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How Google got to rolling Linux releases for Desktops

cloud.google.com

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Re: How Google got to rolling Linux releases for Desktops

#52

I'm surprised no one has mentioned NixOS. Easy rolling forward or back, with config, system snapshots, and cached binaries. Can roll individual packages or the whole system very easily.

From the article, > Rolling releases with Linux distributions today are getting more common (Arch Linux, NixOS).

NixOS users are socialized to not bother reading

Re: How Google got to rolling Linux releases for Desktops

#54

Jesus.. here i am in my BigCorp being disallowed to dev with Linux because too much mandated corporate crapware doesn't work. I dream of the day my employer provides an in-house distro for me.

WSL2 works really well.

As part of the crapware image process, WSL (1&2) is often blocked

Re: How Google got to rolling Linux releases for Desktops

#55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From the article, > Rolling releases with Linux distributions today are getting more common (Arch Linux, NixOS).

NixOS users are socialized to not bother reading

Can't roll back those HN comments though...

Re: How Google got to rolling Linux releases for Desktops

#56
post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

(Source: Ex-googler for 5yrs) So first this comment is clearly influenced by your own preferences for MacOS. Stackoverflow Developer Survey shows irl about 40% of development is done on Windows, 30% Mac and 30% Linux. So the platforms are at least equally appealing in real world circumstances. Secondly Goobuntu was insanely well integrated with Google’s custom source control and internal ecosystem. No one actually di…

Thanks this is a great answer. So are the others, I think I poorly expressed my initial post. I use Linux on the desktop myself. I can't justify the price, so I don't use Mac. But if my employer gave me a choice in the matter, I'd pick a macOS machine given - why not go for the fancier option? One where the UI, OS and hardware are tightly integrated. I can always download Debian for free any run it on anything. That'…

(not a googler but discussed this with some) If I recall correctly, if you choose mac and you aren't in a team directly working on mac stuff, then it means you're going to do everything using SSH to Linux workstation - iirc the choice is essentially on what kind of laptop you want and you can't do development on the laptops by policy

Re: How Google got to rolling Linux releases for Desktops

#57
post #49

I always thought creating your own rolling distro with Gentoo was precisely the best case use of portage, but I’ve never seen anyone do it. I must be missing something.

Coincidentally, Google has sorta done that too! ChromiumOS/ChromeOS is built using portage, and is certainly rolling release. It's not really a traditional linux distro, but it's something.

Container-Optimized OS is based on Chromium OS and is more of a traditional Linux, in the sense that is runs on servers.

https://cloud.google.com/container-optimized-os/docs

Re: How Google got to rolling Linux releases for Desktops

#58
post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because almost all of our production fleet is Linux derived, it makes sense to use a platform that is nearly identical. Additionally, cost is a huge factor as well. Think about the cost of purchasing 100,000 macOS machines. Compare that to purchasing 100,000 generic x86_64 machines from several manufacturers, which are generally more friendly to customization for Google's needs. Feel free to ask questions! Disclaimer…

>Because almost all of our production fleet is Linux derived, it makes sense to use a platform that is nearly identical. Yeah, it surprises me that more people who use Linux on their infrastructure don't also dogfood it on their personal machines. We run a Linux-based cloud, and my colleagues use a variety of OSes for their daily drivers; I definitely see a difference in capability between those who dogfood and those…

As someone currently working in a company that has linux-only product but somehow decided to standardise on macbooks in engineering...

It turns out I'm not the only person with the complaint "macOS in Engineering considered Harmful". Pretty much all backend work is done in either a Linux VM using Parallels, or in docker containers, and the developer experience sucks because of that. While theoretically someone could try building some components on mac, that would be a small portion useless to general work.

We might not be at the scale of Google, but we have even less mac-specific work and similar Linux focus (hell, I'm working on custom distro even)

Re: How Google got to rolling Linux releases for Desktops

#59

The more important question is where is this magical Google-blessed rolling release Debian available to download? We've all heard rumors of this internal Google distro and what I'm reading is their intent to give back. You can use Microsoft's CBL-Mariner today. Where is Google's?

No post body was provided.

Re: How Google got to rolling Linux releases for Desktops

#60
post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Coincidentally, Google has sorta done that too! ChromiumOS/ChromeOS is built using portage, and is certainly rolling release. It's not really a traditional linux distro, but it's something.

Container-Optimized OS is based on Chromium OS and is more of a traditional Linux, in the sense that is runs on servers. https://cloud.google.com/container-optimized-os/docs

...and so was CoreOS before the equally named company was acquired by RedHat.
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