Hacker News Reader

Comment by mtgx | Hacker News Reader

Why hasn't Google made a client for Linux yet? It's been almost a year.

Probably because they don't care about Drive. It's basically a refreshed web interface with a glued on API that they use to promote the "store your stuff in google docs" feature.

Surprising indeed since Google's computers run on a flavored Ubuntu distribution. It probably means they are not even using it internally :)

Have you ever seen a googler work? They do nearly everything on their webapps, and the programmers live in source control.

There was an article from a while back as to why Google wasn't working on gdrive faster and one of their engineering managers was quoted as saying something to the effect of "why are we syncing files? Who needs files, we have everything on the web". But unfortunately I can't find that reference right now.

But it doesn't seem too far a stretch to think that some web-heavy companies prefer web solutions with as "stateless" clients as possible.

I can't really see people using Drive on their work desktops. As for laptops, it seems most people at Google choose mac.

Why is it that you do not see people using Drive on desktops? It can be useful in many ways.

I guess I see my work desktop as exclusively for work-related activities (plus Facebook and HN). Whereas a work-issued laptop could be a mix of both. I noticed a similar trend in those around me. Don't really see people organizing their photo library on their workstations...

But Google Drive can be used to do real work by sharing work documents across many email accounts, etc... It's a good collaboration tool for certain things.

This is indeed quite weak of them. Perhaps their developers don't really believe in the product?

> Perhaps their developers don't really believe in the product?

Or that the biz guys don't think that Linux leads to monetization of the product?

If the developers on the team were passionate enough and the corporate culture was as good as I hope it is inside Google; there would be a Linux client by now regardless of its monetization prospects.

They use Linux in Google... I don't know how they can't think it's viable.

Doesn't ChromeOS have integration with Drive? If so, the bulk of the code for a Linux client should already have been written. I imagine this is more of a product management issue, rather than one of engineering.

I guess that's just the Google Drive web interface - ChomeOS is designed to use webapps exclusively. Linux users can also access Google Drive on the web.

I bet there was a internal screw up, they said they were working on it pretty early. Maybe there was something with the team. Any insiders here?

Reply on news.ycombinator.com