I agree, the thought of the entire end-to-end internet experience (OS, browser, ISP, DNS, search, hosting, etc.) all within the smothering confines of a single company is something I don't look forward to, regardless of whether that company is MS or IBM or Google or Apple or anyone.
To Google's credit, they've open sourced some of the work they've done (GWT, Chrome, Chrome OS, etc.) so in theory there's a pressure relief valve there. One of the great boons of open source is that it does provide that pressure valve so that people have alternatives if mainstream software becomes too oppressive (though this is a side benefit, a lot of OSS is as good as or better than the commercial alternatives).
It's really a shame that nobody has yet figured out how to compete fully with Google. There have been a lot of attempts, but there is still such a huge gap that's it's somewhat disheartening. Google revolutionized server management, data center management, and web application development nearly a decade ago and nobody has really caught up to them on all counts yet. I'm not sure whether that's a testament to their genius or to the sad state of the rest of the industry, but it looks like it's likely to be a controlling factor in the nature of the internet for some time to come.
To Google's credit, they've open sourced some of the work they've done (GWT, Chrome, Chrome OS, etc.) so in theory there's a pressure relief valve there. One of the great boons of open source is that it does provide that pressure valve so that people have alternatives if mainstream software becomes too oppressive (though this is a side benefit, a lot of OSS is as good as or better than the commercial alternatives).
It's really a shame that nobody has yet figured out how to compete fully with Google. There have been a lot of attempts, but there is still such a huge gap that's it's somewhat disheartening. Google revolutionized server management, data center management, and web application development nearly a decade ago and nobody has really caught up to them on all counts yet. I'm not sure whether that's a testament to their genius or to the sad state of the rest of the industry, but it looks like it's likely to be a controlling factor in the nature of the internet for some time to come.