Google at work on desktop Linux?

Reports that Google Inc. is experimenting in-house with the Linux incarnation Ubuntu have excited speculation that the Internet's most recognisable search tool may be considering an assault on the desktop operating system software market - in other words, on the Microsoft almost-opoly.

Google have denied the reports, claiming that Ubuntu is in "internal use" only, not part of any product development and not intended for distribution. They've also rubbished the 'Goobuntu' name that some articles have attached to the putative OS.

However, this has done little to stop the blog-driven spread of the rumour particularly down channels where the anti-Microsoft lobby are strongest. Is this the start of a new era of competition in the operating system market?

There's no doubt that Google is seen as a natural contender to take on the Microsoft juggernaut. In many ways its success parallels the earlier rise to prominence of Bill Gates' operating system giant: through luck and shrewd management be in the right place at the right time when a particular market sector explodes, then quickly rise to a visible pre-eminence which in both cases only represents the tip of a long list of alliances and cooperative ventures.

Moreover, in recent weeks Google has fallen foul of regulatory authority in a way that brings to mind Microsoft at its totalitarian height. Even their technical development shares parallels; both have gradually grown and added their own functionality until (in Windows' case) outgrowing their foundation platform and evolving into an OS in its own right. Google has yet to take the final step, but many see it as inevitable.

The more pragmatic souls in the online community point out that Microsoft has faced down such challenges before - from their early rivalry with OS2 to later scuffles with Linux-based operating systems from Corel, Sun and Novell among others.

Even the threat that Microsoft's left and right hands might be forced into competition with each other seems to have proved toothless. Given history, it's unlikely that many of the Redmond staffers are polishing their CVs today, fearing that Google's executives will be calling dibs on their office furniture any time soon.

Linux apologists point to a number of reasons why earlier efforts to dethrone DOS and Windows have failed, such as the company being already moribund when they ventured into the Linux market, or that they reached too far outside their specialist area without first putting in a supporting infrastructure, but even granting that Google learned from history, other obstacles to the development exist; the difficulty of implementing new and upgraded drivers on Linux systems given hardware vendors reluctance to release full specifications; support for the latest Digital Rights Management software for media downloads.

These are issues that help to decide the fundamental structure of a modern operating system, and Google would have to solve many more like them to make a contender's entrance into the market.

The crucial question is whether development into an OS would represent a win situation for Google and truthfully, it's hard to see that it would.

Google does very well out of the Windows OS; thorny issues of connectivity, presentation, hardware integration, memory management and all those other housekeeping chores are addressed, leaving Google to do what Google does best - and do it well, evidently, with Q4 2005 revenues up 86% on the same period in the previous year. A venture into OS-hood would be a continued great consumer of resources without the promise of a balancing income in the longer term; many feel that advertising, Google's principle money-spinner, has no place on their desktop.

All in all I believe it's safe for the moment to rely on three things; Microsoft will continue at the top of the OS pyramid; the search will go on for a viable Linux competitor; and that search? It'll use Google.

Opera Software announces a full Web browser runs on almost every mobile phone

Opera Software has announced the worldwide release of Opera Mini, a full Web browser based on Java, that runs on almost every mobile phone, including low- and mid-end handsets.

Opera Mini is available free of charge via WAP download, or for a small fee via SMS. Users can simply send an SMS or direct the phone's WAP browser to http://mini.opera.com.

The software compresses Web pages by up to 80% and reformats them using Opera's Small-Screen Rendering technology for easy and fast browsing on small, mobile screens. For the end-user, this means faster browsing and dramatically reduced phone bills for those who pay per KB in data traffic.

Opera Mini's start page features a Google search box for quick access to Web search. And the customizable bookmark list makes it easy to save and surf your favorite sites.

Opera Mini is available in the following languages: English, German, Spanish, French, Russian, Polish, Norwegian, Swedish, Danish, Finnish. More languages will be available shortly.

Microsoft Offers Windows Source Code for Licensing

Microsoft General Counsel Brad Smith has announced Microsoft’s decision to license all the Windows Server source code for the technologies covered by the European Commission’s Decision of March 2004.

The voluntary move addresses all of the issues raised by the Commission’s 22 December 2005 Statement of Objections, which asserted that Microsoft’s prior technical documentation provided insufficient information to enable licensees to implement successfully certain Windows Server communications protocols.

“Today we are putting our most valuable intellectual property on the table so we can put technical compliance issues to rest and move forward with a serious discussion about the substance of this case,” said Brad Smith, Microsoft Senior Vice President and General Counsel. “The Windows source code is the ultimate documentation of Windows Server technologies. With this step our goal is to resolve all questions about the sufficiency of our technical documentation.”

Microsoft is going a step ahead of the European Commission’s March 2004 decision to provide companies with the technical specifications of its proprietary communications protocols. A reference license to the Windows Server source code will provide software developers a precise and authoritative description of the Windows protocol technologies. With it, software developers will be entitled to view the Windows source code in order to better understand how to develop products that interoperate with Windows, but not to copy Microsoft’s source code.

For server software developers who take a license under this program, Microsoft previously had created more than twelve thousand pages of technical documentation covering specifications for the communications protocols covered by the 2004 Decision as well additional technology going beyond those protocols.

In addition, Microsoft previously offered voluntarily to provide up to five hundred hours of free technical support from experienced Microsoft professionals who can answer any questions licensees might have. With this announcement Microsoft has supplemented these resources with a new license for all of the Windows Server source code that implements all of the communications protocols covered by the 2004 Decision.

Microsoft has a similar protocol licensing program that was established in the United States pursuant to a consent decree there, covering certain protocols in the Windows desktop operating system. More than 20 companies have taken licenses to Microsoft’s protocols under that program and many are shipping products incorporating such protocols.

To continue to foster consistency between both licensing programs, Microsoft has decided to make available for the desktop protocols the same reference license for source code it is offering for server protocols, and the company will provide competition authorities in the United States with information so they can consider the matter.