration with your team on the same file, Google Docs will save you a lot of time and trouble because all changes to a file are stored on Google’s server instead of being stored on your computer hard-drive. And guess what? Google Docs is compatible with Office file format.
New Computing Platform
The days of the traditional OS are counted because of the emergence of mobile devices and of cloud computing. With people spending more time one Facebook, Twitter, Gmail and Google Docs from their mobile devices, the need for a stronger browser will increase and the need for the operating system will decrease! What will happen is that the current client-server architecture of the Internet will go one step further with servers doing more of the things that used to be done by the client machine. This is precisely why Well, guess what: Linux is very well positioned to be a strong player in this new market because of its small size. This is precisely why Google is betting so much on Android and Chrome OS which are both based on Linux versions capable of running on very basic processors.
Until recently, most software producers have concentrated their effort on building software and device drivers for Windows. However, with the current transformations in the IT industry, more producers will deliver Linux-compatible software which will give more options to the consumers.
Price
This has something to do with new devices and cheap computers flooding the market. Back in the old days when an average PC cost $2000+, nobody thought of complaining about $50 the Windows operating system OEM costs. Today, devices cost as low as $200 and we will soon see basic PCs for $100 or less. When people can cut prices down 25 to 50% by not paying Windows license, things are going to look bad for Microsoft.
Conclusion
It seems that the current IT market structure goes in favor of Windows to Linux migration. This is because people can consider a cheaper alternative that is as easy to use and that offers compatibility with the Windows platform and that is also less resource hungry. I think that those who have considered turning to the open source platform take a shot at Linux and enjoy all the benefits.
Top Ten Ways to Make Money With Your Open Source Products
Gone are the days that some could label open source development as being communistic. Today, many firms make money with open source development. This is a survey of the top ten ways to make money with your open source products:
- Support: offer support around your open source product. Of course this is an easy one as most open source firms base their income on support.
- Sales: well, this is an easy one too. Not because the product is licensed under GPL that anybody can go on and play with its source code. We see more an more of these kind of products that are often sold as ‘Enterprise’ versions of the open source product.
- Extensions & plugins: Well, this is a good way to get money, especially from enterprise customers. Every software is always a couple of functions short of customers expectations. Extensions are a great way to overcome this unavoidable issue.
- Subscriptions: since most software products need maintenance, it might be a good idea to sell the product for free, but collect a subscription for updates.
- Consulting: well, this is for those who are not in the open source development team, but who offer customization services around open source products. You could also offer project management services for customers who are going to deploy your product. Also, Software as a service (SaaS) is a great example of how open source firms make money.
- Build yourself a reputation: a lot of programmers have gained notoriety by being lead developers or architects in open source projects. If you write good code, then going open source is a good opportunity to show off your talent.
- Publish a book: you’ve been building this amazing open source application? Then share your knowledge of the system by writing a book. This goes for those who have built extensions and plugins for open source platform.
- Give conferences: if you ever become a super start (or even a small star), people might actually want to pay to see and hear you. Conferences actually have something that books cannot offer: close contact with the guru.
- Advertising: well, you could actually get a lot of traffic to your website. Why not sell ads? Of course, you might not make a lot of money, but its not costing you anything to have a little extra from AdSense.
- Donations:If you do all or some of the above, why not ask for donations? I mean all those who use the software, but don’t pay on any of the above things still are gaining value from your product. Some of them might actually be conscious of this fact and give a donation.
All these ways of generating revenue are based on the fact that open source software ads a certain value that closed source software does not have. This added value gives a competitive advantage to the open source developer who can then sell byproducts of the knowledge that he has around the open source product. Of course, these are many other ways to make money with open source software. Let me know if there are some that I forgot.
TweetMeme Going for Tweet Ranking Business
Fav.or.it announced today that they will focus their resources on TweetMeme, a tweet ranking service based on the number of retweets. By doing so, they join repeets.com, dailyrt.com and upruf.com.
Ranking tweets based on the times they have been tweeted is an interesting concept and complementary to the real-time nature of Twitter.com. Offering such services is aligned with the idea that of social media is a form of ant colony: trends can be shown by their reception from the community and in a more natural way than the immediacy-priority nature of Twitter.com. Offering the feature of searching time spans such as showing trends for today, this month, etc. is a great way of customizing the definition of “right now”.
One note should be added here: upruf.com distinguishes itself from other services named above in that it does not pull but push data on Twitter.com. Since Upruf is based on the concept of knowledge sharing, it needs more space that the 140 characters allowed per tweet. Twitter.com platform is used as a mean of communicating ideas to followers and the whole Twitter community.
Smartphones to Challenge Windows Domination
When it come to desktops, Microsoft has a dominant position in the operating system market. Two reasons are behind this situation:
- The lack of hardware support from manufacturer for other operating systems
- The lack of software applications for other operating systems
So even if open source geeks can make Linux for cheaper, nobody would go for it because of these two reasons.
But today, the PC is no longer the only platform for computation. Smartphones are having tremendous adoption on the market with the iPohne and the BlackBerry as the two main products. Since these devices come as a whole system with integrated operating system, the problem with hardware support is no longer an issue. Also, application developers take advantage of this new market opportunity and offer a wide range of products that cover pretty much every need that was fulfilled on the PC.
If PC sales drop compared to Smartphones, then it means a big loss for Microsoft. Will it be able to force its main product to this new market reality?
For a New Approach to Management
While an important body of knowledge is produced by great management scholars, my personal experience leaves me with in the feeling that the industry is still in the Stone Age when it comes to understanding and implementing sound leadership principles. Matter of fact, management theory is seldom used in the industry. This might be because a great number of managers or team leaders do not have the proper training to grasp the day-to-day subtleties of management. They have been selected to these positions because of their natural political and people skills. As a result, they perform management tasks based on the “set of management tools” that their personal experience has given to them. It is thus unavoidable that they react more instinctively than with deep understanding of what is going on in their environment.
Surprisingly, this reality does not give result to catastrophic results as projects always end up being delivered and business units end up being profitable. Would it mean that management is not necessarily a science but that it has features of an art? Certainly, as it is taught as a first rule to any management training program. So, complex calculations and the use of mathematics is not a necessity when it comes to leadership; only the application of predefined recipes is enough to give acceptable results.
But here lies the problem: everything in the world is becoming increasingly rational. Customers, firms, and industries are becoming rational. This tendency will unavoidably lead to situations where process optimization and waste elimination is the first priority of every organization. In order to achieve these goals, firms will have to use mathematical (and scientific) tools to take decisions. These decisions will translate into a set of objectives which will in turn require expertise in order to be implemented with success. In this new world, leaders will need to be expertise in scientific management rather that rule of thumb management. In scientific management, I do not include only the application of rational or mathematical models for the supervision of technical issues but also the application of social psychology for a better coordination of human resources.
In world of increasing complexity, the acquisition of competences in both these branches of scientific management will need intense training and as opposed to “on the field training” in current state of affairs. In tomorrow’s world, managers will not be craftsmen or politicians. They will be scientists that will perform planning as in operations management rather than planning as in political campaigns.
The Relationship Between Network Theory and Finance
Asked about the corrupt behavior of a great number of senior managers in the financial sector, proponents of free market have no choice but to admit the necessity of regulations in the industry. After all, the temptation to unethical action is too high when it comes to manage big corporation’s finances: with little consequences (merely more than blame), quasi-frauds can secure an important quantity of wealth for the perpetrator.
Now, it becomes obvious that IT is a tool of predilection when it comes to recording and reviewing financial activity. Only, the number of transactions in one day alone is so high that all chain of transactions cannot be tracked. Instead of looking at all transactions, one must then supervise some transactions over others for the sake of practicality.
For this purpose, a large body of techniques and tools based on pattern recognition, heuristics and social network theories must be available to the financial sector’s regulators in order to effectively supervise important financial activity. We can now only wait before players emerge.