Oh My gOS!
You see that little badge at the right side? 5 days! Only 5 days left to download the much awaited release of the new Ubuntu 8.04, Hardy Heron. Ahh, I can’t wait. I refused to download the beta versions because I really don’t want to mess things up with my PC and doin some re-installation each time. Oh well.
While I’m waiting for the release of Hardy Heron, I got a chance to look for some other distros using the Ubuntu repositories and one distro that I noticed is the gOS All the while I thought that gOS was a distro made really by Google but that wasn’t the case. gOS was made by Good OS LLC’, a Los Angeles-based corporation that caters Google Apps and other Web 2.0 for us modern users.
I downloaded it and tried the Live CD and you know what my first impression was? it was not as stunning as compare to Linux Mint. It doesn’t even have the “Wow” effect that I am looking for. Though the concept for My Space interface really looks cool as well as the integration of various Google Apps, it some what made a connotation that it is intended only for My Space users or for heavy Google Apps users.
I don’t have a my space account but I use Google Apps a lot. It doesn’t make any sense for me having those Google Apps shortcuts in AWN coz it will just open the same application, Firefox. The MAC-ish look didn’t make an impact too or should I say, it was a cheap attempt to imitate to Mac’s interface. By having Google Apps and My Space as their banner campaign of advertising and marketing, they made the people think that gOS is highly dependent on the internet and I think thats a no-no.
Enough said. This is not a hate campaign against GOS. It just failed to impress me in various ways. I don’t see my self using gOS for my everyday computing but for 100,000,000 my space user then this might be worth trying.
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Comments
To be fair gOS is not Linux Mint. Its purpose is different. gOS was designed to be a frontend to the Internet that most people use it for — mail, IRC, surfing, FaceBook/MySpace. It also had to have a small footprint. Remember that gOS was introduced as part of the Everex box that WalMart sold Xmas last year. As a consequence it also had to be as much point and shoot as possible hence the use of AWN.
For what gOS was designed for I consider it successful. Is it a replacement for my Kubuntu install? Nope. But for a kisok platform it fits the bill.
I too test drove the LiveCD but wasnt thrilled with all the Google apps. I use google apps because they are all so user friendly, but I worry about privacy issues and the more and more Google becomes friends with the US and the Chinese govts, I am starting to find other alternatives to Googles many uses. Thats one reason why I jumped from XP to linux in the first place.