GOS 3 Gadgets Review
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What is GOS?
GOS is a debian flavor linux and runs on enlightenment environment. It is extremely similar to Ubuntu, which runs on Gnome environment. If you have used ubuntu before, you can use GOS very comfortably. (sudo apt-get works here too… ). The style of the OS resembles more of a mac, and is equipped with a baby dock, dashboard like widgets (which makes up the gadgets in GOS gadgets) and a tiger wallpaper in green. It is relatively lighter than gnome, and heavier than xfce environment.
GOS 3 gadgets desktop
Gos has also packed with it the google family of software, like google gadgets, google gears, gmail, google docs, google calendar besides additional software such as gimp, open office, skype and wine.
GOS - Linux styled like a mac
Installation and system requirements
Since ubuntu is the base software, much of the installation procedure remains the same, although a live CD is not supported. You can download GOS from the official GOS website. The system requirements for GOS is lenient than that of Ubuntu with around 196MB as the minimum memory required for booting and installation.
If you already have ubuntu, you can install GOS in ubuntu
sudo aptitude update
sudo aptitude install greenos-desktop xorg
GOS Gadgets on your desktop
THE GOS AS GOOGLE OS
GOS was originally called google OS, obviously the name would infringe a few trademarks. The ubuntu based operating system had the ‘g’ from google logo as its logo and a boatload of google software. Google did take a look at the operating system and gave the green flag, before GOS was officially announced. Though this might sound like the search engine giants are more focussed on web software, Google could be developing its own operating system. All operations in Google labs are however clandestine and never leaked out.
GOS - Software
MOZILLA PRISM FOR GOOGLE SOFTWARE
Mozilla prism is used very effectively to create gmail and google calendar as separate applications. Google Chrome was released a little later than GOS (google os) and hence GOS has got firefox as its primary browser. Other frequently used google software like youtube, blogger, google news, google maps, google reader, google products and google finance are also integrated in the dock using prism.
Evolution mail is replaced with thunderbird, a move most people would appreciate. In a good leap, GOS went that extra step to provide skype and wine packaged with the operating system.
GOS PERFORMANCE
On a test “burn and crash linux distribution experiment”, GOS was installed on the same machine using the same RAM and so were ubuntu 8.04 and kubuntu 7.10, puppy linux. The operating system performance was measure with boot time, memory consumed with no applications running and with firefox running with three tabs showing up google homepage. The results will be published soon. Here is a glimpse of the system memory performance with no applications running other than the screenshot application.
GOS System performance
GOS System memory performance with firefox running with 3 tabs is indicated by the peaks in the right hand side of the bar.
Google surprised the whole world with the launch of Google Chrome browser, Is Google operating system being engineered at google labs?
If you an Ubuntu user and fighting with RAM, you might want to consider GOS, because it is lighter, though you may miss a few gnome based applications.
If you are a mac and got a additional desktop running linux, GOS is the best linux for mac users. The dock, the window styles, window buttons on the left and many other features align with the mac user.
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7 Comments on this post
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jackie said:
Good article. I am new to ubuntu, i ll try gos..
January 7th, 2009 at 11:28 am -
radha krishnan said:
I would like to see a comparison of the memory usage between the two operating systems before coming to a decision.
January 7th, 2009 at 11:34 am -
admin said:
@ jackie
I am sure ubuntu and GOS are very similar and GOS is even more friendly.@radha krishnan
I ll try to update the comparison as I get time..January 7th, 2009 at 5:04 pm -
Wandoko said:
Hi all, I’ve been very interested with GOS existence and want to put it into my little acer aspire one (8GB SSD), but I already have Xubuntu 8.10 as an external boot. So I manage to install it in a 4 GB flashdisk and boot from it with acer aspire one. I’m a newbie with linux world and I have tried several distros that can be installed on a usb (I prefered this because xp is my working environment right now), I think GOS is very cool os for a low performance system, nice interface and you have all that Google stuff, except Chrome. But what makes me went back to Xubuntu again is GOS doesn’t recognize my tap with the touchpad so I have to press the touchpad button for a click and drag operation (the button click is loud in aspire one), but this will be no problem if you have the os on your desktop or with mouse attached on your laptop, for blogging or other online activities when you are mobile, attaching a mouse is a bit annoying, at least for me. I hope GOS will be more like Xubuntu in the future, both is Ubuntu based os. Well, one thing that I have to try is “If you already have ubuntu, you can install GOS in ubuntu
sudo aptitude update
sudo aptitude install greenos-desktop xorg”. Thanks for the tip.Wandoko’s last blog post..Admire Aspire One A110
January 9th, 2009 at 4:50 am -
Euroangel said:
interesting site!! thanks for the add in Bc..did the same..good luck!!
Euroangel’s last blog post..Neumarkt Feast
January 11th, 2009 at 10:54 am -
Maria said:
is Google Chrome borwser a better one?? just interested to know…love the simple lay-out here!!
Maria’s last blog post..Manchester, England
January 11th, 2009 at 10:56 am -
Publius187 said:
I’m a big fan of the Opera browser, at least you download it. The Google Chrome browser has to be installed directly from Google. Why can’t it be downloaded? I’m not to crazy about that!
January 12th, 2009 at 5:10 pm
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