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What is Google doing with its open source teams?

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

#291

Post by osigurdson »

cpeterso wrote: post #218
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.

I read recently that the Xbox team maintained Ballmer’s support for their project by leading him to believe the Xbox would run Windows, while they were actually writing a dedicated console OS.

They likely had to promise that it would run Office as well.

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

#292

Post by csomar »

spaceman_2020 wrote: post #136
spinningslate wrote: post #23

I've no inside knowledge on Google, so can't comment on the rationale for selecting those being let go. From the outside though, Google under Pichai increasingly looks like Microsoft under Ballmer in the late 2000s/early 2010s. Balmer was lauded for delivering good numbers from a dominant market position. That was fine - until it wasn't. Under his watch, Microsoft completely misjudged the internet and totally missed…

The three Google products I use most frequently - Gmail, Search, Maps - have been underperforming heavily lately. Search is useless unless you really tailor your query to find organic results (throwing in "reddit.com" is almost a necessity). Gmail frequently lets harmful spam slip through, sometimes even tagging it with an 'important' label. The decline in Maps has been the most visible, mostly because it has negativ…

Maps decline has been a real annoyance for me. I’ve dropped all of Google products: mail, years ago for Fastmail; search, I pay for Kagi; youtube, I pay netflix and spotify; docs, I use it at work but still looking for alternatives; voice, Skype does well. I’m almost off the Google bandwagon. I think if there is a good map system out-there, I’d finally have no dependency on the whole Google stack.

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

#293

Post by EdwardDiego »

scarface74 wrote: post #265
EdwardDiego wrote: post #232

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yesterday I searched "apache kafka" on my phone because I can never remember if it's apache.kafka.org or kafka.apache.org (it's the latter, the former is registered by an Italian developer), and I had to scroll past five or six "sponsored" results from managed Kafka vendors to get the actual result. Nevermind the changes to the actual algorithm, it just blew me away that the actual result was below the cut.

How do you even view the web especially on mobile without an ad blocker?

I have an ad blocker, but it's not aggressive enough to remove sponsored search results.

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

#294

Post by kweingar »

noorkersz wrote: post #2

step one: shift the focus from free software (liberty minded software) on to "open source" software. i.e. software which you can look but not touch. step two: profit

> step one: shift the focus from free software (liberty minded software) on to "open source" software. i.e. software which you can look but not touch

I’m pretty sure when you say “look but not touch,” you’re talking about project governance, where outside contributors have limited input into the direction of the project. If that’s the case, I don’t like this conflation of governance and “freedom”. Google’s open source software is free software by all definitions (including FSF).

For a project to be open source or free software, users need to have the “four essential freedoms”. The ability to get your changes merged upstream is not one of those freedoms.

It is totally valid to criticize the corporate governance model of open source software. But it’s best not to confuse our already overloaded definitions by saying that corporate software with a free license isn’t really “free.”

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

#295

Post by bushbaba »

varelse wrote: post #31
bushbaba wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pichai never fully supported google cloud either. The fact google cloud exists is thanks to Amit Singh’s leadership. Palo Alto networks is lucky to have such a visionary CBO at their helm.

Too bad about all the sexual harassment, but he was good people.

Wrong Amit. You are thinking about the google search Amit. That’s a different google exec.

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

#296

Post by scarface74 »

EdwardDiego wrote: post #293
scarface74 wrote: post #265

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How do you even view the web especially on mobile without an ad blocker?

I have an ad blocker, but it's not aggressive enough to remove sponsored search results.

Which one do you have? 1Blocker for iOS removed an ad for Confluent when I did your same search before I disabled it.

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

#297

Post by raydev »

sumeno wrote: post #128
cmrdporcupine wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because that in particular will freak everyone else in the company out, and .. most importantly... Google is no longer scared about those people going to their competition, because their competition is also flushing talent away. In the past, Google was willing to dump all sorts of cash into talent as long as it kept people from creating a truly competitive landscape. Now, they don't have to worry as much. The layoffs…

Random layoffs that affect high performers and low performers equally doesn't encourage performing higher. If anything it encourages performing lower because why bother if it's not going to even save your job?

Because it doesn't matter. The idea that these companies are overflowing with "low performers" is a complete myth, a lie that people use to comfort themselves.

The Big Names are actually filled with so many smart and productive people that it doesn't matter who they lay off.

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

#298

Post by raydev »

temp-goog wrote: post #221
bbor wrote: post #36

As a google employee (who obviously has no privileged info) I really don’t buy this whole activist-investor explanation for the layoffs. Besides the fact that the investors in question own I’m much more convinced by the argument that they saw this sector-wide wave of layoffs as an opportunity to scare their engineers and change the culture to be a more intense, hierarchical one. Google engineering culture has long be…

Here’s some reliable second-hand information I’m posting on this one-off account. Take this with whatever degree of salt you wish. My understanding from somebody in a position to know is each VP was given a target/quota of cuts. Then they basically had big spreadsheets with salaries and performance ratings, and then pseudo-blindly cut teams or people to make quotas without input from directors/managers, and gave thos…

> I won’t work someplace my tenure is based on a dice roll.

Having lived through multiple layoffs in the last few years, I'm not sure there's any org larger than, just handwaving here, 1k people that doesn't do this.

I think you'd have to go to a startup before your absence is actually felt.

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

#299

Post by bcrosby95 »

bagacrap wrote: post #245
AStellersSeaCow wrote: post #239

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> You are not privy to either the list of employees who were let go or their historical performance reviews I know this local to my org. I can say first-hand that most low performers from the current and prior cycles were not impacted by the layoffs, while people who were high performers in the current and/or prior cycles were impacted by the layoffs. The experiences of other people managers within the company (and a…

Yes, clearly certain product areas were targeted which makes obvious business sense. But you're making it sound like high performers were actually targeted by these layoffs, which is patently ridiculous. My own anecdata confirms that /only/ low performers or people working on projects that should never have existed to begin with were let go.

I've some pretty "hilarious" things about the round of firing.

For example, one friend mentioned that someone on his team was let go while they were on call and actively handling a security incident.

Another person had two people critical to their project laid off. They didn't cut the whole team, just the two most critical people. Regardless, that team is kinda up shit creek now, but still employed by Google.

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

#300

Post by adrianN »

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...

The worker bonanza is only starting in many countries. Ageing populations mean that there is a severe labor shortage coming in the next decade or two.
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