And by “we“ I mean of course Linux users.
Over the years, Google has released several desktop applications (Picasa, Google Talk, Google Earth, to name a few). Every time one of those products was introduced, it was only made available for Windows, and versions for other platforms like Linux or Mac OS X were launched more than twelve months laters (and in some cases, they were never launched).
While I understand that, statistically, Linux users represent only a small fraction of the desktop market, on the other hand this issue makes you wonder if we are seen as some kind of second-class citizens by Google.
I’d like to share with you some facts that show that the answer to the question in the title is probably yes (at least, that seems to be the message that Google is sending to the Linux community).
- Google Talk
Google Talk was officialy launched on August 2005, for the Windows platform. More than three years have passed since then, and there’s still no native client available for Linux.
Since Google Talk is based on an open protocol (XMPP), you can use any other XMPP compliant client (such as Kopete or Pidgin) to interact with Google Talk users. There’s also Google Talk Gadget, which is a Flash-based application than can be run from a browser without installing additional software.
Anyway, the full features of the program are only available for those running the native Windows client.
12/13/2009 08:26:40 PM
Google Chrome for Linux - Finally!
Yes, I know it’s a Beta release, but… We all know that “Beta” has a special meaning for Google, and besides… Google’s Beta products and services are usually quite better than others that claim to be stable or mat