Google Desktop Goes Linux

In a move that shows great foresight, as well as a sense of covering all the bases, Google has launched its Desktopapplication for Linux.   Although it’s still in a beta, it’s quite impressive, coming in 10 languages, and covering users of Debian 4.0, Fedora Core 6, Ubuntu 6.10, Suse 10.1 and RedFlag 5. The only downside is that it requires an x86 processor.   The Linux version of Desktop follows versions already available for Windows and Macintosh. It not only lets users search theweb, but also their own hard drives web history, music, photos, and Google’s Gmail, among other things.   Google Desktop automatically begins indexing files after it’s installed. Asyet, the Linux beta doesn’t have all the sidebars and gadgets available to Windows users.   Analysts are upbeat about the new offering, which seems to hew close to Google’s statedmission of “to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.” It remains to be seen, however, exactly what they do with all of this, whether all theGoogle Apps and Google Gears, which allow offline access, really come together to make a fully integrated, powerful feature. But Linux Desktop seems a step in the right direction.   Noting thata number of Linux users are program developers, Google product marketing manager Mendel Chuang said “Google Desktop was designed with the ability to search source codes and informationcontained in .pdf, .ps, .man and .info documents.”