
How long since Google said a Google Drive Linux client is coming? - waffle_ss
https://abevoelker.github.io/how-long-since-google-said-a-google-drive-linux-client-is-coming/
======
GauntletWizard
I've got it; I was at Google about a year back when they had an open beta. At
that time they were encouraging everyone at the company who'd signed up to
take home the beta client and install it on whatever computers they wished. It
works okay; There's a bug where it will occasionally re-sync everything, but
last I saw there was serious work on it.

Why haven't they released it, if it was this close to finished? I can't say.
Likely bad allocation of resources and decisions by product people. Larry is
chasing Wall Street targets, which has badly slowed the pace of innovation in
most of the company. The moonshots are sacred and given free reign, everyone
else isn't allowed to innovate.

~~~
wodenokoto
I thought a large part of google Devs are using Ubuntu. What I don't
understand is why isn't there a Linux client,ms imply for the purpose of dog-
fooding?

~~~
nextw33k
The largest problem with Linux deployment is support. Suddenly you need a tech
support team that can support Linux as well as Windows.

Blizzard had a Linux version of World of Warcraft, but can you imagine how
hard it is to ensure your support staff across the world know how to handle a
customer with a Linux PC?

~~~
zurn
Thanks to their unique approach to product support, Google won't have this
problem though.

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felixrieseberg
If you're looking for alternatives, OneDrive has been ported to Linux. It
currently has 15GB free and fairly cheap plans.

[https://github.com/xybu/onedrive-d/](https://github.com/xybu/onedrive-d/)
(using [https://github.com/mk-fg/python-onedrive](https://github.com/mk-
fg/python-onedrive))

(The usual disclaimer: I work for MS).

~~~
fuck_google
It's interesting how Microsoft is starting to feel like the lesser evil
compared to Google. I wonder how many good services/companies have been killed
by Google offering an inferior service for free, only to abandon the service
later on.

~~~
BenTheElder
Judging by your username I'd say that you've already thought about this and
perhaps have a somewhat biased and possibly less than reasonable opinion on
the subject...

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moonbug
That's Google - the corporate equivalent of a hyperactive 10 year old boy.

~~~
neonfreon
To be fair, it only takes a smidgen of hyperactivity to forget about the Linux
desktop market.

~~~
bad_user
As if synchronizing files is useful only for the _desktop_.

~~~
neonfreon
I was under the impression that the missing Google Drive application for Linux
is a desktop application. Is that not the case? What uses for it, beyond the
desktop, are you referring to?

~~~
moonbug
"Desktop"'s a red herring in this context, really. What's missing is a GDrive
daemon that does automatic syncing. The closest there is is
[https://github.com/odeke-em/drive](https://github.com/odeke-em/drive) , which
requires manual push/pull.

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fixermark
As I understand it, the Drive API is public and well-documented
([https://developers.google.com/drive/](https://developers.google.com/drive/)).

What's to stop, well, anyone from just implementing this and throwing it up on
GitHub?

"Why did you do it?" "I guess I just got tired of waiting for someone else to
do it for me."

~~~
safanycom
I use Drive which is made by googlers. Works as advertised.
[https://github.com/odeke-
em/drive/blob/master/platform_packa...](https://github.com/odeke-
em/drive/blob/master/platform_packages.md)

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krylon
This is turning into a running gag. It's not like this is rocket science.
Google has their client on Windows, Mac, and Android, while Dropbox is
available for ... Windows, Mac, and Linux.

On the other hand, given the size of the market for people using Linux on
their desktop computers, I cannot exactly blame Google for not giving a damn
about it. OTOH, Chrome for Linux exists, so...

~~~
BenTheElder
Small note: Dropbox has android/iOS/web as well and Drive has web/iOS.

As for the market, that includes a lot of their own employees does it not?

Edit: Not to say that there is a big market or that this would dictate what
their priorities are, just saying I'm sure even some googlers would like drive
to work well on Linux.

~~~
diminoten
I'd bet that the majority of engineers at Google use OS X.

~~~
GauntletWizard
All of google's backend code is written on Linux desktops. OSX is common for
laptops, but real code isn't permitted to touch their drives.

~~~
what_ever
> but real code isn't permitted to touch their drives

Do you mean one is not allowed to check out the code on OSX and sync to the
dev/linux box?

~~~
Psyonic
When I was there, that's exactly how it worked. Obviously not the case if you
were doing OSX or iPhone dev, but otherwise no code on your laptop.

------
hashemian
I gave up long ago and started using insync. The only downside is that I don't
feel comfortable a third-party company also have access to files, but besides
this, the app is really nice, works just as expected.

~~~
thrill
+1 for the insync app. Google could have a Google Drive for Linux offering
overnight by simply buying them.

------
imglorp
Here's an unofficial native client.

[http://www.lbreda.com/grive/start](http://www.lbreda.com/grive/start)

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evansd
I've found the Insync client works pretty well.

I asked them about OAuth token usage at one point and this was the response I
got:

> The "refresh token" does not leave the user's machine. This is the permanent
> token that we use to generate an "access token", a transient token (expires
> in an hour) that is used for actually communicating with the Google APIs. We
> sometimes send an "access token" to our servers for verification purposes,
> but we never store them (and they expire anyways).

Obviously it would be better not to have to trust a third-party at all, but it
doesn't seem like you have to completely hand over the keys to the kingdom.

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tshannon
You could always roll your own:
[http://tshannon.bitbucket.org/freehold/](http://tshannon.bitbucket.org/freehold/)

------
fbleagh
I just use the insync client - much better than the native Google Drive client
anyway - even allows for multiple accounts, and selective sync (even
subfolders)

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twotwotwo
(There's a Drive thingy in (Linux-based) Chrome OS, though I think it's not a
synced local folder like the Dropbox client, more of a VFS with a local cache.
As a different angle on Drive clients, wonder if there's anything in that that
could be adapted or open sourced.)

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em3rgent0rdr
Use owncloud. Never rely on google.

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andrewgjohnson
In all fairness they have a pretty robust API, couldn't someone write one if
they chose?

~~~
tdicola
I think this gets to the core of the problem. The API is out there and open,
yet no one (or at least not many people) have decided to try and make a nice
GUI client for Linux. Perhaps it's not a problem with Google but more a
problem with publishing desktop/GUI software for Linux still being a complete
pain in 2015. There's a fantastic talk from Dirk Hohndel last year about how
much pain he's gone through creating and publishing a dive logging GUI
application for Linux:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ON0A1dsQOV0](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ON0A1dsQOV0)
If someone like Dirk, who has access to no less than Linus Torvalds himself,
has so much trouble creating a modern GUI app on Linux today then how much
luck will anyone else have?

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shmerl
WebDAV to the rescue ;) Though it requires ditching Google.

~~~
fuck_google
Yes. Googlers only like their own standards.

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simlevesque
The oCaml Google Drive software works wonder.

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neonfreon
What am I missing by not having this?

~~~
mikecb
CLI access perhaps, though there is a third party solution out there for that
too. I just use chrome, which now works offline, can drag and drop into it,
though not out of it, but it works well enough that I've never tried to
install the sync client.

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MengerSponge
Has ExpanDrive launched their Linux client yet?

~~~
cschmidt
Nope, the website still says:

> Linux version coming mid-2015

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Mikeb85
Does it even matter? Google apps through Chrome are as good as native apps on
Linux anyway. What am I missing by using Drive through Chrome?

~~~
moonbug
I look forward to living in whatever blessed future you sent this message back
in time from.

~~~
Mikeb85
With OpenSUSE Gnome, my Chrome 'apps' (Keep, Caret, etc...) show up in my app
menus. They are accessible offline. I can use Drive to Sync data to my
computer to access it offline. Yes, it's not exactly the same experience as
say, DropBox, but if I'm using everything through Chrome anyway, it's a great
experience.

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pinkunicorn
This is hilarious

~~~
fuck_google
Pretty much everything about Google is either hilarious or sad, depending on
one's point of view.

