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Comment by proactivesvcs | Hacker News Reader

I almost posted a funny reply in the throng of the comments, then realised I don't want to jeopardise my Google account. I didn't reply.

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This right here. Many people say things like “Google would never…”, and they might be right. But that’s not what matters, what matters is people’s beliefs about what Google would do. And this is why Google should have absolutely no influence over your web browser, your programming language, etc. Again, that’s perceived influence, not actual influence. The fear exists regardless.

> your programming language

This is something I've been thinking about. Does anyone avoid Go the way that they avoid other google products? Why or why not? I've been liking it a lot lately as a systems programming language but am not sure how to parse the google side of the equation, as I try to avoid most google offerings

> Does anyone avoid Go […]

Well, I do, and I’ve written about it here before¹, but I usually get only downvotes for saying it.

1. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17162582 and earlier https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8733705

Thanks for this, it is important to consider the trend of company-owned languages and what it means to participate in that. It'll probably knock me off of Go eventually. Unfortunately I don't see many alternatives that have all the benefits I like about go, but I'll keep looking

Go is one of the few Google things that I will actually use and promote.

I completely understand your justified fear of putting so much stake into a company owned language. It is completely reasonable.

But, since Go is only indirectly benefitting Google (as most of their non-ads products do) then I do not feel that using it is contributing anymore to Google's bottom-line or control than visiting an arbitrary website that uses Google Analytics, or using an Android phone, etc. will do.

But, an important discussion for the Go community (and any company-owned language) to have would be one around the hypothetical of Google shutting off it's contributions to the language.

> But, an important discussion for the Go community (and any company-owned language) to have would be one around the hypothetical of Google shutting off it's contributions to the language.

A discussion would not solve the problem. The most Google (for example) could say is “we would never do that”, and then what? What makes this reliable. Google would instead have to change its image so as to not seem arbitrary and capricious in its bannings. Which they can’t.

I thought that it would be obvious that I was referring to a community discussion with or without Google's participation. It should also be obvious that "we would never do that" does not satisfy as a reasonable conclusion to said proposed discussion.

It's rather irritating that a more generous interpretation of my comment was not considered here. Perhaps assume that my comment is not some attack on you or defense of corporate languages but rather an intellectual pursuit of a more nuanced scenario than just "good/bad" judgements?

> I thought that it would be obvious that I was referring to a community discussion

I am sorry for misunderstanding, but it was not obvious to me. Perhaps because I would assume that such a discussion would be useless; if Google stops supporting Go, the language is dead, period.

Yes I do, specifically because it is a google product. I have no interest.

More out of principle than any kind of real reason. I don't want to play any part in google getting its tentacles into yet another part of my computer. I know it makes no real difference either way, but there's something about the idea of 'even the language the app's programmed in is owned by google' that just kinda makes me uncomfortable.

> Does anyone avoid Go the way that they avoid other google products?

Hell yes!

Also: It was dead for me the moment a *giant search engine company* decided naming something with 2 letters is a good idea.

That is either proof of being completely negligent with regards to wasting people's time in terms of making their work more difficult; or it is proof of bragging how good your search engine is.

Neither is a favorable thing to do. And actually probably both apply, people do probably miss a lot of good search results on Go no matter how smart their search engine is.

And you can't force everyone in every nook and cranny of the Internet to spell it "golang".

I've always looked at their "soft projects" like Golang, HTTP3, QUIC and I guess, Mozilla, as purely ways for them to influence technology in ways that profit their motives, rather than contributing for the sake of improving the industry. It's the long game for them, and it seems to be effective.

The title on HN was also changed.

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