Google Earth for Linux [LWN.net]

Google Earth for Linux

Posted Jun 15, 2006 20:05 UTC (Thu) by mchristensen (guest, #4955)
In reply to: Google Earth for Linux by man_ls
Parent article: Google Earth for Linux

They let every one of their developers work on FOSS 20% of the time, and they have hired FOSS project leaders like Guido Van Rossum with the specific intent of advancing those projects (Python in this case).

So, I would say that's Free Software friendly.

They obviously aren't a free-software company, but they do play nice and grow the free software ecosystem -- which makes sense, since they do make their money using free software!

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Google Earth for Linux

Posted Jun 15, 2006 22:41 UTC (Thu) by man_ls (guest, #15091) [Link] (3 responses)

They let every one of their developers work on FOSS 20% of the time

Every developer can work on whatever they want 20% of the time, so they might write libre software or they might perfect their match-bridge-building skills if they want.

They may be free software friendly (after all, as you say, they make their money with it); but they might be a free software company if they wanted to. For instance Sun has done a lot more for free software over the years, even if there are some sore spots; they have freed their bread-and-butter software like OpenOffice. Not to speak about Red Hat, Novell or Canonical. Pity.

Google Earth for Linux

Posted Jun 17, 2006 19:52 UTC (Sat) by dirtyepic (guest, #30178) [Link] (2 responses)

> Every developer can work on whatever they want 20% of the time, so they might write libre software or they might perfect their match-bridge-building skills if they want.

Erm, you do realize that's 20% of their *paid* time we're talking about here?

Google Earth for Linux

Posted Jun 17, 2006 22:15 UTC (Sat) by man_ls (guest, #15091) [Link] (1 responses)

Yes, I do realize it:

Google engineers all have 20 percent time in which they're free to pursue projects they're passionate about. This freedom has already produced Google News, Google Suggest, AdSense for Content, and Orkut products which might otherwise have taken an entire start-up to launch.

I don't know how those projects are chosen or whether they must be approved; I guess building bridges made of matches would be frowned upon, but that is why I chose it. Anyway, the point is that the 20% is not for free software, just for projects you like. I don't doubt that a lot of engineers choose "open source" as their pet projects, but note that none of the products mentioned (News, Suggest, Orkut...) are free software right now.

Google Earth for Linux

Posted Jun 17, 2006 22:33 UTC (Sat) by dirtyepic (guest, #30178) [Link]

Oops, i read it as "Every developer [anywhere] can work on whatever they want 20% of the time", when you meant to say "Every [Google] developer can work on whatever they want 20% of the time".