Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Google Doubles Down on Linux and Open Source (zdnet.com)

Posted by msmash on from the how-about-that dept.

Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols, writing for ZDNet: Google couldn't exist without Linux and open-source software. While you may not think of Google as a Linux company in the same way as you do Canonical, Red Hat, or SUSE, it wouldn't be the search and advertising giant it is today without Linux. So, it makes sense that Google is moving up from its Silver membership in The Linux Foundation, to the Platinum level. With this jump in status, Google gets a seat on the Foundation's board of directors. This position will be filled by Sarah Novotny, the head of open source strategy for Google Cloud Platform. Earlier this week, Chinese tech giant Tencent joined the Linux Foundation as a platinum member.

162 comments

  1. Vaughan-Nichols by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Which one is his maiden name?

    1. Re:Vaughan-Nichols by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I think "Vaughan" is his husbands name.

    2. Re: Vaughan-Nichols by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      His husbands name is J. Vaughan-Nichols and Stephen is owned by him. When not writing average articles about Linux he spends his time on his knees strapped to a chair in a gimp suit licking a toilet bowl.

    3. Re: Vaughan-Nichols by Tough+Love · · Score: 2

      I believe I have detected a nest of butthurt redmond weenies.

      --
      When all you have is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a thumb.
    4. Re:Vaughan-Nichols by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      At first I thought you were talking "Sarah" Novotny, the tranny dude.

  2. Microsoft by darkain · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Why do I get the feeling this is less about Google doubling-down on Open Source / Linux, and has more to do with the fact they don't want to be out-done by Microsoft, who is already a Platinum level member. This is just more of a corporate pissing contest.

    1. Re:Microsoft by jellomizer · · Score: 5, Insightful

      That and if you have millions/billions of dollars invested in a Linux Infrastructure. Do you really want your competitors make decisions on what direction the product takes?

      --
      If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
    2. Re:Microsoft by Cassini2 · · Score: 5, Interesting

      If you are Google it pays to purchase some cheap insurance against Microsoft doing something that could screw you.

      Once you get to Google, Microsoft, Apple size, then you need people on all the key committees. These people purchase connections and goodwill. When an important decision comes up, you have the connections and goodwill to ensure it goes your way.

    3. Re:Microsoft by geekmux · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Why do I get the feeling this is less about Google doubling-down on Open Source / Linux, and has more to do with the fact they don't want to be out-done by Microsoft, who is already a Platinum level member. This is just more of a corporate pissing contest.

      Google couldn't exist without Linux and open-source software...

      Uh, given this fact, Google should have recognized the relationship and upped their membership (and contributions) long ago. Cheap bastards.

    4. Re:Microsoft by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Or maybe this "fact" had nothing to do with any of their decision making process.

    5. Re:Microsoft by Tough+Love · · Score: 2, Insightful

      At the same time, it is pathetic that Google was not at the highest level of membership already. See, there is a significant faction at Google that hates Linux and everything GPL. This faction has largely had the upper hand so far because of apathy in the executive suite. The usual theory "we are so rich so everything we do must be right". Including treating Linux as a second class citizen in favour of their BSD stable. Now they are forced by Microsoft to take a position. Ironic indeed.

      --
      When all you have is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a thumb.
    6. Re:Microsoft by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Alternatively it looks like it could be more about getting a woman to the board.

    7. Re:Microsoft by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      will they spank Lennart now? Or at least use tar & feathers.

    8. Re:Microsoft by alvinrod · · Score: 1

      It's open source. If they really don't like it, they can always fork it. I will admit it's a brilliant idea on the part of the Linux Foundation to get more Platinum members and more money.

    9. Re:Microsoft by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It's open source. If they really don't like it, they can always fork it.

      if you really think this is a realistic option then your medication levels are incorrect.

    10. Re: Microsoft by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Probs how system d got accepted. Cruel trick by m$.

    11. Re:Microsoft by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      will they spank Lennart now? Or at least use tar & feathers.

      Hopefully the tar is heated beforehand. Y'know, to reduce viscosity.

    12. Re:Microsoft by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It's open source. If they really don't like it, they can always fork it.

      if you really think this is a realistic option then your medication levels are incorrect.

      I'm glad the Libreoffice and Xorg folks didn't think like you do.

    13. Re:Microsoft by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      At the same time, it is pathetic that Google was not at the highest level of membership already. See, there is a significant faction at Google that hates Linux and everything GPL. This faction has largely had the upper hand so far because of apathy in the executive suite. The usual theory "we are so rich so everything we do must be right". Including treating Linux as a second class citizen in favour of their BSD stable. Now they are forced by Microsoft to take a position. Ironic indeed.

      It really does work much better if the link you provide actually supports your claim (that Google is hostile to Linux/GPL). Some dude's blog about myriad topics with no prominent references to your claim whatsoever tends to detract from what you said.

    14. Re:Microsoft by slashmaddy · · Score: 1

      Without discounting contributions of Google to linux, I am concerned about presence of these mega-corporations in such influential positions within Linux Foundation and open source world in general. Somehow, it feels more likely that linux will be driven in a direction more favorable to corporations than the community in general. Android and Chromium browser are perfect examples... even though they are open source, they are heavily focused on serving Googles best interest as opposed to core principles of open source movement.

      systemd is another good example of that... something that made distro makers life easy was chosen readily and almost universally, regardless of poor design choices.

    15. Re:Microsoft by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Red Hat only has a Silver membership, yet contributes probably more code to the kernel and userspace linux that most of the companies listed as Platinum members. You really think Red Hat is worried about Microsoft or Google just because they give a lot of money to a trade association? Nope. Know why? Because Linus doesn't give a fuck about that shit. I mean, just look at how Linus treated Intel developers on the LKML, during the whole Meltdown/Spectre debacle. You think it mattered to him that Intel is a Platinum member of the Linux Foundation when calling out the shit patches the Intel devs tried to commit? I doubt he even gave it a single second of consideration.

      As long Linus is in charge, what the Foundation does won't have a bearing on any technical decisions made about kernel development.

    16. Re:Microsoft by jrumney · · Score: 1

      True, but in this case, Google is responsible for a large proportion of the software installed on devices using the Linux kernel. But it seems they don't acknowledge that, and are putting their cloud team in charge of the Linux relationship rather than their Android team.

    17. Re:Microsoft by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It's open source. If they really don't like it, they can always fork it.

      if you really think this is a realistic option then your medication levels are incorrect.

      I'm glad the Libreoffice and Xorg folks didn't think like you do.

      Don't you have some javascript to go play with? Yer yer just fork the kernel, so simplez. No implications. So cheap because open source.

    18. Re:Microsoft by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It really does work much better if the link you provide actually supports your claim (that Google is hostile to Linux/GPL). Some dude's blog about myriad topics with no prominent references to your claim whatsoever tends to detract from what you said.

      Does your mother also wipe your ass for you? Five seconds of Googling would give you the picture of where this "dude" stands on GPL.

    19. Re: Microsoft by Tough+Love · · Score: 1

      Probs how system d got accepted. Cruel trick by m$.

      Almost right. It was a cruel trick by Red Hat, the "Microsoft" of open source.

      --
      When all you have is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a thumb.
    20. Re:Microsoft by Zontar+The+Mindless · · Score: 1

      Only APK thinks that $random_link = $proof.

      Please provide actual evidence, or go home.

      --
      Il n'y a pas de Planet B.
    21. Re: Microsoft by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Tracks

    22. Re:Microsoft by Tough+Love · · Score: 1

      You have been informed. Now find your own proof or refutation.

      --
      When all you have is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a thumb.
    23. Re: Microsoft by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And this is proof that you are a huge faggot. Now log out and go find a dick to suck.

    24. Re: Microsoft by Tough+Love · · Score: 1

      Hi Chris.

      --
      When all you have is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a thumb.
    25. Re:Microsoft by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It's open source. If they really don't like it, they can always fork it.

      if you really think this is a realistic option then your medication levels are incorrect.

      I'm glad the Libreoffice and Xorg folks didn't think like you do.

      Don't you have some javascript to go play with? Yer yer just fork the kernel, so simplez. No implications. So cheap because open source.

      So ... handwaving and dismissal again? The common tools of small minds. In the face of things that have happened before and will happen again.

    26. Re:Microsoft by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It really does work much better if the link you provide actually supports your claim (that Google is hostile to Linux/GPL). Some dude's blog about myriad topics with no prominent references to your claim whatsoever tends to detract from what you said.

      Does your mother also wipe your ass for you? Five seconds of Googling would give you the picture of where this "dude" stands on GPL.

      The easier it is to Google something, the easier it is to present an accurate link (the product of this process) in the first place. If you are going to provide a link at all, did you know that you can provide a specific and relevant link? Magic, I know. Could it be that you are excusing the laziness of the original poster? Or that you are one and the same? Nah, of course not.

      Seriously, if you are going to provide a link to support your case, why would you pick from among the weakest examples possible? It belies your lack of faith in the case you are making. You expected, what, exactly?

    27. Re:Microsoft by Zontar+The+Mindless · · Score: 1

      I have not been informed of anything, because you have provided no relevant information.

      It is not my responsibility to find proof for your claim; it's yours. Provide said proof or STFU.

      --
      Il n'y a pas de Planet B.
    28. Re:Microsoft by exomondo · · Score: 1

      If you are Google it pays to purchase some cheap insurance against Microsoft doing something that could screw you.

      What could they do? Actually more to the point why would they do it? Microsoft and Google both use Linux to run critical parts of their cloud infrastructure which is one of the biggest and most profitable parts of their respective businesses. Anybody thinking Microsoft has any interest in destroying Linux needs to get with the times and stop living in the early Ballmer-era of Microsoft.

      These days there is very little overlap between Windows and Linux, they simply aren't competitors in the vast majority of spaces that they are used.

    29. Re:Microsoft by Tough+Love · · Score: 1

      You refute it or STFU. For the rest of you with eyes to read, you have been informed. Now research this guy and learn the ugly truth.

      --
      When all you have is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a thumb.
    30. Re:Microsoft by Tough+Love · · Score: 1

      Linux foundation pays Linus's salary and they pay for the parties. Otherwise, they are a just a bunch of circle jerking wankers as you would expect.

      --
      When all you have is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a thumb.
    31. Re:Microsoft by Tough+Love · · Score: 1

      Red Hat only has a Silver membership

      That just means, the issue has not appeared on a powerpoint in Raleigh yet. It does not take a rocket scientist to realize that that will soon change.

      --
      When all you have is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a thumb.
    32. Re:Microsoft by Tough+Love · · Score: 1

      Yer yer [sic] just fork the kernel, so simplez. No implications. So cheap because open source.

      The Linux kernel has been forked many times and is forked now. Many embedded device vendors fork the Linux kernel to name just one significant sector. That is perfectly OK, so long as they provide their patches and build instructions when asked, or even better, without needing to be asked.

      --
      When all you have is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a thumb.
    33. Re:Microsoft by Tough+Love · · Score: 1

      Microsoft and Google both use Linux to run critical parts of their cloud infrastructure which is one of the biggest and most profitable parts of their respective businesses.

      For Microsoft, they also have a huge fraction of their Azure customers wanting to run Linux vms, not Windows.

      Anybody thinking Microsoft has any interest in destroying Linux needs to get with the times

      Don't kid yourself, Microsoft would still love to destroy Linux and rule the world. But they already tried their hardest and failed hard. Now they are trying the next best thing. If they ever perceive an opportune moment to strike again, they will.

      These days there is very little overlap between Windows and Linux, they simply aren't competitors in the vast majority of spaces that they are used.

      That is completely wrong as any idiot can see. Microsoft would love to own the webserver, data center, HPC and embedded spaces that Linux rules, don't kid yourself. They still attempt, feebly, to do so, though at least they seem to have finally gone uncle on HPC. They have not yet given up on web servers, though the world would be a much better and safer place if they did. And as everybody knows, Microsoft still viciously fights to keep its hold on the desktop, though even that is starting to crack. Linux guys have certainly not given up competing in that space, the Plasma desktop I am posting this from says otherwise, in large beautiful, antialiased, free and open fonts.

      --
      When all you have is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a thumb.
    34. Re:Microsoft by Tough+Love · · Score: 1

      Google should have recognized the relationship and upped their membership (and contributions) long ago. Cheap bastards.

      You didn't know that about Google until now? Welcome to the land of the enlightened.

      --
      When all you have is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a thumb.
    35. Re:Microsoft by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      wiping your own ass is easy for you to do too, so why does your mother still do it?

    36. Re:Microsoft by Tough+Love · · Score: 1

      I am concerned about presence of these mega-corporations in such influential positions within Linux Foundation and open source world in general.

      Linux Foundation is not influential in the Linux world, they just provide the party fund. Otherwise they are widely regarded as a bunch of ineffectual, self important PHBs. If Jim Zemlin ever worked up the spit to try to tell Linus what to do, Linus would instead tell him what to do in very clear terms and Zemlin would just have to say, thanks Linus, I needed that.

      --
      When all you have is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a thumb.
    37. Re:Microsoft by Tough+Love · · Score: 1

      Google is responsible for a large proportion of the software installed on devices using the Linux kernel. But it seems they don't acknowledge that...

      You only just now realized that Google guys are intellectually dishonest?

      --
      When all you have is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a thumb.
    38. Re:Microsoft by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      wiping your own ass is easy for you to do too, so why does your mother still do it?

      So I see you cannot be reasoned with in an adult way. At least you did me the service of quickly clearing that up.

    39. Re:Microsoft by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Even ubuntu's kernels are not 100% upstream, they have their own kernel engineers.

    40. Re:Microsoft by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

      They'll use tar and gzip.

    41. Re: Microsoft by loufoque · · Score: 1

      Patching the kernel is not the same thing as forking.

    42. Re: Microsoft by Tough+Love · · Score: 1

      Yes it is.

      --
      When all you have is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a thumb.
    43. Re: Microsoft by Tough+Love · · Score: 1

      Just out of interest, how do you think the kernel gets changed? How do you think the kernel gets changed into a fork? How are these not the same? Are you really as clueless as you seem?

      --
      When all you have is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a thumb.
    44. Re: Microsoft by loufoque · · Score: 2

      No, it really isn't.

      Forking means you have no plans to ever rebase your changes, because you aim to become the new upstream.

    45. Re:Microsoft by Tough+Love · · Score: 1

      Even ubuntu's kernels are not 100% upstream, they have their own kernel engineers.

      And Red Hat kernels are massively forked from mainline. It's actually really ugly, but that is Red Hat's business model in a nutshell: 1) fork old mainline kernel by backporting a massive number of patches from more up to date kernels 2) do this as quickly as possible with as little testing as possible 3) ship it 4) charge customers big money for chasing the many resulting bugs.

      --
      When all you have is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a thumb.
    46. Re:Microsoft by Tough+Love · · Score: 1

      And to avoid getting caught at this and continue to lure new unsuspecting victims, make the RHEL Buzilla subscriber-only so nobody outside gets to see just how buggy the RHEL kernels really are.

      --
      When all you have is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a thumb.
    47. Re: Microsoft by Tough+Love · · Score: 1

      So "plans" are the difference between forking and patching, according to you? Good luck with that.

      --
      When all you have is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a thumb.
    48. Re: Microsoft by loufoque · · Score: 2

      Intention is also what makes the difference between a lifetime in jail or not.
      It's crazy how the world works, isn't it?

    49. Re: Microsoft by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      No, that's not how that works faggot.

    50. Re:Microsoft by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Considering that was an assignment statement it is the case that $random_link == $proof from that point onward.

    51. Re: Microsoft by Tough+Love · · Score: 1

      Let me get this straight, you are seriously making an equivalence between forking and a lifetime in jail? Please.

      --
      When all you have is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a thumb.
    52. Re: Microsoft by loufoque · · Score: 1

      I am making a parallel between the difference between murder and manslaughter and the difference between a fork and a patch.

      Both are a matter of intention, which you said was irrelevant.

    53. Re:Microsoft by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Or maybe you're just wrong in this case. Well it might be that Chris is an anti-GPL as person, you don't know for sure whether there is anti-GPL 'faction' in Google.

      The fact is android is built on top of Linux. ChromeOS is built on top of Linux.

      I don't know what google use internally (as in server, build server/infrastructure, source control management, compiler, etc).

    54. Re: Microsoft by Tough+Love · · Score: 1

      Forks and patches have nothing to do with murder.

      --
      When all you have is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a thumb.
    55. Re: Microsoft by loufoque · · Score: 1

      I never claimed they did. Why are you making irrelevant statements?

    56. Re: Microsoft by Tough+Love · · Score: 1

      I'm having a bit of fun with you because your argument is so idiotic. Every time you make a change of any kind to a code base, you fork it. Whether you keep it forked or not is up to you. If you had ever used git you would know this, so I assume that you have not.

      --
      When all you have is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a thumb.
    57. Re:Microsoft by Tough+Love · · Score: 1

      you don't know for sure whether there is anti-GPL 'faction' in Google

      There is and I do.

      --
      When all you have is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a thumb.
    58. Re:Microsoft by Zontar+The+Mindless · · Score: 2

      "Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence."

      The burden of proof lies on the one making the claim.

      And you can fuck right off. We're done here.

      --
      Il n'y a pas de Planet B.
    59. Re: Microsoft by loufoque · · Score: 1

      I have branched the Linux kernel (but never managed to get my patches merged), I know how to use git.

      This is not what forking a project means. The only one making idiotic statements is you.

    60. Re:Microsoft by jellomizer · · Score: 1

      Forking isn't always a viable solution. Lets say you fork a solution, because you need a particular feature. The application isn't static, time changes and the main line app gets a lot of good features also, which you will need to incorporate in yours. It is easier to push for that particular feature then having a separate code base to be maintained.

      --
      If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
    61. Re: Microsoft by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Unless hungry cannibal pirates are involved.

    62. Re: Microsoft by lsatenstein · · Score: 1

      Linux development is free. Some people have to earn a living and the living that they earn is writing Linux internals code. It also takes a large number of eyes to review new Linux code. It takes a large number of eyes to see how the coat integrates into the kernel. And it takes a lot of money to host all those competing distributions. I'm extremely grateful for the Platinum members and their financial contributions.

      --
      Leslie Satenstein Montreal Quebec Canada
    63. Re:Microsoft by geekmux · · Score: 1

      Or maybe this "fact" had nothing to do with any of their decision making process.

      Back before Google was little more than a tiny search engine and didn't have billions in the bank to blow, I highly doubt their decision to go with Linux and open-source software had nothing to do with cost.

      And in business, every fucking decision making process has to do with cost.

    64. Re:Microsoft by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You obviously have some personal issue with this guy or you'd be telling us why we should hate him, too.

      Slashdot is not your personal army.

    65. Re:Microsoft by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Why do I get the feeling this is less about Google doubling-down on Open Source / Linux, and has more to do with the fact they don't want to be out-done by Microsoft, who is already a Platinum level member.

      Probably because you are a cynic.

      This is just more of a corporate pissing contest.

      Maybe, maybe not.

    66. Re: Microsoft by Tough+Love · · Score: 1

      I have branched the Linux kernel (but never managed to get my patches merged)

      Well, now that you have put in the effort to create a fork of Linux, you can enjoy it yourself if it does something useful enough to live. If you want to call it a branch, go right ahead, but everybody except you understands that fork and branch are synonyms with respect to a code base.

      --
      When all you have is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a thumb.
    67. Re:Microsoft by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I see you are familiar with APK's argument 'style' then.

    68. Re:Microsoft by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Or maybe this "fact" had nothing to do with any of their decision making process.

      Back before Google was little more than a tiny search engine and didn't have billions in the bank to blow, I highly doubt their decision to go with Linux and open-source software had nothing to do with cost.

      And in business, every fucking decision making process has to do with cost.

      Google has RAPED linux and continue to do so (Android).. to claim they support open source is a sad and bad joke... they are EVIL as are Microsoft, Amazon, Apple and Facebook.

      Tux is on the floor bleeding from his little penguin butthole ... and has been ever since Android was created.

      So don't come here and defend Google and their "dedication to open source"... that is just pure bullshit!

      I use Android still.. but only because it is still marginally better than iOS.

    69. Re:Microsoft by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Google should have recognized the relationship and upped their membership (and contributions) long ago. Cheap bastards.

      You didn't know that about Google until now? Welcome to the land of the enlightened.

      OTOH Google has been raping Linux to create Android... Custom Java? Seriously?
      Tux has been on the floor bleeding from his little Tux hole ever since Android was first created...

      We need a mobile OS that is pure linux with a phone friendly window manager, NATIVE apps and open source everything... some non-evil company can then add a store if they wish...

    70. Re:Microsoft by marcel_in_ca · · Score: 1

      cpio and bz2?

    71. Re:Microsoft by geekmux · · Score: 1

      Or maybe this "fact" had nothing to do with any of their decision making process.

      Back before Google was little more than a tiny search engine and didn't have billions in the bank to blow, I highly doubt their decision to go with Linux and open-source software had nothing to do with cost.

      And in business, every fucking decision making process has to do with cost.

      Google has RAPED linux and continue to do so (Android).. to claim they support open source is a sad and bad joke... they are EVIL as are Microsoft, Amazon, Apple and Facebook.

      No doubt mega-corps ultimately end up doing "evil shit" in the eyes of someone out there, but when you can find a mega-corp that's completely innocent of this, then I'll believe it's somehow not a basic given trait of US Capitalism. There's zero sense in calling some companies out on this when every damn one of them is guilty.

      Tux is on the floor bleeding from his little penguin butthole ... and has been ever since Android was created.

      So don't come here and defend Google and their "dedication to open source"... that is just pure bullshit!

      Uh, I was the one calling them cheap bastards. I don't know how the hell that translates to defending them. That being said, can you tell me exactly what the fuck the point of OPEN source software is other than for the masses to USE it? And when I say USE, I mean abuse the shit out of it in any way you want, because that's what being OPEN is all about. One of the consequences of giving something away for FREE is someone coming along and taking advantage of that exact generosity. If people don't like that, then stop giving shit away for free.

    72. Re:Microsoft by exomondo · · Score: 1

      That is completely wrong as any idiot can see. Microsoft would love to own the webserver, data center, HPC and embedded spaces that Linux rules, don't kid yourself.

      What company wouldn't love that? Fact is they don't and they really can't, they gave up on trying to compete in markets that they clearly can't compete with Linux in and instead are leveraging Linux as a tool to run their business just like everybody else. Destroying Linux makes no sense and in fact even when Ballmer famously said 'Linux is a cancer' quite clearly he wasn't even referring to Linux at all but the viral nature of the GPL, not to mention at the time quite a lot (though less than what they have now) of Microsoft's own infrastructure was running on Linux.

      And as everybody knows, Microsoft still viciously fights to keep its hold on the desktop, though even that is starting to crack. Linux guys have certainly not given up competing in that space, the Plasma desktop I am posting this from says otherwise, in large beautiful, antialiased, free and open fonts.

      Right but Linux is hardly a competitor to Windows on the desktop for the same reasons we've seen countless decent mobile operating systems fail to disrupt the incumbents. If Linux (or anybody for that matter) offers something truly innovative in the desktop space like what the iPhone did for the smartphone space then disruption will occur but the lack of that kind of innovation is why this still hasn't happened in the desktop. There will always be a minority that will find just about anything appealing in some way as is the case with Linux on the desktop...personally I use macOS primarily, Linux for all my highend GPU stuff, Windows for gaming and my fileserver still runs BSD.

  3. No Google without Linux by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    pay up guys. You have earned plenty from open source.

    1. Re: No Google without Linux by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      They are probably Platinum sponsors in a few places. $50K / year here, $50K / year there.

  4. "He's not the King of Open Source People!" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "... He told my dad he was."

  5. As long... by DarkRookie · · Score: 0

    As long stay away from making any kind of desktop environment. Material Design is flat out terrible.

    --
    The millennial that doesn't like most of the stuff designed for millennials.
    1. Re:As long... by jellomizer · · Score: 0

      Except for the fact that is widely copied and used. I do like more subtle 3d effects in my UI, but Flat is in. But this is a trend that moves around.

      1980s Flat was in Think TNG LCARs interface. A lot of hardware that didn't require a lot of typing used membrane buttons, just to give the flat look. Then When graphic interfaces came up. We started to move more towards 3d effects in the 1990's Windows 3.1, Motif. We hard the colors and the ability so 3d effects were cool. Then when we gone to 8bit color and up. UI started to use more and more subtle buttons to make them more flat. Then we got 3d Acceleration in the early 2000's So Shadows and raised effects, were less intrusive, and offered the raise feel again. Now today with ultra high resolution displays and touchscreen we gone flat again. Making it easier to target, and high resolutions allows for thin borders and smaller fonts that are easy to read.
      Now for the 2020s who knows what is next.

      --
      If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
    2. Re:As long... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "Now for the 2020s who knows what is next."
      I for one hope i'll never find out, it's probably some imbloded anti-3D shit. Catch you on the flip side!

  6. I'll believe it when... by sremick · · Score: 4, Interesting

    ...we finally get a Linux client for Google Drive.

    1. Re:I'll believe it when... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

      It exists! Sort of. With Ubuntu: Settings > Accounts

    2. Re:I'll believe it when... by jon3k · · Score: 4, Insightful

      It's such a massive, glaring omission it's kind of mind boggling. They have a Google Music Manager client for linux for christ's sake. I realize linux users are a rounding error and writing client software costs a lot of money, but we're talking key users. That's a lot of developers you'd ideally want in your ecosystem. But I'm sure Google knows more about this than I do and they've made the decision to omit linux for a reason.

    3. Re:I'll believe it when... by DamnOregonian · · Score: 1

      Not trolling-

      Are the existing Fuse/KDE/Gnome VFS plugins not what you'd like to see?

    4. Re:I'll believe it when... by F.Ultra · · Score: 1

      Not free but there exists a 3:d party client that I use myself: https://www.thefanclub.co.za/o...

    5. Re:I'll believe it when... by grinchier · · Score: 1

      ...we finally get a Linux client for Google Drive.

      Why? Dolphin and other clients can interact with it, wrapping all your file needs into 1 app without the need for more apps to be open. I can access Google drive, dropbox, mega and other SSH locations all from one app.

    6. Re:I'll believe it when... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      No kidding! And how this big migration to Google One it reminded me of how Google was known to us Linux and even had an internal developer distro yet Google Drive support was nowhere.

    7. Re:I'll believe it when... by dkgasaway · · Score: 1

      Why?

      Because people what a tool that will work no matter how they are accessing the files: Dolphin, Konsole, ssh session, whatever. And they want to access them offline. And they want to include the files in system backups.

    8. Re:I'll believe it when... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Even better, and cheaper, in the long run: nextcloud.com

      Desktop, Android & iOS sync apps, just like Google Drive. Get off someone else's cloud, it's not so hard.

    9. Re:I'll believe it when... by Bearhouse · · Score: 1

      Disagree; Linux and *cough* BSD "key users" know better than to use Google drive; we have our own servers, thanks...
      We don't use Gmail either...

    10. Re:I'll believe it when... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I'll believe it when they open source their search engine and the data it has crawled.

    11. Re:I'll believe it when... by jon3k · · Score: 1

      You grossly overestimate developers *cough*javascript*cough*

  7. Party's over, Linux will be evil now by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    nt

  8. With Chromium/ChromeOS Google's a major player by mykepredko · · Score: 2

    I'm trying to find a consistent number for ChromeOS in terms of new PC sales - trying to research the number, it ranges from 80% to 300% of Linux installs according to different sources. Obviously, ChromeOS is not used in servers but I suspect that it is the largest distribution of the Linux kernel in new PC (primarily laptop) sales.

    Chromium and ChromeOS are "based on Linux" and use a pretty big piece of the code base - this along with the footprint they have would make them a major player in the Linux world and it would be appropriate for Google to have a seat at the Linux table.

    --
    Mimetics Inc. Twitter
    1. Re:With Chromium/ChromeOS Google's a major player by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Don't forget Android, Android is the most popular OS worldwide across all computing devices. Android uses the Linux kernel, thus making Google the number one distributor of the Linux kernel. This is even before you include ChromeOS numbers.

    2. Re:With Chromium/ChromeOS Google's a major player by DamnOregonian · · Score: 1

      Well, it *is* Linux, in that it uses the Linux kernel.
      Its userspace is also very similar to a busybox userspace (actually uses toolbox, which is their own version of busybox) which is pretty similar to GNU...
      I have no problem calling ChromeOS Linux. I'm also completely sure that you're correct that only a tiny fraction of new non-server PC sales come with a flavor of Linux that isn't ChromeOS.

    3. Re:With Chromium/ChromeOS Google's a major player by dwpro · · Score: 2

      Thre's value in having mindshare, but I think the open source community should be careful about how much it embraces/affiliates itself with a walled garden approach to an OS, even if it significantly incorporates the linux kernel. Hell, windows 10 runs a 'linux subsystem' now. Most users on android phones have no root access to their systems and have a myriad of corporate entities tracking and controling their every move with applications they can't uninstall, which seems very much unlike what I perceive most Linux users to value.

      --
      Millions long for immortality who do not know what to do with themselves on a rainy Sunday afternoon. -- Susan Ertz
    4. Re:With Chromium/ChromeOS Google's a major player by Tough+Love · · Score: 1

      I'm trying to find a consistent number for ChromeOS in terms of new PC sales...

      One data point: ChromeOS is now over 60% of US K12 sales. Microsoft is a distant second and Apple has been squeezed to oblivion.

      --
      When all you have is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a thumb.
    5. Re:With Chromium/ChromeOS Google's a major player by Tough+Love · · Score: 1

      Doesn't that make Samsung the number one Linux distributor? After all, Samsung does not distribute vanilla Android, they distribute their own forked version, much as any Linux distributor does.

      --
      When all you have is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a thumb.
    6. Re:With Chromium/ChromeOS Google's a major player by Tough+Love · · Score: 1

      I'm also completely sure that you're correct that only a tiny fraction of new non-server PC sales come with a flavor of Linux that isn't ChromeOS.

      A tiny fraction, but still large in absolute numbers, and rapidly growing. For example, check this out.

      --
      When all you have is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a thumb.
    7. Re:With Chromium/ChromeOS Google's a major player by DamnOregonian · · Score: 1

      I don't disagree with your assertion that there's value in having mindshare... and I share your dislike of locked down systems.
      I wouldn't say open source is embracing locked down systems, but the success of those systems is also an advertisement for open source.
      I think Linux benefits from the WSL. It increases mindshare, and increases use of the GNU/Linux ecosystem, particularly for developers who are using Windows. It could be their preparatory course for making the switch.
      ChromeOS is an actively supported platform. They make improvements to the kernel (as well as things that are useless to mainline- but who cares about that) and they offer the knowledge and fixes gleaned from experience bye having a large installed attack surface.

      So really, I don't know. I get what you're saying. But we have benefited from the exposure.
      At least in the case of ChromeOS, they have a good reason for locking down the system (It's essentially supposed to be a cloud thin-client with absolute security) *and* every single model provides a developer mode with unfettered access to the OS.
      Android... That's a bit sadder of a situation, and I do agree it sucks.

    8. Re:With Chromium/ChromeOS Google's a major player by DamnOregonian · · Score: 1

      and rapidly growing

      It sure is, and I have monetarily supported their experiment, and will continue to do so.
      I wasn't aware the Aspire line now had officially supported linux models- that's awesome. What I'd really like to see though are some ultra-light Linux celeron laptops with silly battery life. I'm currently using a ChomeBook that's been converted to running Kubuntu natively, and I've absolutely fallen in love with it. All it needs is a real keyboard. This Bay Trail Celeron may be pretty gutless, but it gets the job done for my work and home use, and whether I'm watching movies on it, browsing, or working- it goes forever. I haven't pulled out the beefy i7 laptop in almost 2 months.

  9. dumping the linux kernel on Android by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    And scaling back ChromeOS product developement.

    Yea, I don't understand how that's increasing the support for Linux.

    I'd describe it as lining the pockets of The Linux Foundation and installing an insider that can steer Linux towards what Google wants, which apparently includes the destruction of Linux. (see above)

    in short - Google and The Linux Foundation are full of shit.

    1. Re:dumping the linux kernel on Android by The+Fat+Bastard · · Score: 0

      For many years Google had their own Ubuntu distro called Goobuntu. Google recently replaced Goobuntu with gLinux, a Debian distro based on Debian Testing. So it's not all about ChromeOS.

    2. Re:dumping the linux kernel on Android by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      But for cre!mer, they have a special GooeyBuntu version!


      Somebody please mod "The Fat Bastard" karma whoring crap down!

      creimer's child bride retired military buddy suggested to him to "hide in plain sight" so creimer picked up "The Fat Bastard" as his new sock puppet user name!

    3. Re:dumping the linux kernel on Android by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Chris' case is getting worse, he spends all day replying to himself as AC on /. and now, on YouTube in order to grab attention!

      The tests we ran on Chris have shown that Chris has the intelligence of an ameba:
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

      So, technically, he is able to conceive some kind of agenda but it will be silly or impossible to follow on a human scale.

      For example, Chris had an agenda to post anything he felt like on Slashdot which did not work well because it was based on his false beliefs that he had an infinite number of karma points as he wrote here several times.

      Several people here explained to Chris that karma maxed out at some level like 50 or so but Chris kept on insisting that his python script had confirmed that he had millions of karma points!

      Oh well, as I wrote before: "It isn't Chris' fault if he is the way he is. We do the best we can do with him and he is partially integrated into society. We try to cure his abnormal need for attention but he is kind of stubborn and won't listen to anybody."

      For the valuable /. users that might already have read the following, please note that there is an important update.

      IMPORTANT UPDATE:
      Special Education for the Santa Clara County Office of Education has invested money to buy Chris a new chair:
      http://www.keynamics.com/image...

      Information about Christopher Dale Reimer and autistic people:

      Autistic people have obsessions about things normal people don't care. For example, one of our autistic patient went haywire when he realized that there was a penny missing in his pocket change.

      To calm him down, one of our educator pretended to have found it on the floor and gave a penny to him.

      The autistic patient condition went even worse because he realized it wasn't the same penny!

      Chris has an obsession with budgeting every penny. He doesn't understand that most people do not budget to the penny and have a flexible amount they allow for miscellaneous items.

      I am Nancy Guerrero and I am Director of Special Education for the Santa Clara County Office of Education. We use Chris' (a.k.a. creimer,cdreimer) picture in our document because he is the hardest case we have ever had to handle:
      http://www.sccoe.org/depts/stu...

      Our artists were inspired by the low carb diet that Christopher follows scrupulously for the small lunch box and by the picture linked below for the rest. I am sure that you will notice the similarities such as the bump on the side of his chest and more:
      https://ibb.co/gVad65

      Please be easy on Christopher although, I am aware that some of our staff handling Chris post joke comments here and obvoiusly, the Santa Clara County Office of Education disapprove that behavior vehemently:
      http://ibb.co/mRVSaG

      But it isn't Chris' fault if he is the way he is. We do the best we can do with him and he is partially integrated into society. We try to cure his abnormal need for attention but he is kind of stubborn and won't listen to anybody.

      Thank You dear users,
      ---
      Nancy Guerrero
      Director
      Special Education
      Santa Clara County Office of Education

    4. Re:dumping the linux kernel on Android by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Exactly Nancy, thanks!

      But it seems like Chris is a victim here. He keeps on reading those SEO, youtube algorithm, basically get rich quick sites. He doesn't realize that he is the fish for them since they make money off him with their own schemes. Then, he wastes his time trying to implement what those sites suggest and he ends up disturbing people.

      I mean, those crooks tell Chris that he has to build personal brands and he goes on the Internet and makes everything about himself public!

      I believe we should bring this up at our next meeting. He might not be our only patient victim of such on-line abuse.

      https://www.researchgate.net/p...

      --
      Silvia Bunge
      Psychology Department
      University of California, Berkeley

    5. Re:dumping the linux kernel on Android by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Here are some posts from creimer's old account that was blocked and renamed by Slashdot management. I'll start with his love of child brides.

      If all my assets were liquidated, I would still have enough cash to buy a new car and head off to Mexico to find a chica to marry.
      https://slashdot.org/comments....

      You're aware that are some states in the U.S. that allow underage marriage as young as 14 years old?
      https://slashdot.org/comments....
      As for my comment, I've heard stories of engineers retiring at 50, moving to Mexico and marrying underage girls. Since I work with ex-military, the Philippines is a popular retirement spot for marrying underage girls as well. It's all about getting the most bang for your retirement dollars.
      https://slashdot.org/comments....
      That only works if you retire to Mexico, build a mansion (by local standards), marry an underage sweet thing and bequeath all your possessions to the village.
      https://slashdot.org/comments....

      You need to be more specific. I wrote 3,000+ comments this year.
      https://slashdot.org/comments....

      Nah... I just do it to piss off my trolls and make coffee money off of them.
      https://slashdot.org/comments....
      We have different priorities. You want to climb the corporate ladder. I want to own the corporate ladder.
      https://slashdot.org/comments....

      Your bitch licks your balls. Most people don't brag about practicing bestiality. Is there a reason why you married a dog and not a goat?
      https://slashdot.org/comments....

      My employers don't care about what my Slashdot trolls think. Now go off and lick your balls somewhere else.
      https://slashdot.org/comments....
      iPhone 6s and reduce my monthly bill from $80 to $50. As a phone and a video camera, the iPhone 6s isn't obsolete. As a Sprint customer for 20+ years, Sprint will always offer me a new iPhone if I decide to stop using the 6s as a phone in the next several years.
      https://slashdot.org/comments....
      Miracle workers are never afraid to ask for a second opinion. Supervisor gave me his opinion ? and a mess to clean up. Lesson learned from this incident: if something isn't quite broken, break it.
      https://slashdot.org/comments....

      So you can turn around call me a liar again? People have been playing that game with me for years.
      https://slashdot.org/comments....
      Based on what I've read about Uber, he need to tell the boys to clean up their locker room behavior, zip up their pants, and attend sensitivity training until everyone agrees that women are not sexual objects.
      https://slashdot.org/comments....

      Which doesn't violate the Slashdot TOS. If you got a problem with that, take it up with management.
      https://slashdot.org/comments....
      This year I've posted ~4,000 comments.
      https://slashdot.org/comments....

      I don't bother with mod points. I'm doing something much more sinister. It took te

  10. Well... Open source software anyway. by fahrbot-bot · · Score: 1

    Google couldn't exist without Linux and open-source software.

    I'm sure they could do just fine using BSD.

    --
    It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
    1. Re:Well... Open source software anyway. by Tough+Love · · Score: 1

      Google couldn't exist without Linux and open-source software.

      I'm sure they could do just fine using BSD.

      Haha, you really know how to tell 'em, will you be here all night?

      --
      When all you have is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a thumb.
  11. Double Double Down Down by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Journalists doubling down on the use of the term "double down."

  12. CRE!MER KARMA WHORE ALERT by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Oh shut up chris that barely has to do with the story you're just hoping to get upmodded "informative" so that you can increase visibility to the links you post to your blog and amazon affiliate links.
    Nobody cares about the barely insider information that you accquired during your prematurely terminated 3rd party helpdesk contract.
    I can't believe you made a blog post entitled "My 'complicated' work history at google" why the fuck would you post that where employers can see it?

    Dear diary I got fired from a shitty job at a good company but it wasn't my fault

    1. Re:CRE!MER KARMA WHORE ALERT by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Recruiters are not interested in what happened at job from ten years ago. They want to know about the last three position wtih three years in each position. That's nine years.

    2. Re:CRE!MER KARMA WHORE ALERT by The+Fat+Bastard · · Score: 1

      My comment was factual. Perhaps you didn't see this story from earlier this year?

    3. Re:CRE!MER KARMA WHORE ALERT by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      +5 informative!

      cre!mer is a delusional autistic karma whoring annoying fat bastard!

      Read what Nancy Guerrero says about him below! She handles him at Special Education.

      He lives at 1919 fruitdale San Jose but they should have named his street "fruitcake" instead. We know because he is so dumb that he posts everything about himself online just to grab attention!

      What a pest!

    4. Re:CRE!MER KARMA WHORE ALERT by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Chris' case is really getting worse, he spends all day replying to himself as AC on /. and now, on YouTube in order to grab attention!

      The tests we ran on Chris have shown that Chris has the intelligence of an ameba:
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

      So, technically, he is able to conceive some kind of agenda but it will be silly or impossible to follow on a human scale.

      For example, Chris had an agenda to post anything he felt like on Slashdot which did not work well because it was based on his false beliefs that he had an infinite number of karma points as he wrote here several times.

      Several people here explained to Chris that karma maxed out at some level like 50 or so but Chris kept on insisting that his python script had confirmed that he had millions of karma points!

      Oh well, as I wrote before: "It isn't Chris' fault if he is the way he is. We do the best we can do with him and he is partially integrated into society. We try to cure his abnormal need for attention but he is kind of stubborn and won't listen to anybody."

      For the valuable /. users that might already have read the following, please note that there is an important update.

      IMPORTANT UPDATE:
      Special Education for the Santa Clara County Office of Education has invested money to buy Chris a new chair:
      http://www.keynamics.com/image...

      Information about Christopher Dale Reimer and autistic people:

      Autistic people have obsessions about things normal people don't care. For example, one of our autistic patient went haywire when he realized that there was a penny missing in his pocket change.

      To calm him down, one of our educator pretended to have found it on the floor and gave a penny to him.

      The autistic patient condition went even worse because he realized it wasn't the same penny!

      Chris has an obsession with budgeting every penny. He doesn't understand that most people do not budget to the penny and have a flexible amount they allow for miscellaneous items.

      I am Nancy Guerrero and I am Director of Special Education for the Santa Clara County Office of Education. We use Chris' (a.k.a. creimer,cdreimer) picture in our document because he is the hardest case we have ever had to handle:
      http://www.sccoe.org/depts/stu...

      Our artists were inspired by the low carb diet that Christopher follows scrupulously for the small lunch box and by the picture linked below for the rest. I am sure that you will notice the similarities such as the bump on the side of his chest and more:
      https://ibb.co/gVad65

      Please be easy on Christopher although, I am aware that some of our staff handling Chris post joke comments here and obvoiusly, the Santa Clara County Office of Education disapprove that behavior vehemently:
      http://ibb.co/mRVSaG

      But it isn't Chris' fault if he is the way he is. We do the best we can do with him and he is partially integrated into society. We try to cure his abnormal need for attention but he is kind of stubborn and won't listen to anybody.

      Thank You dear users,
      ---
      Nancy Guerrero
      Director
      Special Education
      Santa Clara County Office of Education

    5. Re:CRE!MER KARMA WHORE ALERT by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      _,--=#[The Post CRIMER doesn't want you to read!!!]#=--,_ 1)Why-are-people-upset-with-him? 2)What-can-I-do 3)What-are-his-names 4)Who-is-FatCashewsLovesMe 5)How-to-defeat-his-hustles 6)Why-are-there-dashes 7)Pastebin-Copy

      1)Why-are-people-upset-with-himHe makes frequent low quality posts for two reasons:
      Money) BASICALLY: He made thousands of shitty posts & bragged about how much money it made him.
      DETAILS: He wants u to folow his referer links & pick up his cookie. Even if u dont buy what he linked but do buy something else from that site later on he often makes money;He ALSO tries to drive TRAFFIC to his various BLOGS & vlogs.
      Karma)He believes karma acumulates infinitely So he makes lots of pointles posts that r not bad enough to mod down;hoping they wil get moded up;He was a raging ahole when he thoght he had a karma surplus

      2)What-can-I-do DOWNMOD u wil usually get more mod points. If he is postng from a new sock acount w/ krma, get his oldst posts first. DOWNMOD him and AC in fresh thrads early on;Metmods wil reward u. METAMOD his posts. REPLY ONLY ANONYMOUSLY to the most deeply nested coments in his threds it helps hide his posts. Dwnvote his SUBMISSIONS, he uses to get krma. REPORT HIM to slshdot & the afiliate progrms he is usng. DONT MENTION his brand names c**mer.

      3)What-are-his-namesMost famous:Cre|mer Cdre|mer ILoveFatCashews, Anonymous Cashews, The Fat Bastard aka TCDR

      4)Who-is-FatCashewsLoveMe AKA Tardu Lardo,FCLM Funny & anoying; Not me or crimer;He keeps lookout for infestation

      5)How-can-I-avoid-his-hustles --===DONT FOLLOW HIS LINKS!!!===--
      IF YOU MUST:Use a privte tab & nevr buy anything on the same sesion. If he fools u, close tab, cler the cookies for that site. There r sites other than yutube that wil let u watch his videos. I dont know if people view his contnt but I can pictre his jowls jigling at the thoght of people subvrting his business model
      6)Why-are-there-dashes & weird stuffI know most only skim thse posts. I want the most imprtnt infrmton to pop out at a glnce & to keep it shrt. I dont use TCDRs name becase he may think tht he benfits from geting it indxed by serch engnes. Id like 2 thnk TCDR & FCLM for editrial advice

      7)Copy: http://archive.is/TtDrY

    6. Re:CRE!MER KARMA WHORE ALERT by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Blah, blah, blah, recruiters, blah, blah, Casey Neistat, blah, blah, AMD, blah, blah, blah, blah,

      STFU up cre!mer! We already heard all the bullshit you have to say and repeating it 1,000,000 times doesn't make it any truer.

    7. Re:CRE!MER KARMA WHORE ALERT by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Factual doesn't mean relevant. Just because google gave a cute name to their modified install of linux doesn't mean it has anything to do with this story. They named their internal distribution because it helps promote the team that builds it more than calling it "our custom debian"
      From the article summary right on slashdot

      Platinum level. With this jump in status, Google gets a seat on the Foundation's board of directors. This position will be filled by Sarah Novotny, the head of open source strategy for Google Cloud Platform.

      https://cloud.google.com/compute/docs/images#os-compute-support
      Do you see gLinux listed anywhere????
      No because :

      gLinux is a Debian Testing-based Linux distribution used at Google as a workstation operating system

      Which of course you know because you were working on their helpdesk as a contracting company.
      You only wanted to take the one tiny tidbit of special knowledge you had and offer it up to the gods of Slashdot karma, even knowing full well that it's irrelevant to the discussion
      You were hoping that nobody else knew that it was irrelevant so that you could get modded up despite being intentionallydisinformative

      You're not here for actual discussion you're here to whore for karma until you have a solid foundation to as you say 'promote your agenda'. That being advertising for your monetized internet content.

      Even your defense of yourself that your comment was factual is deliberately worded, yes google has gLinux(factual), no it's not anything they give an extra half million dollars worth of fucks about(implied by, but not stated in your post). You know it too.

    8. Re:CRE!MER KARMA WHORE ALERT by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You're a 50 year old overweight unlovable creepy virgin loser.

      This comment was factual.

    9. Re:CRE!MER KARMA WHORE ALERT by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "Recruiters are not interested in what happened at job from ten years ago."

      "at job", Chris? Really?

      " They want to know about the last three position"

      PositionS, idiot. I know three positions you DIDN'T have in the last nine years: missionary, doggy, and 69!

      Bahahahaha!!!! That comment was factual.

      Recruiters also want to know about your Microsoft security certs. You know, the ones you still don't have?

      That comment was factual.

    10. Re:CRE!MER KARMA WHORE ALERT by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      gLinux is a Debian Testing-based Linux distribution used at Google as a workstation operating system

      Which of course you know because you were working on their helpdesk as a contracting company.

      Too bad your comment wasn't factual. Google announced gLinux this year (2018). Creimer worked at the Google help desk ten years ago (2008). There's no way that creimer could have known that Google would switched Linux distros ten years later.

    11. Re:CRE!MER KARMA WHORE ALERT by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Aren't you they guy who weighs 400 pounds?

    12. Re:CRE!MER KARMA WHORE ALERT by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yeah but he lost 50 pounds by buying a scale that tops at 350 pounds.

      This comment was factual.

    13. Re:CRE!mER KARMA WHORE ALERT by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Just because you happen to know what desktop i
      Os google uses since you were fired doesn't make your post relevant to their moves in cloud computing especially given the context of your post

    14. Re:CRE!MER KARMA WHORE ALERT by Tough+Love · · Score: 1

      Recruiters also want to know about your Microsoft security certs

      The words "microsoft" and "security" do not belong in the same sentence.

      --
      When all you have is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a thumb.
    15. Re:CRE!MER KARMA WHORE ALERT by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Maybe, but let's see what the fat dummy has to say:

      https://ua-video.com/-puJe8-Dg...

      Wow, great (POP) work on the (CLICK) audio! I wasn't using that eardrum anyways!

    16. Re:CRE!MER KARMA WHORE ALERT by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Mod up +0 for factuality!!!

  13. Platinum is actually cheaper than gold since 2015 by Max_W · · Score: 1

    Since 2015 the metal platinum is significantly cheaper than gold. It is a broken metaphor, right at the top foundation, so no wonder that the Linux OS, at least the desktop, is also kind of broken.

  14. Run to the Hills - Nothing ever changes - HURD? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Does anyone else get goose-bumps, and expect a really bad copyrights/patent showdown within the next few years with all those traditionally perceived as utterly EVIL companies (IBM, for years, collaborators in WW2, Microsoft, embrace and extinguish, 'FOSS is a Cancer', and now Google, your favourite brainwashing I mean hearts and minds company 'BE EVIL', now apparently bowing at the Altar of Torvalds), showing their treacherous cards? Personally, I don't trust any of them, in any context. I wish for all three to crash and burn and leave the world in peace. A Curse Be On All Their Families. I'm becoming painfully aware of an intuivite tendancy to delete all my GNU/Linux instances, burning them with fire, and to convert all to FreeBSD ASAP... And an OLD GEEZER like me remembers exactly the feeling, before the turn of the century, turning to GNU/Linux in the same same kind of emotional response.. Nothing Even Changes.. only the names.. Finally time to go HURD, anyone? Has the Linux Foundation been infiltrated? Has Linus been far too soft on Enterprise influence for all those years? Is it time for a MAJOR FORK or to let the Linux kernel go before it is turned to crap by the same old players? Calling for the community to prove me wrong or start a BLOODY REVOLUTION that will leave Linus in tears with only his off-green mental institution-coloured office walls to calm him?

    1. Re:Run to the Hills - Nothing ever changes - HURD? by DamnOregonian · · Score: 1

      Finally time to go HURD, anyone?

      I just installed Debian/HURD on a VM 2 evenings ago to see how it was coming along...

      Let me answer that question for you: No.

    2. Re:Run to the Hills - Nothing ever changes - HURD? by exomondo · · Score: 1

      It's been decades and HURD isn't even remotely usable. In a shorter time than that Apple has gone from the brink of bankruptcy to the most valuable company in the world, Microsoft has moved from a company with a CEO that called Linux (or rather the GPL) a cancer to one that's most profitable business segment depends on Linux and even has a Linux compatibility layer in Windows, Google completely dominating search, Amazon going from just online shopping to a cloud computing giant that relies on Linux and Linux powering the probably the most used consumer operating system in the world in the form of Android.

      All of these companies have a heavy investment in the continued success of Linux, really the only thing about the world that didn't change is that HURD is still junk.

  15. Mu. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Mu.

  16. Re: Being Evil by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    That's considered rape nowadays.

  17. Re:Platinum is actually cheaper than gold since 20 by DamnOregonian · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Linux on the desktop is fucking wonderful. It's just not very user-friendly, and so doesn't appeal to a large audience.
    I can't imagine having my primary desktop being anything else anymore, after years of using Windows and MacOS.
    I of course acknowledge that that is an opinion, and inherently worthless- much like your post.

  18. Anyone find this interesting? I do by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I just find it interesting that Microsoft and Google seem heavily vested in open source all of a sudden? For a OS that prides itself on having a separation from big corporate control. It sure has plenty of big players joining up and becoming more involved. Haven't figured out there motives or maybe they all have different ones. But its certainly interesting for sure.

    1. Re:Anyone find this interesting? I do by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Their motivation is that they need a robust operating system to run their businesses and it's a much better value proposition to collaborate on that and compete on the services they deliver than to try to go it alone. If they undermine Linux they undermine their own business.

      For a OS that prides itself on having a separation from big corporate control. It sure has plenty of big players joining up and becoming more involved.

      Corporate involvement in Linux is not a new thing and just because a corporation submits some code to the kernel project doesn't mean they have any control. What's your implication here?

  19. and this is why by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Linux has turned to shit.

  20. Re:Platinum is actually cheaper than gold since 20 by Harlequin80 · · Score: 4, Informative

    Not even sure I would agree with the not user friendly. Something like Linux Mint is a lot more user friendly than Windows 10. I spend 95% of my desktop time on a linux machine, but still have to fire up windows for certain software packages.

    Fusion360, Photoshop and a decent video editor. Those are why I find myself firing up windows. (not to mention games but I haven't played in ages anyway)

  21. That's their internal workstation os by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Funny that you intentionally left out that it's a workstation OS for internal use which means it's irrelevant to this story
    You're so desperate for karma that you'd intentionally misinform people just so that you can produce posts that appear to be worthy of upmod
    This is why you piss people off you don't post when you have something to contribute to the discussion. You post whatever you can think up to further your goals.

  22. And this is how you pay for OSS by jader3rd · · Score: 1

    Open Source software gets paid for by tracking users and selling their information to advertisers.

    1. Re:And this is how you pay for OSS by Tough+Love · · Score: 1

      Open Source software gets paid for by tracking users and selling their information to advertisers.

      Google pays roughly fuck all into the Linux community. Employs a few kernel hackers, mostly for its own hacked production kernel but a couple just doing whatever they want like Andrew Morton and Ted Tys'o. Other much smaller companies put a lot more money into the community, and are correspondingly more respected.

      --
      When all you have is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a thumb.
    2. Re:And this is how you pay for OSS by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I didn't know that Morton and Ts'o are employed by Google. Those two are legends.

  23. Re:Platinum is actually cheaper than gold since 20 by DamnOregonian · · Score: 1

    Ya, I think I was trying to be conciliatory or something. When you get right down to it, there's nothing less esoteric about the incantations you have to pump into Windows' pathetic excuse for a terminal when something on it doesn't work right, and most of the time, you can actually fix something that isn't working right with your popular Linux DE, while in Windows you're forced to suffer a million 'might work' measures because nobody actually really understands wtf the Windows Update agent actually does.

  24. Re: Being Evil by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Only if you drool.

  25. Zontar The Mindless's crackpot resume by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Going to make more sockpuppets to stalk & troll me with you loon https://slashdot.org/comments.... ?

    Sending me postcards with threats too https://slashdot.org/comments.... ??

    Take your meds mentalcase https://slashdot.org/comments.... & You're a druggie too https://slashdot.org/comments....

    * You're a butthurt loon freak, plain & simple - you did it to yourself, loser... see below for proof.

    APK

    P.S.=> Still trying to live down how I shot you to pieces in the art & science of computing Mr. Butthurt https://slashdot.org/comments.... ?

    How about proving hosts & my program that builds them are useless too https://slashdot.org/comments.... ? ... apk

  26. Couldn't exist? by Meneth · · Score: 1

    Google couldn't exist without Linux

    False. BSD or even Windows Server would have been a sufficient platform to develop the Google server infrastructure.

    Less efficient, perhaps, but hardly impossible.

    1. Re:Couldn't exist? by ebvwfbw · · Score: 1

      Wow, you don't know much about computers, do you.

  27. Re:Platinum is actually cheaper than gold since 20 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    windows isn't user friendly either, that is the worst of it all, how this myth is still standing today is a mistery to me.

  28. Insurance by Martin+S. · · Score: 1

    You're right to suggest this is a direct consequence, but is more like to be insurance for Google to stop Microsoft screwing them over decisions.

    The rest of use might as well walk on by, the idea of open source being about communities is long gone.

  29. APK is still butthurt from 2 days ago by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Alexander Penis Kowalski is still butthurt from 2 days ago when his ass got beaten hard. Every time he tries to change the subject or deflect criticism he actually ends up conceding the argument. When he repeats himself or starts making demands of others he also concedes the argument. Face it APK you are a loserin real life and on the internet. How is life in that dumpy duplex with your roommate? Sorry to hear you mother moved to a different continent to get away from you. I would think you would welcome some friendly mail from Zontar saying "Greetings from Stockholm! Behave yourself! Regards, Zontar." instead of the notices you normally get.

  30. Re:Platinum is actually cheaper than gold since 20 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Linux on the desktop is fucking wonderful. It's just not very user-friendly, and so doesn't appeal to a large audience.

    I can't imagine having my primary desktop being anything else anymore, after years of using Windows and MacOS.

    I of course acknowledge that that is an opinion, and inherently worthless- much like your post.

    Linux NOT user-friendly ??? Having dumped Windose in 2005, I have never looked back ; while not being an IT professional ,but just a person interested in learning new things.

    With a worldwide helpful community Linux is everything to go for if one wishes to communicate and learn with others.......and moreover ,to date it has been Open Source and is Free , involving minute overall cost.

    It has to be said that some entities like the Munich -Germany local government have gone back to Windose ,but only because M$oft have moved their German HQ to that town.

  31. Discussion by newsviral33 · · Score: 1

    If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important. Do you really want your competitors to make decisions on what direction the product takes?