Google Unveils The Google Pack

7hunderstruck writes "Google yesterday announced the release of Google Pack, a 'free collection of essential software'. Along with Google's own programs, such as Google Toolbar and Google Earth, Google Pack contains Firefox, Adobe Reader, a six month subscription to Norton Antivirus, and Trillian as well as other apps. Any respectable /. user should have most of this suite installed already (excluding a few things), but it will be nice to make it all widely available to the general public." Commentary on ZDNet.

Comments

Not Gaim?

[SWroclawski]

Google hired the main Gaim developer, and they don't ship it as part of the Google Pack?

Despite the article- I don't see Trillian listed in on the article page. If they ship Trillian and not Gaim, that'd be even more strange.

Re:Not Gaim?

[zr-rifle]

Most importantly, why Trillian and not GTalk?

Norton?

[Jesus IS the Devil]

Why did Google choose to include Norton? I've found Norton AV to be the most worthless antivirus software I've ever used. It has consistently let me down in terms of protecting my computer. I've even tested it against a known virus. A rival AV was able to catch it. Norton wasn't.

A couple of times I was hit by a trojan by simply going to a web page. Next thing you know, my system gets infected, and Norton shuts down completely and won't start back up again. That's what you call protection? No thanks.

Re:Norton?

[Frankie70]

Why did Google choose to include Norton?

Norton probably paid Google shitload of money to be included in the
pack.

Let's see...

[CharonX]

Google Earth is more of a "fun" program. Nice to toy around once in a while, but nothing I have always installed.
Picasa is nifty. A free image editor is always nice.
Google Pack Screensaver Don't really care about that one. I usually blank my screen.
Google Desktop I don't use since I have "order in my chaos"(tm) and don't really like to things hooked into everything.
Google Toolbar for Internet Explorer will be a godsend for all IE unsers, but I don't need it since I do Firefox.

Mozilla Firefox with Google Toolbar guess this will make Firefox's markedshare do another jump.
Norton Antivirus 2005 Special Edition - personally I use AntiVirus Personal Editon, its free and quite good, but if I think about all the PCs without any up-to-date protection out there its a real godsend.
Ad-Aware SE Personal 4236 programs found? If you have used IE, not used a virusscanner and/or have a "shiny, let's click it" PC user this thing will cleanse your system. Otherwise once every 3 months is sufficient.
Adobe Reader 7 A no-brainer, one of the most portable formats around (let's see how Open Document spreads), .doc eat your heart out.

Free virus checkers

[AC-x]

Going a bit of topic here but what's peoples opinions of AntiVir? Seems fine myself but everyone else seems to use AVG

Why "XP Only"?

[Chelloveck]

System Requirements
- Windows XP

I think there is a disconnect somewhere... ;-)

This is a bad trend. All of the software (with the possible exception of Norton AV, which I've never used) runs just fine on Win2k. Why the XP restriction? This is twice in one week I've run up against an arbitrary won't-install-on-2000 roadblock. (The first was trying to install Age of Empires III, which actually runs just fine on 2000 if you can manage to trick the installer.) It looks like the days of Win2k are numbered, not because it can't run the software but simply because the software refuses to install. I really hate artificial limitations.

ClamWin

[Anonymous Coward]

For their XP userbase, they should have included ClamWin instead.

But, ClamWin is unlikely to pay Google for distribution like Symantec.
Ditto with Spybot vis-a-vis LavaSoft.
Et PDFCreator v. Adobe.

Google Philosophy

[ignavusincognitus]

2. It's best to do one thing really, really well.

This is a quote from the official "Google Philosophy" page. Oh well.

2. It's best to do one thing really, really well.

Google does search. With one of the world's largest research groups focused exclusively on solving search problems, we know what we do well, and how we could do it better. Through continued iteration on difficult problems, we've been able to solve complex issues and provide continuous improvements to a service already considered the best on the web at making finding information a fast and seamless experience for millions of users. Our dedication to improving search has also allowed us to apply what we've learned to new products, including Gmail, Google Desktop, and Google Maps. As we continue to build new products* while making search better, our hope is to bring the power of search to previously unexplored areas, and to help users access and use even more of the ever-expanding information in their lives.

Foxit

[El_Muerte_TDS]

You can keep your Adobe (Acrobat) Reader. Way to heavy.
I've been using Foxit Reader for a while now and it just works and it is fast.

Besides... the name is just great with one of the other tools in the Google pack: Firefox and Foxit ;)
Now we just needs a Foxbar, Deskfox, Fox-aware, Foxasa, Anti-fox (hmm, that doesn't sound good), Planetfox, Foxsaver.

Re:"Free"

[melvin xavier]

Well....the funny thing is, if you set back your calendar in 6 months when Norton gives you a friendly reminder it's about to expire, you can extend the life of its 'trial period' indefinately. I've tried this before with success. If it doesn't bug you to have the calendar off, it can be a handy tool to not have to pay for stuff.