创业成功人士访谈录 第4期:谷歌CTO谢尔盖布林(4)

 　　Google is a technology company，but applies technology to media.

　　谷歌是一个致力于将技术应用于传媒的技术公司。
　　What led to Google’s decision to use Linux? When did that start?
　　是什么让谷歌决定采用Linux的？是何时开始的？
　　Well, Larry Page and I were in the Stanford PHD program in Computer Science.
　　嗯，我和拉里佩琦在做斯坦福大学计算机科学的博士项目时创立了谷歌。
　　And we developed Google there.
　　并发展了谷歌。
　　创业成功人士英语访谈 谷歌技术总裁谢尔盖.布林
　　The way the computer science program worked is there was a hodgepodge of computer equipment lying around,
　　在做计算机科学程序时，周围有很多计算机设备，
　　and we would grab whatever scraps 1 we could.
　　我们可以接触到很多对我们有用的东西。
　　We had all kinds of computers: HPs, Suns, Alphas and Intel’s running Linux.
　　我们有各种各样的计算机：惠普的、Sun的、阿尔法的和因特尔运行Linux系统的。
　　So, we gained a lot of experience with all of those platforms.
　　因此，我们积累了很多关于这些平台的经验。
　　When we started Google, we had to make the decision of what we wanted to use.
　　当我们创立谷歌的时候，就需要决定我们使用什么操作系统。
　　Of course we chose Linux, because it is the most cost-effective solution.
　　那我们理所当然地选择了Linux,因为它的性价比最好。
　　PCs are not only much cheaper these days，but we can also get them very quickly,
　　现在，个人计算机不仅仅便宜了很多，而且也可以轻而易举地买到，
　　because they’re such a commodity item.
　　计算机实在是太实用了。
　　That’s an incredible benefit.
　　这益处简直令人难以置信。
　　We just installed another 1,000 computers and we got that done in a few weeks.
　　才几个星期，我们又安装了1000台计算机。
　　That’s really hard to do with any other kind of workstation.
　　这对于其他的工作室来说是很难完成的任务。
　　I think that’s an advantage that people don’t entirely 2 realize.
　　我想，这是一个人们还没有完全意识到的优势。
　　Did you view it as being better, or was cost the main reason?
　　你觉得它的性能更出众？还是价格才是主要原因？
　　It was better in some ways.
　　从某些方面来讲，它的性能更好。
　　Certainly for our purposes, we felt the support was better.
　　当然，从我们的目的来看，我们觉得它提供了更好的支持。
　　For example, the actual kernel 3 authors will respond to problems pretty quickly.
　　比如，实际的核心开发者可以很快地对问题作出回应。
　　They are especially responsive to Google nowadays, since we’re so widely used.
　　现在，他们对谷歌特别地负责，因为谷歌的使用频率很高。
　　We can have a 15 minute turnaround.
　　我们可以有15分钟的周转时间。
　　You can’t really beat that for support.
　　在支持方面我们是最棒的。
　　That was an important factor, but frankly 4, the cost was a bigger issue.
　　那是一个重要的因素，但坦率地说，费用真的是更重要的问题。
　　PCs are so cheap, which is very important.
　　很重要的一个原因是个人计算机太便宜了。
　　Sun’s Solaris is probably more stable than Linux on PCs.
　　比起Linux来，Sun的Solaris操作系统用在个人计算机上可能相对稳定一些。
　　It’s hard to determine the blame, whether it’s the hardware or the operating system.
　　很难区别到底是硬件还是操作系统的原因。
　　But, it's a minor 5 difference.
　　但是，差别不大。
　　Then, does all of your support come from newsgroups or do you actually pay for it through Red Hat?
　　那么，你们所有的支持都来自网络群组吗？还是说,事实上你们是通过红帽付款的？
　　We have an operations team of about ten people, which helps a lot.
　　我们有一支10人左右的操作团队，他们帮了很大的忙。
　　And other than that we check newsgroups and e-mail the authors of the code.
　　另外，我们也通过网络群组和电邮检查代码编者的相关信息。
　　Usually, if it’s a problem we can’t figure out, we go straight to the authors.
　　通常，如果这是我们判断不了的问题，我们会直接与编者联系。
　　Is Linux used on desktops 6 at Google?
　　谷歌的台式电脑也用Linux系统吗？
　　It depends.
　　不一定。
　　Engineering mostly runs Linux.
　　大多数工程师会用。
　　Business development slash 7 marketing 8 runs Windows.
　　商务拓展和市场部门的人用Windows操作系统。
　　Actually, I use Linux with VMWare running Windows.
　　事实上，我用Linux，同时用虚拟机运行Windows系统。
　　Some people have two computers,
　　有些人有两台电脑，
　　particularly some people in engineering who do UI development and need to test things out on Windows platforms.
　　尤其是一些做UI开发和需要在Windows操作平台上作测试的工程人员。
　　I find it better to just use VmWare and have one computer.
　　我认为只用一台电脑，然后用虚拟机比较好。