Do we have any choice?

Really?

OS "principles" were discarded the minute packet transmissions took over your data flow like an hybrid cloud of linked PCs and yet, manufactured to compete.

There's nothing next, since everything is always (not to say, continually) current or bound to fail at the user levels.

It's not an OS people want, it's an SO (as in, Standardized operations)... best will never be enough anyway.

You can find optimal, it's simply buffered on hardwares or bandwidths.

You don't think Windows calls home? It does...

I know that... to submit error reports; to provide update requirements/data, etc.  So??  In this day and age of constant security threats and scumbage seeking ways to control/break our machines, one needs an OS that keeps pace with all that and the evolving times.  Does MS collect personally identifiable information?  Well it says not... and being that I have never had issues with MS sending me marketing spam or anything else annoying, I have greater reason to trust MS than Google, which constantly is in your face if you let it.

The thing is, Google is purely a profit seeking marketing company with a few side projects - GoogleEarth and other 'phone home' apps to lure people in/give a false impression that they're good guys - and as such one can not trust its new OS not phone home with personal data to further Google's aims and goals.  It's the whole power and money thing, and in this day and age of high powered marketing, knowledge is power and money.  At the end of the day, the only ones Google has to ultimately please are its advertising clients....users of Google apps don't matter... so long as they're providing personal data/purchasing habits.

As stated earlier, I refuse to use Google apps and/or services, but what really pissed me off was that Google could still track my (everyone else's) internet usage/movements via Goofgle-syndication and Google-analytics.  And don't say they can't or don't!  Google admitted that it had the dirt on those Chinese individuals the Chinese Government wanted to prosecute, but refused to turn it over.  However, how long is it before "Do No Evil" becomes "Ah, More Cash" and they sell out to the highest bidder(s)??????

You don't get it do you? Windows calls home and  MS data mines and uses the info just like Google. 

where?

the only places i see tailored ads are 1. on the google search results 2. facebook(this one pisses me off the most) 3. servers running the google ads client. never see them on MS sites. of course MS Sites advertise their own products, but wtf do you expect? and i'm pretty sure those aren't tailored.

As the previous poster asked... where???  I have never, ever been targetted by MS ads/spam/marketing... period.  Yes, I see Microsoft ads when I visit its sites, but those are broad-based consumer ads and not not the result of data mining... suggesting to me that Microsoft is far more trustworthy than is Google with regard to data mining,etc.

Research some Microsoft technologies and implementations for things such as:

Windows Genuine Advantage and its associated wgalogon.dll process for most (all current?) Windows OS versions.

and my personal favorite, the euphemism for untrustworthy computing known as the "Trusted Computing" model for Vista and 7.

Data collection and, in some important ways, control over administrator-level (and Ring 0) processes go beyond just "[submitting] error reports, providing update requirements/data, etc." that you write about.

P.S. I want to be clear that I *also* have similar concerns with Google and Google OS.

It takes 25 years for a mainstream operating system to mature and become fully stable, as all mainframe and unix flavours have demonstrated for decades.  By that guise Microsoft still have another 6 years to go ....  and going by Win7 its starting to look like they will do just that.

Google "OS"  will not be a serious OS for a good many years to come - even if that is their game plan, which I doubt - although I hope it does evolve that way, competition is a good thing.  I suspect it will eventually go the Firefox route of focusing development on a niche market - not try to be all things to all people. In the same way that Firefox in domestic and small companies is good, but a nightmare waiting to unleash a firestorm on the big Corporate networks - its not built for them, whereas IE has to be designed for both markets - big and small.

Google are not stupid, they obviously have a game plan in mind, and it will not be making it a Mainstream OS anytime soon, so it will be interesting to see what they do with it over the next few years.  I doubt its more than a footnote in MS Executive briefing folders at present, and is likely to stay that way for a good many years yet despite the Full Blown Hype the Media will give this.

Regards
Zy

Let me say that I am under no illusion about Microsoft, it is no goody two shoes and it obviously looks out for its own interests.

However, I believe Google to be far less trustworthy.. that its interpretation of "Do No Evil" is completely different to an honest, decent person's way of thinking.

I didn't understand the point of showing here verbatim the GPL which everyone knows. Linux has "strings" attached. Those "strings" boil down to having to provide source code when distributing for free or money any programs under its license, including modifications to that program. That's it.  That's far less "strings" than your basic MS-EULA for every MS product, including the "new" Windows 7.  That's why MS basically hates free/open source software, it doesnt have have a timebomb in their legalese.

Good points. Thanks.

While 'unboiled' the reality is that there ARE strings....contrary to Kona's claims, hence the posting of what MOST people are entirely ignorant of [I know...preposition]....and I bet bugger-all people have read it....still.

I doubt MS cares anything at all about 'free/open source software'... it co-exists quite happily - each to his own.

If it [open source software] actually made a noticeable financial 'hit' on MS then they "may" raise a collective eyebrow....

...but really it's a non-issue...

Microsoft does think open source is a threat.

http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/169619/microsoft_acknowledges_linux_threat_to_windows_client.html

[quote]Microsoft does think open source is a threat.

http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/169619/microsoft_acknowledges_linux_threat_to_windows_client.html[/quote]

microsoft can never go out of business-the linux & mac users will still need it to maintain vmware/parralells/bootcamp/installations of xp/vista/7

too bad the alternative OS users spend so much time in windows emulations...

Lasdt time I checked they don't. Where do you get your info from?