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

nortan anti-virus

[bobby1234]

forget it you could get me to install it if it was free forever.... avg for me... http://free.grisoft.com/

"Any respectable /. reader"?

[daveschroeder]

Any respectable /. user should have most of this suite installed already

From http://pack.google.com/:

System Requirements
- Windows XP

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

Re:"Any respectable /. reader"?

[jlowery]

Any respectable /. user should have most of this suite installed already.

Are there any respectable /. readers?

Re:"Any respectable /. reader"?

[Moby Cock]

Actually the requirement is:

Windows XP with Administrator privileges

Which I understand is pretty easy to get over the internet.

Re:"Any respectable /. reader"?

[blkros]

I think you've hit the nail on the head, so to speak. Google seems to take without really giving much (except talk). Yeah they have funded some stuff, but really, in relation to their income, it's not even a drop in the bucket. They use open source software, and yet, everything they put out is proprietary. That's not giving back, and it's not doing good (although I guess it's not"evil" either, just kinda shady.).

Re:"Free"

[metaomni]

The free piece of cheese I get at the supermarket from the nice little lady expires in about 12-14 hours... doesn't make it any less free.

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?

[AC-x]

Trillian is included. It's not there by default but they do give you the option here

Re:Not Gaim?

[zr-rifle]

Most importantly, why Trillian and not GTalk?

Re:Not Gaim?

[chiok]

Both Trillian and Google Talk are there as optional programs.

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?

[donovangn]

I run into this same issue on so many of my clients' computers. I end up removing Norton as it was either expired or somehow broken. At least half the time the damn thing doesn't uninstall. This is such a pervasive issue that Norton had to write a removal (SymNRT) to clean up where their uninstaller failed. Eventually they should move that tool to this page.

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.

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.

Re:Why "XP Only"?

[lukewarmfusion]

"Mainstream Support" was end-of-lifed on 6/30/2005. Now it's one thing to make software that only works with a newer version of an OS, but it's another to put artificial blocks on compatibility.

As a web developer, I don't support older browsers. I do, however, let them load up my sites in whatever they like. As long as users realize that they may not be seeing the same thing or interacting in the same way, they're free to use Netscape 4 or whatever they like.

So if the Age of Empires developers decided that Win2K was a drastic minority with no mainstream support from MS, I can understand them not testing and support their product on 2000. But if the product works fine and users want to try it (unsupported) then they should let 'em do it.

I made the mistake - once - of forcing visitors to my site to use a specific browser. I did a browser detection and showed them a message requiring that they upgrade their browser in order to use the site. The problem with this is that the site worked fine in a lot of browsers that I was too lazy or ignorant to test or support. Eventually I learned the term "gracefully degrade."

Re:Why "XP Only"?

[westlake]

Why the XP restriction?

XP has 73% of the market. Up about 1% a month. W2K 15%. Down about 1% a month.

Mac and Linux 3%. Up 1% since 2003. Linux remaining pretty much where it was in July 20004.OS Platform Stats This is how the world looks to a developer. I'll leave it to your imagination to consider W2K's place in the home market.

Re:Branded?

[linuxci]

The Google toolbar for firefox only adds a few items that I consider useful, however as this toolbar integrates seamlessly with Firefox toolbar customisation then you can just move the items you need into other areas of the screen and hide the toolbar itself.

e.g. the Google search box on the toolbar incorporates Google suggest, so I've customised the toolbar and removed the Firefox built in search box and replaced it with the Google one.

I also like to see the pagerank of sites that I help develop so I've dragged the pagerank icon to the left of the throbber on the menubar (Linux and Windows) or to the left of the personal toolbar (on Mac) so I can see it at all times. Then I hide the rest of the toolbar.

To customise toolbars simply right click on any area of the toolbars that don't have any other context menu (e.g. reload, stop, home buttons) or select View > Toolbars > Customize.

Google are also offering $1 per download to members of their adsense program who put a link to download Firefox with the Google toolbar on their sites. For Google it is good to encourage use of Firefox as Firefox will not default to MSN search like IE does - and remember what Ballmer wants to do to Google!

Re:Branded?

[wazo2k]

I'm not sure why google are doing this, unless they're getting paid (in money or some other way) by the producers of the software...

according to the google blog they are not getting paid:

We worked with a number of technology companies to identify products that are the best of their type to create this suite. (We didn't pay them, and they aren't paying us.)

Respectable

[MS_is_the_best]

Any respectable /. user should have most of this suite installed already (excluding a few things)

dpkg-query -S norton
dpkg: *norton* not found.

Guess I am not respectable ;-).

Anyone can play this game.

[ettlz]

OK, let's see... if I were running XP, I'd install ettlz's Essentials:

Network

• Mozilla Firefox
• Mozilla Thunderbird
• SSH.com's SSH client
• Gaim

Doing Work

• OpenOffice.org
• The GIMP
• Inkscape

Utilities

• 7-zip
• jEdit

Multimedia

• Winamp
• CDex
• aoTuV Vorbis encoder
• Audacity

Security

• ClamAV ClamWin
• Spybot Search & Destroy
• Lavasoft AdAware
• Stern note about limited privilege accounts

Re:Google Pack is only available for WindowsXP

[Elektroschock]

This is why the original writer is wrong. All respectable users of Slashdot shall fuddle around with Wine to get the tools run.

What surprises me is that OpenOffice.org is not included in the Google Pack despite of the partnership announcement.

Re:Free virus checkers

[Nagus]

I've switched a PC in my family from Antivir to AVG, and am now recommending AVG to anyone that asks.

The first reason is that Antivir has a relatively complicated update method for novice users. When it updates the antivirus database (ie. on startup), it sometimes likes to pop up a window with ads for the commercial version or with user surveys. This scares novice users who don't know what to click, and who then promptly call me for support. However that problem gets much worse when an update of Antivir itself is made - because then it just downloads a Setup.exe and starts it. This leaves the confused user (who has never seen an installer before) in front of a (maximized) InstallShield wizard, wondering how to "get back on the Internets". And quite frankly, even I find that installer a bit confusing.

AVG is much better in this regard: on startup, it checks for updates (to either program or antivirus database). If it finds any, it shows a progress bar while downloading and installing them. Then it shows an "Update Complete" dialog, which will vanish automatically after 30 seconds (unless you click it away before that timeout). Not a single click is required, ever.

The second reason I prefer AVG is that AVG's updates are much faster than Antivir's. Either Antivir has really slow servers, or AVG's updates are drastically smaller. I've had Antivir's update downloader timeout on me, but never AVG's.

To conclude: AVG is hasslefree, which is an essential property if you have to support friend's or family member's PCs.

huh?

[epicstruggle]

should have most of this suite installed already (excluding a few things) Thanks for defining most for us.

Picasa = iPhoto

[MBCook]

Picasa IS NOT AN IMAGE EDITOR.

I have seen this before, and I have NO IDEA where people get that from. Picasa is a photo collection program. It lets you make small edits (crops, reduce red-eye, color balance, etc) but it is not an image editor. It is designed to help your organize your photos and find them easily.

It is the best program I have seen for that purpose on Windows. It really is great. And free too (back when it cost money, Wolf Camera would give it out on photo-cds you got back with your pictures; then Google bought it an made it free for everyone).

The only program I like more for that purpose is iPhoto, but that isn't available for Windows (obviously).