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"?

[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.

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:Not Gaim?

[AC-x]

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

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

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).