> Are you sure? Why would a build machine need access to GMail?

Because some people like to use remote desktop with it. And because some people's "build machine" is a VM, or a physical desktop in the office for some others.

You can access your mails on your computer, so it's not necessary to access GMail on the remote desktop computer.

Sounds more like Google isn't talking about workstations but the peoples normal computer they work one, just with limited internet access.

My build machine sometimes needs to send logs to attach to bugs or have other humans inspect them. This obviously doesn't have to be Gmail but it comes pretty handy.

Bug trackers and build logs are all internal systems, though.

So is Gmail - it’s Google after all.

Why would a "desktop" be a build machine in this era?

Laptops almost always have cooling which definitely won't sustain 100% CPU or GPU usage for 2 hours for a buildjob. On my desktop with fairly standard, non-fancy air cooling, I could run it on 100% for hours, and the only thing which would happen is the fans spinning loudly. On my work laptop, the poor thing (with an i9!) begins to heat up like crazy after 5-10 minutes of virtual machine usage.

I have noticed here on HN that a lot of people don't have desktops and think they are as good as laptops in terms of performance. lol

Why not?

GPU