I've been using Ubuntu for years on my laptop, both for work and for home entertainment.
I've had no problem connecting to a projector, whenever I needed to do that. Of course, I was careful when buying my hardware. Also, problems do happen, that's why I'm staying on LTS and personally I consider the intermediate versions as being beta-quality. And the Unity stuff is not stable and is too rigid, so I switched to Xubuntu (Xfce), which is more stable and stays out of my way.
Ubuntu may not be ready for normal users that would want it at home, but a company like Google has people ensuring that these workstations are compatible and that upgrades work properly. They also afford to pay for support from Canonical. So the employees choosing Ubuntu can benefit from its advantages with less downsides.
considering Creative Suite is Windows and Mac only
If I were a designer I would definitely pick OS X over Ubuntu, but on the other hand you can run Creative Suite in a virtual machine like VMWare. And you can even install an X Windows server on your Windows VM and make that Photoshop window work on your desktop as if it was a native app, only styled differently.
Also, designing stuff in Photoshop is not the only thing a good designer does. A good designer also writes HTML, CSS and preferably also do a little programming for proofs of concept, amongst others. Those changes may involve running a complex app on your localhost. And it's definitely easier to have access to the same tools that the developers use. And it's preferable to use the same operating system Google uses in production for its servers (at least a virtual machine).
none of it was done with the GIMP
True, designers don't use GIMP, but GIMP is a perfectly capable app for doing design work. Along with Inkscape. The only thing truly keeping designers on Adobe's Creative Suite is that Photoshop is a de-facto standard, so it's easier to get training and support for it and it's also easier to send the raw files (PSDs) to other people.
I've had no problem connecting to a projector, whenever I needed to do that. Of course, I was careful when buying my hardware. Also, problems do happen, that's why I'm staying on LTS and personally I consider the intermediate versions as being beta-quality. And the Unity stuff is not stable and is too rigid, so I switched to Xubuntu (Xfce), which is more stable and stays out of my way.
Ubuntu may not be ready for normal users that would want it at home, but a company like Google has people ensuring that these workstations are compatible and that upgrades work properly. They also afford to pay for support from Canonical. So the employees choosing Ubuntu can benefit from its advantages with less downsides.
If I were a designer I would definitely pick OS X over Ubuntu, but on the other hand you can run Creative Suite in a virtual machine like VMWare. And you can even install an X Windows server on your Windows VM and make that Photoshop window work on your desktop as if it was a native app, only styled differently.Also, designing stuff in Photoshop is not the only thing a good designer does. A good designer also writes HTML, CSS and preferably also do a little programming for proofs of concept, amongst others. Those changes may involve running a complex app on your localhost. And it's definitely easier to have access to the same tools that the developers use. And it's preferable to use the same operating system Google uses in production for its servers (at least a virtual machine).
True, designers don't use GIMP, but GIMP is a perfectly capable app for doing design work. Along with Inkscape. The only thing truly keeping designers on Adobe's Creative Suite is that Photoshop is a de-facto standard, so it's easier to get training and support for it and it's also easier to send the raw files (PSDs) to other people.