GLinux

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gLinux is a Debian Testing-based Linux distribution used at Google as a workstation operating system. [1] The Google gLinux team builds the system from source code, introducing their own changes. [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] gLinux replaced the previously used Ubuntu-based distribution, Goobuntu. [9] gLinux is usually installed by loading into a bootstrap environment when it is first booted up. [10] When it is started, the root files are unpacked and the Debian installer starts to perform the installation. [10] According to a former user of the OS, it uses the Cinnamon desktop environment. [11] As of 2024, only the GNOME desktop environment is fully supported. Over the years, Google has focused on speed, scale and data, which is the thought process that allowed them to move to gLinux. [12] Google used Ubuntu before switching to gLinux; however, the two years of security updates it provided meant that planning for the next upgrade would take close to a year. [13]

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References

  1. ↑ "gLinux lightning talk". YouTube . Retrieved 1 April 2018.
  2. ↑ Prakash, Abhishek (17 January 2018). "No More Ubuntu! Debian is the New Choice For Google's In-house Linux Distribution". It's FOSS. Retrieved 2020-12-16.
  3. ↑ "Google moves to Debian for in-house Linux desktop". ZDNET.
  4. ↑ Tiwari, Aditya (2018-01-17). "Google Ditches Goobuntu Linux For Debian-Based gLinux". Fossbytes.
  5. ↑ Merriman, Chris (17 January 2018). "Google ditches Ubuntu for Debian for internal engineering environment". The Inquirer. Archived from the original on 18 January 2018. Retrieved 15 May 2020.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
  6. ↑ Shankland, Stephen. "Google's Chrome OS gets new app muscle with built-in Linux". CNET.
  7. ↑ "Google переводит рабочие станции инженеров с Goobuntu (Ubuntu) на gLinux (Debian)". www.opennet.ru. January 18, 2015.
  8. ↑ Nestor, Marius (2018-01-17). "Google Replaces Its Ubuntu-Based Goobuntu Linux OS with Debian-Based gLinux". softpedia.
  9. ↑ Davenport, Corbin (2018-01-19). "Google's Linux workstations are switching from Ubuntu to Debian". Android Police.
  10. 1 2 Fata, Matt; Arida, Philippe-Joseph; Hahn, Patrick; Beyer, Betsy (June 2018). "Corp to Cloud: Google's Virtual Desktops: How Google moved its virtual desktops to the cloud". Queue. 16 (3): 58–78. doi: 10.1145/3236386.3264508 . ISSN   1542-7730. S2CID   51925085.
  11. ↑ Nullfreak (2024-01-12). "I used gLinux for a …". r/linuxquestions. Retrieved 2024-06-20.
  12. ↑ Levy, Steven (2011). How Google Thinks, Works, and Shapes Our Lives. United States of America: Steven Levy. ISBN   978-1-4165-9658-5.
  13. ↑ "How Google got to rolling Linux releases for Desktops". Google Cloud Blog. Retrieved 2022-07-29.


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