Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

What is Google doing with its open source teams?

theregister.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

271–280 of 339 posts

Re: What is Google doing with its open source teams?

#271

Post by osigurdson »

cmrdporcupine wrote: post #110
osigurdson wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think Microsoft's strength was their weakness in a sense. They had so much O/S related experience and assets that no one could fathom not using Windows as the core. Imagine explaining to your MS middle manager that writing a new O/S from scratch is a good idea - especially with Balmer at the helm.

Apple didn't write an OS from scratch either. iOS was really a fork of OS X, and followed on the experience Apple & NeXT had in porting NeXTstep around various architectures. Something that MS also had a lot of experience with, with NT. Apple won/created this market on fit and finish, excellent marketing, singular focused execution, and supply chain genius. With wince, Microsoft was running around farming out their O…

I like this hypothesis better than mine.

Re: What is Google doing with its open source teams?

#272

Post by biztos »

AStellersSeaCow wrote: post #254
bagacrap wrote: post #236

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would take it a step further and deny that the layoffs were botched. How are you supposed to broadcast this information such that everyone learns at the same time and in the right way? Of course badges stop working when you're let go. What possible good can come of leaving the badges on? All it takes is one in 12000 disgruntled ex-employees to make it not worth it.

Yeah, I hate the way they were conducted but can't think of a better way that wouldn't open the company up to a lot of risk. I'm not convinced that announcing them in advance is actually better anyways. We have partner teams in Europe who get to spend a month or more after the announcement worrying about whether or not they still have a job. Morale on the teams in the US took a noticeable hit, but the teams in EU hav…

I was laid off in the EU (not from Google, and not in this wave) — and yeah, productivity completely tanked for months while we waited for the relevant information to seep through HR’s stonewalling.

I think it’s better to have some warning, but it would have been great if they could have said “your job ends in three months, here are your options” instead of leaving people hanging while they figured out the details on the corporate side. Or even, if paranoid about disgruntled employees, to say “welcome to your garden leave, here are your options.”

Re: What is Google doing with its open source teams?

#273

Post by scarface74 »

pm90 wrote: post #266
scarface74 wrote: post #264

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes I’m sure as one of the top paying public companies that issue stock instead of Monopoly money (equity in private companies) tech people are going to refuse to work for Google.

Their compensation isn’t that good (at least for non famous folks) within Big Tech.

Compared to who? Amazon (my employer)? Apple? Microsoft? Facebook?

As far as I know the rankings were

- Facebook (but I don’t hate myself enough to consider working there)

- Google

- Amazon

- Apple

- Microsoft

But Facebook has had a worse stock price drop than the rest.

Re: What is Google doing with its open source teams?

#274

Post by nerdbert »

vineyardmike wrote: post #113
phpisthebest wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is based on huge assumptions, and it is unclear how the internal billing works (i.e is the Ad business consuming AWS services "free" or is there internal chargebacks happening). Is the AWS Revenue just from external customers using the services.

> is the Ad business consuming AWS services "free" or is there internal chargebacks happening AWS bills Amazon an internal rate. It’s a closely held secret that few employees know but supposedly it’s better than at-cost.

How could that work? Don't managers have budgets? Do they get drugged and blindfolded while their departments' AWS costs are deducted every month?

Re: What is Google doing with its open source teams?

#275

Post by defrost »

biztos wrote: post #268
pjmlp wrote: post #174

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In vacations on Mediterranean islands it took us through barely usable "roads" in the middle of a forest trail, thankfully nothing bad came out of it. Beats me how it was supposed to be a fuel saving road, other than doing that by virtue of destroying the car.

In the Canary Islands it took us down a utility road that was literally being used as a mountain mike trail. We were in an Opel Corso. Fortunately a beater, and my friend’s superior driving skill got us out, but just barely. We were resigned to abandoning the car… and Google had treated it just like a regular paved road.

Probably best to avoid the Connie Sue Highway and other roads of the Len Beadell desert network then.

Re: What is Google doing with its open source teams?

#276

Post by GauntletWizard »

nvarsj wrote: post #222
enos_feedler wrote: post #220

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This ratio is key. Impact/pay. And from what I gathered working there until 2020, impact was starting to weigh more on how you elevate others around you. Meaning leadership. These “stars” might have personal brand power, but if they are collecting big pay and even working “hard” it might not be enough

IME, having worked with "tech celebrities", the veneer they can work so hard on maintaining isn't exactly reflective of actually working with them. I worked with one particularly famous person, who barely did anything internally, and spent all their time on external conferences and talks to preserve their external reputation - mostly coasting on past accomplishments. Not saying that's what happened here, but public v…

Not to argue at all, but for some of those hires "Maintain Google's Brand Image in X Category" is their job - They're not there to work hard and drive innovation in those sectors, but to represent that Google hires and does work in that area.

Re: What is Google doing with its open source teams?

#277

Post by XorNot »

doktorhladnjak wrote: post #52
darkerside wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This doesn't quite line up for me. Ballmer, for his lack of technical foresight, managed an incredibly profitable business. People act like anybody could have just stepped in to milk Windows and Office for all they were worth, but the focus and execution are easy to scoff at in hindsight. If MS had focused on mobile, who's to say they would have succeeded? And perhaps in the process of losing, also ceded dominance to…

I worked at Microsoft during the Ballmer era. Profits and revenue continued to increase under his watch. They did invest in mobile from fairly early. Microsoft was selling smart phones (through third party manufacturers) in the early 2000s. They just executed very poorly on mobile by building the wrong thing for the wrong customers. By the time leadership figured this out and started to pour money into Windows Phone,…

Culturally my impression is Microsoft was never happy about digital distribution or really grokked it: even today, things like the System File Checker will ask for original installation media rather then just downloading whatever they need from Microsoft when a problem is found.

Like it has always broadly felt like they were very late to the party on comprehending where software was headed (caught up pretty well with O365, but that seems like leveraging then entrenched nature of Office successfully).

Re: What is Google doing with its open source teams?

#278

Post by sombragris »

hortense wrote: post #216
sombragris wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Okay, but then, why fire such rockstars as Di Bona and Allison?? These are not coasters. AT&T and whatever company inherited the Bell Labs might have done rounds after rounds of layoffs but never fired Dennis Ritchie, for example. People such as DiBona and Allison are assets to any company who can afford to hire them. This is simply unexplainable.

> These are not coasters. Citation needed. Even if they were not coasters, I suspect they had a fat paycheck disproportionate to what they brought to the company.

> Citation needed. Even if they were not coasters, I suspect they had a fat paycheck disproportionate to what they brought to the company.

Your suspicion is what would need to be substantiated. Contributions made by these people are well known.

Re: What is Google doing with its open source teams?

#279

Post by enos_feedler »

GauntletWizard wrote: post #276
nvarsj wrote: post #222

Earlier quoted context omitted.

IME, having worked with "tech celebrities", the veneer they can work so hard on maintaining isn't exactly reflective of actually working with them. I worked with one particularly famous person, who barely did anything internally, and spent all their time on external conferences and talks to preserve their external reputation - mostly coasting on past accomplishments. Not saying that's what happened here, but public v…

Not to argue at all, but for some of those hires "Maintain Google's Brand Image in X Category" is their job - They're not there to work hard and drive innovation in those sectors, but to represent that Google hires and does work in that area.

Imagine learning that was your job.

Re: What is Google doing with its open source teams?

#280

Post by cmrdporcupine »

thedorkknight wrote: post #260
downrightmike wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is a Capital Revolt. Workers were getting too comfortable, and now Money is teaching them a lesson

We got a little blip in human history where employers were forced to treat their employees like actual people. Was nice while it lasted. Back to having a boot stomping on our faces again...

"history where [some tech industry, only] employers were forced"
Post reply on HN