<p>Aren't companies, especially competitors or potential competitors, worried that Google could close the project and end development of golang at any time in order to stop or slow down the progress of their competitors?? It just seems like a private corporation is a bit too close to this language.</p>
<hr/>**评论：**<br/><br/>DualRearWheels: <pre><p>Similar situation happened with MySQL and Oracle acquisition. After Oracle took over they pretty much ruined MySQL. Fortunatelly license permitted people to fork it, including original developer(s) (if I'm not mistaken) that forked it to MariaDB which is now de-facto MySQL successor in open source world.</p>
<p>So it is safe to say Go is staying even if Google close it.</p></pre>010a: <pre><p>I don't think they would shut down development or access to Golang to "slow down competitors". Its not <em>that</em> special, despite what some people here believe. </p>
<p>As far as development goes, it is made by a handful of people who happen to work at Google; that does not mean Google makes it. If they shut down development, the community could fork it and pick up where they left off. To be honest, it would probably go to shit, because part of what makes it good is the opinions and the knowledge of the people who are making it right now. Hopefully their contributions would outlive their tenure at Google. </p>
<p>There is a third angle: Development direction. Golang is made to solve Google's problems; direct quote from Rob Pike. Google's problems are not your problems. </p>
<p>Google releases tools like this all the time. Things like, Cloud Data Store or Kubernetes. In some ways, the stuff they make is the pinnacle of engineering effort. It is designed to excel at a scale none of us plebeians would ever achieve, and it does so by making sacrifices. </p>
<p>Never assume that something solves your problems in the most optimal way just because it solves Google's problems in the most optimal way. This might become more of a concern as Golang evolves and becomes more tailored to the specific problems Google is solving. Or it might not. </p></pre>earthboundkid: <pre><p>It's an interesting question. For example, to contribute to the project you have to sign a license with Google. But I don't think it's a huge risk compared to any other language. Either a language has no sponsor and so evolves very slowly, or it has a sponsor and the sponsor has some control but not total control (see what happened to Java). If Google shut down Go, the most like outcome is that the Plan 9 crew would quit and join some other company to keep working on it.</p></pre>edsionmax: <pre><blockquote>
<p>to contribute to the project you have to sign a license with Google</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Alarm bells are ringing.</p>
<p>I guess the question is is it risky for a company to use Go with regards to specifically googles relationship with go? </p>
<p>I mean what can Google actually do to disrupt an open source language?</p></pre>earthboundkid: <pre><blockquote>
<p>Alarm bells are ringing.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Not really. You just swear that you aren't willfully infringing patents, release your copyright, the standard stuff. It's the same as any project but it's Google-specific. </p></pre>barsonme: <pre><p>I don't work for Google, so this might not be 100% accurate, but...</p>
<p>Google requires CLAs for contributions to code that Google 'owns'.</p>
<p>Google 'owns' Go for reasons you can <a href="https://www.quora.com/Does-Google-require-that-employees-grant-them-the-copyright-to-all-code-they-write-while-employed-by-Google-or-are-employees-allowed-to-own-their-own-non-commercial-side-projects" rel="nofollow">read here</a>.</p>
<p>Go's creators (Robert, Rob, and Ken) were all Google employees and afaik created Go <em>at</em> Google, not outside on their own. (I know somebody will correct me if I'm wrong.)</p>
<p>Google can't really disrupt an open-source, BSD-licensed language because anybody can easily fork it and continue the development themselves, <a href="http://programmers.stackexchange.com/a/173198/130374" rel="nofollow">even if Google changes the license.</a></p>
<p>Plus, AFAIK Google is pretty hands-off with Go. You don't need to worry about anything. Bigger companies like Cloudflare use Go -- it's safe.</p></pre>FIuffyRabbit: <pre><blockquote>
<p>Plus, AFAIK Google is pretty hands-off with Go. You don't need to worry about anything. Bigger companies like Cloudflare use Go -- it's safe.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Depends what you mean by hands-off. They have a dedicated team working on Go if I read the AMA right.</p></pre>barsonme: <pre><p>Yeah—spearheaded by the the three people who created it.</p>
<p>Sure, if Google fired all the devs it pays to work on Go might halt or slow down a <em>ton</em>, but it's still BSD licensed.</p></pre>lampshadish2: <pre><p>They would probably form a company around supporting it.</p></pre>thepciet: <pre><p>Yes. Using Go is risky for a non-Google organization. There may or may not be people around to maintain if they cut all ties to the open source release.</p></pre>fern4lvarez: <pre><p>Honestly, if Google would decide (hint: it won't happen) to stop investing resources on Go, another big name in tech would step in and take the lead on project development, which would probably mean to hire most of the creators and maintainers of the language to work full time on it. </p></pre>
