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Exploring alternate avenues of research?
One of the trends these days is to revisit paths of research that were cut off in the past. This is occurring in medicine, nuclear physics, biology, electric vehicles, materials research etc. Imagine where we'd be if those different research paths had continued to be funded.
I like that google is willing to experiment in multiple directions. Will they all work? Probably not, but shutting one down before it's been taken as far as it can, just because another seems more promising at present may be a losing proposition in the long run.
Could it cause some confusion in the marketplace? Of course...as can multiple products from different manufacturers. The Chrome OS? It's pretty much a niche thing relegated to the knowledge banks of geeks, at least relative to Android which is becoming more mainstream now.
And you're right about packaging. Linux is mainstream, but only in one variant - OSX...and you have to believe that 2-5% of the market of new computers constitutes mainstream.
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