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"This is not an officially supported Google product." — such a weird thing to say considering it's hosted under github.com/GOOGLE/...

cwyers 8y ago
This sort of thing predates GitHub. Microsoft had the PowerToys for Windows -- it was a Microsoft software product for Windows, but it didn't undergo the same level of vetting as something that was part of Windows, and if you broke something using it, you were on your own. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_PowerToys https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_PowerToys It's not crazy for someone at Google to want to use Flutter on the desktop, to build something to scratch their own itch, and to release it while not wanting to commit to the same level of support that Google gives to mainline Flutter.
- StavrosK 8y ago
  This is pretty off-topic, but I used to love the PowerToys. I have very fond memories of browsing through TweakUI's options and trying things, and what surprises me most about those twenty-year old memories is that I remember how things smelled.
petters 8y ago
Agreed, but google/ on GitHub just contains code that happens to be owned by Google, due to the authors being employees.
jdub 8y ago
I'd wager you'll find the same statement on 90% of the repos under /google/ Employees agree that Google will own their creative output, even off the clock. Those personal project repos are almost always managed by a Google-owned GitHub organisation.
- zokier 8y ago
  > I'd wager you'll find the same statement on 90% of the repos under /google/ And it feels like this gets brought up in 90% of HN threads about google owned projects
- bigato 8y ago
  > Employees agree that Google will own their creative output, even off the clock. Is this true, and does it apply to all google employees? Gosh, it better be a huge wage to justify that.
lwf 8y ago
Per https://opensource.google.com/docs/releasing/publishing/#disclaimer https://opensource.google.com/docs/releasing/publishing/#dis...: > Unless your project is an official Google product, you must state “This is not an officially supported Google product” in an appropriate location such as the project’s README file. > We do this to help set appropriate expectations for users of these projects. Projects that include this label may not be staffed like larger, supported products such as Android, Chromium, or Go are. Support and/or new releases may be limited. The idea is that projects developed by Googlers and owned by Google will be released under this GitHub org, to indicate Google's giving back to the open-source community, but that it isn't subject to any of Google's terms or support per se.

cwyers 8y ago

This sort of thing predates GitHub. Microsoft had the PowerToys for Windows -- it was a Microsoft software product for Windows, but it didn't undergo the same level of vetting as something that was part of Windows, and if you broke something using it, you were on your own. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_PowerToys https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_PowerToys It's not crazy for someone at Google to want to use Flutter on the desktop, to build something to scratch their own itch, and to release it while not wanting to commit to the same level of support that Google gives to mainline Flutter.

StavrosK 8y ago
This is pretty off-topic, but I used to love the PowerToys. I have very fond memories of browsing through TweakUI's options and trying things, and what surprises me most about those twenty-year old memories is that I remember how things smelled.

petters 8y ago

Agreed, but google/ on GitHub just contains code that happens to be owned by Google, due to the authors being employees.

jdub 8y ago

I'd wager you'll find the same statement on 90% of the repos under /google/ Employees agree that Google will own their creative output, even off the clock. Those personal project repos are almost always managed by a Google-owned GitHub organisation.

zokier 8y ago
> I'd wager you'll find the same statement on 90% of the repos under /google/ And it feels like this gets brought up in 90% of HN threads about google owned projects
bigato 8y ago
> Employees agree that Google will own their creative output, even off the clock. Is this true, and does it apply to all google employees? Gosh, it better be a huge wage to justify that.

lwf 8y ago

Per https://opensource.google.com/docs/releasing/publishing/#disclaimer https://opensource.google.com/docs/releasing/publishing/#dis...: > Unless your project is an official Google product, you must state “This is not an officially supported Google product” in an appropriate location such as the project’s README file. > We do this to help set appropriate expectations for users of these projects. Projects that include this label may not be staffed like larger, supported products such as Android, Chromium, or Go are. Support and/or new releases may be limited. The idea is that projects developed by Googlers and owned by Google will be released under this GitHub org, to indicate Google's giving back to the open-source community, but that it isn't subject to any of Google's terms or support per se.