gOS 3.0 Gadgets BETA: Light Linux OS focused around Google Gadgets

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gOS 3.0 Gadgets BETA: Light Linux OS focused around Google Gadgets

by Avatar	Stumble this!	August 18th 2008

gOS, unlike what it may seems. do not means Google OS. but Green OS. however they don`t hide their love for everything Google. this is more evident than ever before with gOS 3.0. the latest version of the light Linux OS. this not only means the OS itself is light but that it is meant for light use and should not be expected to be a Linux power user OS like Ubuntu or Suse and it is also geared for netbooks, basic laptops or old pcs that cannot get to run XP as it should (less than 256mb of ram, 500mhz cpu`s) . this is perfect for those cases. so much. that it is a shame that the Eee pc or any of the netbooks didn`t came on with gOS. it would have been a interesting thing to see.

The os is more comparable to Eee Xandros. hence the Eee mention. it close to be a instant OS because of its small footprint and the interface is a riff of the MAC OS GUI.

tmpCD

gOS 3.0 is the best they have come up with and i found it quite interesting and just what i thought it would happen once Google announced Google Desktop Gadgets for Linux. if Google did its own operating system. i think it would be just like this. Google Desktop loads up at start up giving you instant access to your favorite Google Gadgets. they boast about this and says that this gives you access to the 100,000 google gadgets from the cumulative count (quite theoretical) of all google gadgets in existence. this is of course not true at all. because there are not 100k google gadgets in existence. more like 30k with different versions. and of those only 10% are usable or worth a look to begin with. so it is more like 3000 good enough google gadgets. so lets say that 1000 of them are good. that is still impressive. 1000 good gadgets is nothing to scoff at.

The other interesting developments with this gOS release is that they now have raised the bar and introduced Mozilla Prism and Wine 1.0 into the OS by default. Prism allows you to load Google Web aps as if they were Desktop Applications. that way you can launch Google reader, gmail and Google docs in a instant. this sounds good but unfortunately Mozilla Prism is not anywhere near good enough for broad use yet. Wine allows you to use Windows Desktop aps in Linux. the problem is that only some will wok without problem and others depend on what set up you are using if the App happens to be a heavy use app. you should not have problem with light windows apps. so it is not that bad. it still makes the OS more useful.

I think the gOS 3.0 is a good OS and shows a very interesting use of Widgets as a way to leverage desktop application selection and installation. the other main features need more work. but that is why it is a beta after all. i would recommend this OS as perfect for little kids (3-8) and the not tech inclined elderly. it is also of course good enough for all ages casual users.

gOS 3.0 Gadgets Beta

via gOS blog