Dear Google! Now I Know You Hate Linux Users
By live crunch at 16 November, 2008, 4:49 am
Lets be honest, how many Google applications support Linux? Almost none! Even though their vision is “open source” (my a$$). What about Google Chat Video? Brand new Google feature, which is really great but not for Mac or Linux users! AGAIN!
So when will google expand their market and start supporting Linux users as well?
UNLESS! Google has something in mind for the future and make “Open Source” Google OS.
So far Google stuck their nose in almost everything that is now days popular.
1. Search Engine 2. Cell Phone OS 3.Social Network 4.RSS Reader 5. Web Stats and bunch of more apps that are popular by Google yet they can’t support Linux community in some other apps like
1. Chrome? 2. Video Chat … why are Linux users forced to use Wine?
Update: I noticed by comments bellow that I pissed many Windows users by saying that google forgot what linux is. Yes they do support Linux , hell even my friend that works as Chrome developer is using Ubuntu Hardy but what I have problem with is that companies LIKE Google do not release Apps for major OS’s that is Windows, Mac and Linux. Same thing with Adobe Air , why do I have to Hack my box to use Adobe? Yet some 95 year old grandmom just double clicks and it’s installed?
Just turn the picture around and have Chrome for Linux only, just imagine how many people would be pissed off and not to be able test the browser in their loved OS. So please spare me the talk about Google supporting Linux , they do but always last.
Who cares? I think OSS can survive without Google.
Actually, google video chat works for Mac OS X.
OK - you say “Almost None” of the Google Applications support Linux, yet you only can name two BRAND NEW applications that don’t support Linux. Google Earth, Picasa, Google Desktop, Google Widgets, ALL support Linux.
Google is a huge sponsor of Linux, uses Ubuntu internally on desktops (new Google employees are asked “Windows, Mac or Linux” when being assigned a machine). Also, as you can read here: http://arstechnica.com/journals/linux.ars/2008/11/03/motorola-and-google-become-gnome-sponsors Google, along with Motorola has become GNOME sponsors, helping to promote the most popular Linux desktop.
Have you heard of the G1 “Google Phone” - running Android? Did you know that’s Linux based, not to mention the literally thousands of Linux servers that power Google’s backbone.
I’m not sure about the new Video chat, but I do know it works on Mac, because in the Demo I watched on the Google Blog, the Google employee doing the demo was using a Mac, but I haven’t tried it in either Mac or Linux.
As for Chrome - it’s coming - you just have to be patient. It seems to me that Chrome just lended itself more easily to the Windows API and they are still working to get a non-crude, polished version that works as expected for Linux and Mac OS X before they release it. They aren’t going to release garbage into the wild just to satisfy people - it would do them more harm to do that, than to wait until it’s ready for consumption.
@Jayson Rowe: Jayson I am not saying that google does not support linux but every single app they come out with does not support linux immediately as far as the android I own one and I also develop.
Live Crunch:
You said: “I am not saying that google does not support linux” yet in the first paragraph of the article you say: “Lets be honest, how many Google applications support Linux? Almost none! ”
I’m not trying to be argumentative here, but you are disagreeing with yourself!
As for not supporting Linux initially - I can fully understand that. They are simply supporting the most widely used platform first…that doesn’t mean they are neglecting the other platforms.
Poor you…
Why do you use Linux if it’s for using Google stuff anyway ?
Because it feels cool to say “I use Linux ?”
Screw that…
Why not wait till Chrome is ready for all platforms before releasing it? Or why not make the development faster ? Google has so much money and resources. Why not make linux native versions of Google chat or Picasa instead of supporting it thru Wine. Though Picasa is good, it still feels like a windows app.
Would it really kill Google to just wait until all three versions of something (Windows, OSX, and Linux) are ready to ship and then have a simultaneous release?
I know video chat is new, but for how long has the native Linux version of Chrome been “coming soon”?
i’m going to have to agree with Jayson here, google, will support these features on Linux, and yes i’d also love to see the video chat in Linux, however the core OS is only just getting to grips with Webcams really, as the recent Kernel updates show. Patience is the key here, i don’t belive Google planned to release Chrome as earylt as they did.. however i think you can rest assured, Google is a Linux friendly company, it just takes a little more work, and even today (shock horror) Windows and Mac are still the preferred desktops by many, remember OSS is about choice…
Dear Sir,
as you already know, Google is a company which has to run for profit. So, if they produce any software, they will first make it available for most used platform. It is not a question of love or hate.
Alecs
Ummmm, you do know that Google’s internal Operating system is a modified version of the Ubuntu Linux distribution, AND that google is a business, and as such, is inclined to first get the products working on WIndows, as statistically, Windows users make the largest number of computer users in the world?
its fine you said it…….wot abt adsense….you use it….ban on its way!!no offense meant
It sounds to me like you don’t know how to be patient. Look at it from Google’s point of view. 90+% of the market uses Windows, so why should they spend tons of manpower and push back ship dates for a tiny portion of the market? Mac users are in the same boat as you when it comes to things like Chrome, and it looks like Linux will probably get that browser first. Linux support will come eventually, so just sit tight, take a deep breath, and count to ten next time before you complain and link bait.
@Stu: It sounds to me that waiting for 6months is being enough patient. I mean when firefox first came out was it only Win supported?…
@Leo: That might be your opinion. And windows might be the largest number of computer users but thats exactly because things first come out for windows and not unix based systems.
@Joe the hacker: Nice nick name Hacker! Btw I am FreeBSD user since 1998 and Linux user since 2001 and I don’t think somebody would use all those years linux for “google” since google didn’t even exist when I first started using nix* os. And by the way All I am saying is that Google is not supporting Linux as they should or as they are saying are….
The Google approach is come up with something, release it in beta and see if it gets traction, then run with it. It takes more development resources to release to multiple platforms, and releasing only to Linux would only hit a cross section of the user population. Can’t say I’d do it any different.
I have a sneaky suspicion that they are actually not releasing everything yet as a marketing ploy for the G1. Release the open source phone, let it sit a few months, a year, let word of mouth kind of get around. Then they will say now you run Sketchup or whatever on our phones! And THEN we will see all of Google’s apps being available for Linux. I hope.