Scott Hanselman

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Google Pack

January 07, 2006 Comment on this post [7] Posted in Musings | Tools
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Google pack1

Via Greg, Google's released the Google Pack, a nice collection of fairly established software along with their own updater. I think this would be great for my mom, although RealPlayer is Satan.

  • Adobe Reader 7 (Evil: Use Foxit)
  • Ad-Aware SE Personal (Iffy: Use SpyBot)
  • GalleryPlayer HD Images
  • Google Desktop
  • Google Earth
  • Google Pack Screensaver (NICE: This is a VERY nice Photo Screensaver that is multi-monitor aware!)
  • Google Picasa Photo Organizer/Editor
  • Google Talk (Eh, not so much: Use Skype)
  • Google Toolbar for Internet Explorer
  • Google Video player
  • Mozilla Firefox with Google Toolbar (Nice way to proliferate Firefox by including it)
  • Norton AntiVirus 2005 Special Edition (Cheesy way to bait and switch with a 6-month "Trial" subscription.") WARNING: This one installs without asking. Not cool. You can uninstall stuff for the "Installed Software" Tab.
  • RealPlayer (Satan: This is how the devil gets your immortal soul, it starts with RealPlayer...)
  • Trillian (Ok, but I'm using MSN Messenger Beta 8...we'll see....)

It's easy to see where this is going, of course, as Google will likely start charging for the prime real estate on their own Add/Remove Programs page. Still, I dig it, and I hope it starts serving up a bunch of Open Source software. This may turn out to be a standard thing I will install on my relatives machines.

Now playing: Freshlyground - Mowbray Kaap

About Scott

Scott Hanselman is a former professor, former Chief Architect in finance, now speaker, consultant, father, diabetic, and Microsoft employee. He is a failed stand-up comic, a cornrower, and a book author.

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Comment on this post [7]
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January 07, 2006 12:34
Google Pack allows one to choose the software required before downloading. So If you don't need Norton Antivirus just deselect that from the list before downloading Pack.
Krishna
January 07, 2006 12:45
Krishna, I tried to do that, but some how ended up with EVERYTHING installing immediately. Not sure how that happened.
Scott Hanselman
January 07, 2006 15:21
Scott, I was wondering what the two extra icons are for on title bar of your window in the screenshot? Are they from some other tool you have installed?
Eric
January 07, 2006 22:50
Eric, those are from Ultramon from Realtimesoft.com. They are for moving windows between monitors.
Scott Hanselman
January 08, 2006 3:09
I use Spybot and Adaware. It works great that way. I wish they would have included OpenOffice in the pack. I was definitely surprised to see RealPlayer in the pack.
Megan
January 08, 2006 11:51
I happened to use Google Pack yesterday and it was great to find Google Pack Screensaver. My wife likes it too because it shows the pics we take and pops them up all over the monitors. That's right, it's multi monitor aware. I got two monitors, and it pops it up quite nicely between both monitors.
vbNullString
January 10, 2006 12:12
I'd like to use the Gizmo Project instead of Skype. Have you tryed it? It looks promising.
http://www.gizmoproject.com/
Ezequiel Espíndola

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Disclaimer: The opinions expressed herein are my own personal opinions and do not represent my employer's view in any way.