Here on the Underground (and occasionally in public) I mention my platonic man-love for the speed, simplicity and lack of malware offered by the Ubuntu Linux OS, typically to a lot of eye rolling and snickering.
Well, snicker at this, Windows slaves: Google uses Ubuntu Linux almost exclusively.
And they’re rich.
From ZDNet:
Why Ubuntu, rather than say Macs or Windows? Well you can run those too. Bushnell said, “Googlers [Google employees] are invited to use the tools that work for them.. If Gmail doesn’t want work for them, they can use pine [an early Unix shell character-based e-mail client] that’s fine. People aren’t required to use Ubuntu.” But, Goobuntu use is encouraged and “All our development tools are for Ubuntu.”
Googlers must ask to use Windows because “Windows is harder because it has ‘special’ security problems so it requires high-level permission before someone can use it.” In addition, “Windows tools tend to be heavy and inflexible.”
…
What there is though is “tens-of-thousands of Goobuntu users. This includes graphic designers, engineers, management, and sales people. It’s a very diverse community. Some, like Ken Thompson, helped create Unix and some don’t know anything about computers except how to use their application.”
Ahh, that scent you’re picking up is the Sweet Smell of External Validation. (Anyone care for a Hard Rock Cafe t-shirt?)
Back in the early aughts a former client was hired by Google and approached me about taking a job with the company (they were hiring aggressively, but I had zero interest in leaving my mountain hideaway).
Perhaps if I’d known they used Linux.
Keep writing (but you can stop with the exaggerated eye rolling), Tom Chandler.








Google to Struggling Newspapers: Have You Guys Ever Tried Porn?
Google isn’t universally loved by newspaper execs and other content creators, who notice Google’s making boatloads of money from content created by others – much of which is originally found in newspapers.
Now – with newspapers struggling – Google’s noticing that the source of much of their salable content may disappear. And even Google knows that’s bad.
That’s why Google’s offering up a paid-content vision for newspapers – one that sounds eerily like… the current business model for the online porn industry (via the SiliconValley.com site, bulleted for simpler reading:)
Is this the porn industry model? Tell you what – you visit a few of those sites, and let me know.
For now – and from this safe, virus-free distance – I’m suggesting Google’s suggestions align very closely to the online porn biz model.
In the past, I’ve joked that those interested in seeing the future of “legitimate” ecommerce on the Internet need look no farther then the porn industry.
(I’ve also said you’re “never more than one mistaken click away from porn on the Internet,” and it turns out both are true.)
That Google’s vision so completely aligns with what I’m going to call The Online Porn Model For Fun & Profit (Porn 3.0?) should raise a few eyebrows.
Are porn purveyors truly the visionaries the newspaper industry needs to embrace, or is somebody at Google simply spending too much time surfing where they shouldn’t?
As always, the Underground disavows all knowledge of online pornography except those parts which could prove useful to his customers.
Just saying is all.
Keep writing, Tom Chandler.
You can read the whole article via Google to newspapers: Let us be your broker before you go broke | Good Morning Silicon Valley.