Show HN: Bloom – A free and open source 'Google' • Hacker News Board

Re: Show HN: Bloom – A free and open source 'Google'

#101

Post by taormina » Wed, Jun 05, 2019, 11:52 PM UTC

dubcanada wrote: post #44

Probably has nothing to do with anything, but I find it funny that a website trying not to be Google is using Google's Material Design. Ignoring that, this stuff all looks fantastic.

This[0] is an CSS implementation under the MIT license I'm using on 3 different websites[1][2][3] right now. Google can't really take back Material Design at this point (IANAL), which I'd call a feature!

[0] https://materializecss.com [1] https://danger.world [2] https://taormina.io [3] https://www.print2press.com

Re: Show HN: Bloom – A free and open source 'Google'

#102

Post by chabes » Wed, Jun 05, 2019, 11:53 PM UTC

z0mbie42 wrote: post #18

brandonhorst wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

FWIW, I work for Google (not on google.com), and would definitely fit into the "geek" category, and I still assumed you were talking about an OSS search engine.

Hi, currently we absolutely do not plan to create a search engine: it requires too much resources for self hosting, I think we currently have great option for all the spectrum (From Google search to DuckDuckGo), and because an open source search engine will be tricked by all kind of nasty SEO Experts and it will be very hard to promote actually good Content. I dared the Google comparison thinking about it's productiv…

“Productivity is the current foundation, but you can think having a Bloom open source tractor in some years”

Open source agriculture has so much potential for good. I’m surprised it isn’t more of a thing already

Re: Show HN: Bloom – A free and open source 'Google'

#103

Post by patcon » Wed, Jun 05, 2019, 11:56 PM UTC

z0mbie42 wrote: post #75

Animats wrote: post #72

"Bloom Drive" is a paid service. 30GB free, then it starts to cost. "Secured by SSL", which probably means the data is not encrypted against access by them. The Bloom Drive site is one of those sleazy "sign up and then maybe we'll tell you something about what we're selling" sites.[1] You can almost hear the sucking sound of the onboarding funnel. [1] https://bloom.sh/drive

Hi, Thank you for the the harsh feedback. Bloom being open source, if you want a more private option than the hosted service bloom.sh you are totally free to host it yourself. On the other hand, It's just a beta launch, we made it work (and free and open source), and thanks to your feedback, we will make it great :)

I appreciate your generous work, but I think this person is commenting on the lack of any screenshots. That is normally a "smell", no matter how wonderful your intentions are <3

Re: Show HN: Bloom – A free and open source 'Google'

#104

Post by sabujp » Wed, Jun 05, 2019, 11:58 PM UTC

The Bloom logo is almost the same as the google cloud logo just folded differently : https://yt3.ggpht.com/a/AGF-l79_dlSqckoEPCco9JxnGmDLrq-F10w0...

Re: Show HN: Bloom – A free and open source 'Google'

#105

Post by chabes » Thu, Jun 06, 2019, 12:03 AM UTC

z0mbie42 wrote: post #97

austhrow743 wrote: post #82

I like what you're trying to do and definitely something id use when it's more mature. Not a comment on the quality or feature set, i just like to know tech isn't going to stop being supported after I spend time migrating to it. I do have to say though that I think you're really setting yourself up to underwhelm with that Google comparison. Google is absolutely a search engine first and foremost in everyone's minds.…

You are totally right, and we put a big warning that data saved during the Beta may be lost. Regarding Google, and after all these comments maybe 'Apple' is more accurate.

Apple makes hardware.

I think what might be more accurate is something along the lines of G Suite. Though, without email, it still might not be the best comparison

Re: Show HN: Bloom – A free and open source 'Google'

#106

Post by z0mbie42 » Thu, Jun 06, 2019, 12:10 AM UTC

sabujp wrote: post #104

The Bloom logo is almost the same as the google cloud logo just folded differently : https://yt3.ggpht.com/a/AGF-l79_dlSqckoEPCco9JxnGmDLrq-F10w0...

I didn't even notice this one haha

So to be clear, yes as the title mention, Google was a source of inspiration (especially their material design documentation), but foolishly copying is not our goal :)

Re: Show HN: Bloom – A free and open source 'Google'

#107

Post by z0mbie42 » Thu, Jun 06, 2019, 12:12 AM UTC

bradknowles wrote: post #86

z0mbie42 wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hi, Productivity is the current foundation, but you can think having an open source Bloom tractor in some years. I've dared the Google comparison, because I see Google as an innovative tech giant who have an app for all our needs. We have the same goal. But open source.

With respect, if you're not targeting Google Search, then you're not targeting "Google". You don't help your case by misleading your prospective customers, who are themselves self-identified "geeks" who might be able to help you make this goal a success.

After all the feedback I think a better comparison would be Apple.

I used 'Google' because it's really clear for everyone how this company is shaping the world (for the better or the worst).

Re: Show HN: Bloom – A free and open source 'Google'

#108

Post by z0mbie42 » Thu, Jun 06, 2019, 12:14 AM UTC

patcon wrote: post #103

z0mbie42 wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hi, Thank you for the the harsh feedback. Bloom being open source, if you want a more private option than the hosted service bloom.sh you are totally free to host it yourself. On the other hand, It's just a beta launch, we made it work (and free and open source), and thanks to your feedback, we will make it great :)

I appreciate your generous work, but I think this person is commenting on the lack of any screenshots. That is normally a "smell", no matter how wonderful your intentions are <3

+1, thank you for clarification.

Just didn't had time to setup it before launching.

Re: Show HN: Bloom – A free and open source 'Google'

#109

Post by z0mbie42 » Thu, Jun 06, 2019, 12:17 AM UTC

paxys wrote: post #69

z0mbie42 wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some friend said the same thing, I've to admit that I'm not a designer and found the inspiration from the brand who spend big bucks on their logos.

In case the product gets popular you are 100% getting a copyright notice from Google, so may as well change it now rather than after the brand is established

On the other hand there is absolutely no copyright infringement, it's only the result of following material design guidelines.

Re: Show HN: Bloom – A free and open source 'Google'

#110

Post by AgentME » Thu, Jun 06, 2019, 12:21 AM UTC

I've been using Google Play Music with my own music collection uploaded into it, and I've loved how easy it makes it to play my music collection on any of my devices now. I no longer have to mess about with syncing my music files across my devices, use a different music player on each device, and inevitably have to re-create my playlists on each device because they don't support the same playlist format.

However, it bugs me that Google Play Music isn't under my control at all. There's a few features from Rhythmbox I would like in it (around how it handles queuing music while listening to a collection), I wish I could share my music collection with my partner, and I wish I could synchronize playing music across multiple devices. Listening to music is something I do during a big fraction of my waking hours; I'd like to be able to edit the code for that. Also Google is discontinuing GPM in favor of YouTube Music at some point, which doesn't yet have the private collection features of GPM and it's unclear what features from GPM are going to be copied over. I really don't like not knowing what's going to happen to an application I use in so much of my life. Regardless of how it turns out, it feels like I've made a mistake to find myself in this position.

It disappointed me that there don't seem to be good open source solutions for "play my private music collection from the cloud". That's not the sort of thing that the classic Linux / open source community focuses on for example, which I think is a sign of it falling behind the times. I'd started thinking that I would love an open source GPM alternative that contained the cloud collection functionality, and it's awesome that this project looks like it's going for this open-source cloud philosophy that seems to have been un-pursued.