Ubuntu 26.04 beta arrives packing GNOME 50, which no longer supports Google Drive

Canonical has just released the beta of the next Ubuntu LTS – but what's grabbed the attention of many is that it features GNOME 50 as its default desktop environment. And GNOME 50 no longer supports Google Drive.

This will be a significant downside not just for Ubuntu – the world's most popular Linux distro, which runs on a significant number of web servers and developer environments – but for any and all distros that have updated to the GNOME 50 desktop.

Since there's no official Linux client from Google, this is a serious omission. There are third-party tools that let Linux connect, including Rclone, the FUSE connector google-drive-ocamlfuse, and the paid-for Insync, but all require extra work.

When we looked at GNOME 50, we praised its integration with cloud groupware, and only later learned about the Google Drive issue. We've asked Canonical to comment.

In the meantime, the ...