Google's interest in Solaris

Reported in a story on Digg last week, Google is looking into a OpenSolaris as a alternative to their customized Red Hat version of linux. On Digg, this story surprisingly drew quite a few cheers, but as always the hardcore linux community was their to prolaim the story FUD, hersay, & dissinformation.

Sun's and Google's public relationship was amped up last year as Google started to distribute the Java Runtime with the google toolbar. The deal was solidified with a press conference meeting of Scott McNealy, Jon Schwartz and Google CEO Eric Schmidt.

The deal mainly focused on Java and Google's commitment to it. There was no real discussion of
of Google using OpenSolaris as its back bone.

Google is one of the linux communities darling examples of how a company can take off with open source technology. Inexpensive boxes, clustered together, added as google's need for capacity increased. It is no doubt google is facing a a tough decision. Solaris' has made leaps and bonds over linux as of Solaris 10.

Several features featured in Solaris 10 could save google a ton in TCO. Linux now, is more less focused in a futile attempt to take over the desktop world, allowing Sun's attempts to grab IT Admin's and developers attentions with technologies such as Dtrace, Zones, and ZFS.

Sun more or less confirmed the rumor that google is testing opensolaris but did not say if it was to replace their linux systems. Only time will tell if Google takes that major step in converting to Solaris.

1 Person != 1 Digg

Yesterday i posted about the tirade of articles posted to digg about the top 30 users links being featured on the front page. There was 3 articles posted to digg in one day concerning this issue. All 3 were marked as inaccurate or spam before the days end. Which just furthered the outcry of diggers thinking that it was unfair.

Digg is a large online democratic community with over a half of a million users. The vast majority of the community members just log in and digg the articles they like. They don't get in to the "slashdoty" flame bait posted in the comments. They don't spend hours scouring the web for stories to post to digg. They log in on their lunch break or after work/school and quite simply just digg. So with the majority of users only digging that leaves a few to post all the interesting stories we read.

Yesterday i posted that the Digg developers should just leave digg alone and the community would balance itself out. Rose and the crew decided to appease the minority of ill-informed and mess with the algorithm. You cannot perfect democracy!1 Vote for 1 Person right??? Not in the new system. Certain people's diggs are devalued if the article happens to be posted by a friend that they have dugg a few times before. Now all of a sudden your digg isnt quite worth what a digg was before. For using the friend system within Digg? in just doesn't make any sense.

And i say the ill informed minority because they are the few screaming about it on the boards. The top 30 are the top 30 because the post alot and are the first to do so. hundreds of normal diggers digg their stories to get them on the front page. hundreds of diggers marked the 3 stories yesterday as inaccurate because they were just that. Some guy claiming a conspiracy on digg because he doesn't have the ability to get a story posted on the front page.

It's a frustrating and confusing change for people who think for themselves. prompting a few of the top diggers to leave digg. 1 person should equal 1 digg. any other mechanism used and digg is no longer a democracy.

Is Digg Broken??? NOOO!!!

There has been a recent flurry of stories on digg about how the so-called “top 30” basically control what is being dugg to the front page. Some going even as far as to claim that the Digg developers are in “cahoots” with the top 30 to suppress the average joe user.

More or less the scenario is that the top 30 are very active on digg, they are not just casual users. They devote a ton of time doing something they enjoy submitting links and stories from the various corners of the web. The top 30 diggers digg a lot of what the rest of the top 30 submit. Why? Because they submit useful & informative stories? Not because they are trying to keep the “man” down.

It’s seems that a lot of diggers are upset over what they perceive as digg tilting towards a elitist editorial system that has plagued us techies for the previous decade. Many diggers are shouting “let’s bury the fuckers!”, “ban them!”, “the circle-jerk club strikes again”. Suggesting a backlash against the top 30 via auto-burying their stories. In all honesty is auto-burying top diggers any better than people auto-digging their friends? Honestly i think alot of people are basing this on their own inablility to get stories on the front page. The reality is that they probably dont deserve to be.

This reactionary backlash being shown on digg is just that. Over reacting. The top 30 diggers themselves right now do not have the power to keep their stories afloat alone. Who’s doing it then??? It’s Me and you! Normal digg users keep these guys in the top 30 because they constantly submit quality stories and are usually the first to do so. The friend feature is a useful tool on digg it helps sort through the controlled-chaos of FUD, spam, and lame stories. You know those you mark as your friends are like minded and submit quality stuff. A lot of people have befriended the top 30, simple math says they are more likely to be on the front page.

Kevin Rose and the digg crew should (and I believe they do) know that no democratic system is perfect there will always be flaws and people looking to game the system. They should stick to fixing bugs and stay out of the people accusing digg of being unfair, and shouldn’t consider any action against the top 30. Don't play god and let the community/system straighten itself out.

What it comes down to is this is a community problem that the community needs to deal with, if the community deems that the top 30 need to go, and start consistently burying their stories, than such is a democracy, but if people continue to digg the top 30’s stories then don’t cry foul.