Google Moves To Debian For In-house Linux Desktop (zdnet.com)

Google has officially confirmed the company is shifting its in-house Linux desktop from the Ubuntu-based Goobuntu to a new Linux distro, the DebianTesting-based gLinux. From a report: Margarita Manterola, a Google Engineer, quietly announced Google would move from Ubuntu to Debian-testing for its desktop Linux at DebConf17 in a lightning talk. Manterola explained that Google was moving to gLinux, a rolling release based on Debian Testing. This move isn't as surprising as it first looks. Ubuntu is based on Debian. In addition, Google has long been a strong Debian supporter. In 2017, Debian credited Google for making [sic] "possible our annual conference, and directly supports the progress of Debian and Free Software." Debian Testing is the beta for the next stable version of Debian. With gLinux, that means it's based on the Debian 10 "Buster" test operating system. Google takes each Debian Testing package, rebuilds it, tests it, files and fixes bugs, and once those are resolved, integrates it into the gLinux release candidate. GLinux went into beta on Aug. 16, 2017.

Comments

Contributing fixes..

[sqorbit]

It states that google is "fixing bugs" in the distro before rolling it out. Is Google submitting any of this back to Debian? It'd be interesting to know the involvement in development that Google has back to Debian.

Re:Fuchsia

[ctilsie242]

The issue isn't the OS; it is the apps. Right now, app designers have five major platforms to consider: Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS, and Android. It would take a lot of work and a critical mass of users to woo them to spend the development effort to add a sixth platform. As the article said, Google has a long way to go, but Google already has written the world's most popular app platform, and it wouldn't be farfetched for them to do it again.

The good thing is that Google always seems to be innovating, one of the few companies that actually has completely new stuff, even if it might have rough edges.

Re:Fuchsia

[Anonymous Coward]

For some reason I always assumed Google had their own customised OS built on top of Debian instead of using Ubuntu OOTB. Debian offers a much more stable base which someone with the resources like Google has can easily customise for internal Engg usecases. Esp. in the last few years, Ubuntu has been having a rough time with the ups and downs, while Debain-land has been much calmer. End of the day, Ubuntu has to bring in new bells and whistles for the user community (which has backfired multiple times) as it's targeted as a daily general-use distro while Debian only has to guarantee stability. Also the guy that runs ubuntu talks like a retard and his shit is all fucked up.

That's more or less the approach many Engg teams with much lesser Engg resources also take. Or are the Engg teams I've worked with just the minority?

Ubuntu seems to be faltering

[PvtVoid]

Having been a big Ubuntu fan (yes, including Unity) for quite a while now, I have been severely underwhelmed by the 16.04 LTS. The thing that really gives me pause (in addition to the basic instability of what is supposed to be a stable release) is the show-stopper bugs in major projects that have gone not only un-fixed, but unaddressed for nearly two years.

Here's one (Status: confirmed / Importance: High / Assigned to: Unassigned)
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubu...

Here's another one (Status: confirmed / Importance: High / Assigned to: Unassigned) :
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubu...

Both of these examples are _major_ bugs in _major_ packages in the distro. And nobody has bothered to work on them, at all. This suggests to me that Ubuntu is too short on manpower to actually maintain the distro at an acceptable level.

Canonical, WTF?

Filling voids, not replacing giants

[DrYak]

but Google already has written the world's most popular app platform, and it wouldn't be farfetched for them to do it again.

Then why aren't APK the current most popular way to run your word processor on your laptop ?

Part of the reason is that Google (an Apple with their AppStore - the *other* most popular app platform) didn't as much take over an existing eco-system, as they actually managed to build an entirely new eco-system and fill a void.

This void was due to the emergence of a new class of platform (specifically smartphone, the combination of former PDA and dumb phones in the same device).
At that point, the former ecosystem that existed were either to old and a bit out place, or pretty much meh to begin with. (e.g.: PalmOS was a giant success on older PDA. By the time smartphone started emerging, it was a very old platform that didn't fill the needs anymore. Even Palm Inc started to ship WinCE on their smartphones.) Or where straigh killed by mis-management (Elop at Nokia).

But despite their tremendous success on the new platform, the same ecosystem didn't manage to displace older eco-system that where still successful. No matter how much we collectively hate Windows here on /., it's still dominating the classical laptop/desktop segment, because that's what every body is used to and that what everyone has already invested into - we Linux-running people are the odd guy out.
The segment where Windows doesn't dominate are the new different segments that emerged since (Chromebooks, Smartphones, etc) where Windows didn't have any establishement to leverage.

I expect the same fate might be waiting Fuschia :
- on newer emerging segment that didn't exist before and where there aren't already well established leader, it might create its place : IoT devices, wearables, etc.
- on well established segment, the current iOS / Android will be hard to displace (Smartphone tablet). Any wannabe competitor will have to keep compatibility with them (e.g.: the various Android compatibility layer on minor smartphone OSes like Tizen, Blackberry, Sailfish OS... or failed attempt thereof: what WSL began its life as under Windows RT before being repurposed as "Bash in Windows").

Fuschia could only succeed if it basically "a different way to run android apps on your smartphone". And then being based on an entirely different kernel, it will also need to convince hardware manufacturer who have invested large amounts of know-how in Linux kernel (mainly for Android).