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

Linux inhouse

[jfdavis668]

Windows outhouse. The only way to support it.

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:Is this allowed

[cascadingstylesheet]

Don't bother looking for this new Linux distro. You won't be able to find it. GLinux, like Goobuntu before it, is strictly for internal Google use.

Don't they have to publish the source under GPL? (I realise that this is different from having a downloadable pre-compiled distribution, but it is still available)

No, they only have to distribute source if they distribute binaries. If they only use it internally they don't have to distribute source.

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?

Re:Ubuntu seems to be faltering

[Rutulian]

Sympathize, but...

Your first link is to an issue encountered during a release upgrade. Release upgrades are tricky and nearly impossible to get perfect, especially when the software involved (in this case mysql-server) is complex and had an upstream change that affects configuration settings. There will always be edge cases that fail in these situations, and it is not necessarily worth it to try to fix every edge case as long as it doesn't corrupt data and the user is able to fix the problem manually. In this case, the upstream mysql-server change was noted in the release notes, so users upgrading should have been aware of potential problems going into it. The packaging of mysql-server-5.7 itself is not broken.

In your second link, the problem is an issue with the OpenGL rendering support in libreoffice and is likely hardware/driver dependent. It is not something Canonical is in a position to fix.

Also, both of these packages are in the universe repository and not officially supported by Canonical. So what you are getting from these bug reports is community support, which is why they are unassigned and don't receive much (if any) attention by a Canonical employee. I agree Debian is much better in this regard, but there is only so much a single company with a handful of employees can reasonably do.

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).