NEW: Google Pack

[zaq]

A free collection of essential software:

Adobe Reader 7
Ad-Aware SE Personal
GalleryPlayer HD Images
Google Desktop
Google Earth
Google Pack Screensaver
Google Picasa Photo Organizer/Editor
Google Talk
Google Toolbar for Internet Explorer
Google Video player
Mozilla Firefox with Google Toolbar
Norton AntiVirus 2005 Special Edition
RealPlayer
Trillian

http://pack.google.com/pack_installer_custom.html

[Sammy aff]

Do not promote g$$gle, do not pass go, go directly to jail
You know it makes sense!

[mibut]

A free collection of essential software

Cannot see what is "essential" about this.

[Azam.net]

It's essential for Google's shareholders in their endeavour to increase revenue.

[Green2K]

This will be interesting to see how it develops but certainly at the moment it seems weak. Although maybe there will be some uptake with newbies / on new PC's ?

At the moment it's a bit of a mess (comments below)

Green2K

Originally Posted by zaq A free collection of essential software: Adobe Reader 7 **surely everyone has this Ad-Aware SE Personal GalleryPlayer HD Images **no idea what it is Google Desktop **hated it when I tried it Google Earth **don't care Google Pack Screensaver ** for kids Google Picasa Photo Organizer/Editor **hated it use flickr Google Talk **everyone I know is on MSN Google Toolbar for Internet Explorer **got it Google Video player **not yet interested Mozilla Firefox with Google Toolbar **usually use IE Norton AntiVirus 2005 Special Edition **never download anything RealPlayer **got it, hate it Trillian **everyone I know is on MSN http://pack.google.com/pack_installer_custom.html

[Rich]

The big benefit is only having one license agreement to agree to and a few clicks to install the packages (I haven't tried it, but thats the idea).

Having helped a friend set up a load of school pc's with antivirus, acrobat reader etc, it would have saved a lot of time.

Its definately aimed at users wanting to get new pcs set up as quickly as possible: - http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2006/...just-work.html

[justhomdotcom]

The only two essentials I see there are

1. Firefox (best browser around IMHO)
2. Trillian (couldn't live without it as a lot of my affiliates and customers use various IM systems - excellent to be able to use all system at once, so good I even paid for the pro version)

[Retail Creations]

personally i think it's a great idea. When i get a new pc it takes me ages to load all the software on.

The only changes i would make are to add avg instead of norton and add flash player because that always needs downloading.

[amcd78]

I agree with Retail Creations.... good idea in principle and it would be useful when setting up a new PC. I do question though how essential some of the software is.

It would be good if you were able to customise it further and say add in an FTP program or MySQL interface.

[Retail Creations]

Originally Posted by amcd78 I agree with Retail Creations.... good idea in principle and it would be useful when setting up a new PC. I do question though how essential some of the software is. It would be good if you were able to customise it further and say add in an FTP program or MySQL interface.

That would be fantastic, there's loads of free/open source software they could include, you would just tick all the boxes you wanted and it would prepare a single installer for you.

*edit - i just looked again and realised you can customise it already, doh!