HIG Newsletter 11 - Google Wave or Tsunami

Heavyweight Internet Group Newsletter
Issue 11 - Google Wave or Tsunami?
September 1, 2005

by Sean Hull
<shull@iheavy.com>
Founder and Senior Consultant
Heavyweight Internet Group

Welcome to our free monthly newsletter, discussing news, developments and business best practices at the intersection of Oracle and Open Source software. 

Please forward to interested friends and colleagues.  Subscription information can be found at the end.

We are now writing material regularly for our sister site http://oracleopensource.com so check there for more frequent updates.

Google Wave or Tsunami?

With the recent announcement  of Google's desktop messaging and VOIP client, the industry is full of analysis about how it will impact the playing field.  Some argue that it's foray into VOIP will bring that much more attention to the amazing and destabalizing technology.  Some are also arguing interestingly that the new client could open up the instant messaging generally, which would be a big win for consumers.

Google's new client Google Talk  is based on an Open Source application called Jabber  which is like a multi-lingual IM client, able to talk to AOL, ICQ, MSN and Yahoo, assuming you have  an account on all of those.  That they've embraced an Open platform, is further evidence of Google's general trajectory of opening up areas of computing formerly held in rigid grip by commercial vendors, and proprietary protocols.

The discussion of Google Talk has also interestingly rekindled the rumors over a possible Google or Web OS.  Jason Kottke discusses this in depth as does Silicon Beat.  These discussions are no mere Slashdot scuttlebut, but ruminations by industry figures who likely have their finger on the Google pulse.

What would such an OS look like is anyone's guess.  But if Tom Friedman has anything to say about it, the forces making the world a flatter playing field for business include work flow software, open protocols and Open Source software in general.   A flat playing field, like the internet, routes around monopolies, and finds ways to do business and computing cheaper, more efficiently and better.  

Open Source News

A comparison of TCO between Windows and Linux:
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=100000028WT4

A Discussion of Open Source on Windows:
http://www.infoworld.com/article/05/07/06/28OPstrategic_1.html

CTO of Athena Healthcare discusses open source integration
http://news.com.com/Unlocking+the+enterprise+for+open+source/2100-7344_3-5840338.html?tag=nefd.lede

Success Story of Cendant Travel saves close to $100 million
http://www.cio.com/archive/070105/cendant.html

A changing software landscape
http://www.cbronline.com/article_news.asp?guid=96BD2055-DC6E-4D49-B0CF-50C52AEFFD14


Heavyweight Internet Group - Technical Articles

Tracking the Wily Proxy Hackers

Asterisk Calling Card Applications

MySQL Disaster Recovery

Dummy's Guide to Linux Firewalls

Wireless Truth or Dare

Mirroring for the Impatient

Migrating a MySQL Database to Oracle