HN user
Dang, when the thing people complain about in an OS is the "math input panel" and the "sticky notes" apps, I'd say the OS must be pretty freaking perfect.
I can't believe you couldn't think of anything more substantive to mention.
It's an open protocol, and part of Google's stack will be released open source. So yes, eventually you'll be able to set up a private behind-the-firewall wave server and federate with the private behind-the-firewall servers at other companies (presumably including a robust email-to-wave bridge).
Baloney. Gmail conversations are a bandaid that only works some of the time.
It wasn't MARKETED to them ... it was release to people who signed up expressing interest. Now, perhaps Google could have found a better place to initially announce it than at their own conference full of developers and social media geeks... but let's face it: they don't want your average office worker trying to use this yet -- it's too freaking buggy, they'll get turned off.
Geeks and early adopters are the only people who Google could expect to stick with it in it's current state (or to at least try it again later).