gOS - good OS/Google OS - Ubuntu Based Ditro For Netbooks

Hi all,

I recently tried gOS, aka Good OS, a lightweight distro based on Ubuntu that makes extenive use of Google Gadgets. It looks slicker than a nut and runs smoother than a greased pistol. The interface is particularly suited to Netbooks (i believe Wal Mart sold a Netbook last year with this OS - Everex something-or-other?). It also makes use of the ume-launcher (aka Netbook Remix), but you can switch between the traditional desktop and the Fisher Price mode on the fly.



The OS comes with Wine installed by default, aswell as Thunderbird, Firefox, Pidgin, Open Office, Prism (for web apps), load of games and of course the Google Gadgets. Because it is based on Ubuntu 8.04 you have the stability, large software library and hardware compatibility associated with this OS.

I haven't got time right now to install it due to work commitments, but i definetly think it deserves a thread of its own. Below is a screenshot of my One running gOS 3.

 

Actually, it looks nicer than I expected. Yes, it was the Everex which was bought by someone else and is now sold, with some improvements, as the Sylvania Meso. That one, however now uses an Ubuntu netbook remix.
The trouble that I see with GOS (without having tried it) is the same that I see with Linpus, small community, so little support for the oddball things that happen.

I think we'll be curious about your experiences, so please continue to post about it.
Who knows, you might start a fad.

 

One of the nice things about this netbook is the ease in which one can play with different linux distros without messing up the main config. I have Vista installed on the internal hard drive but have several external drives that allow me to install and play with linux. I'm currently running eeeUbuntu (netbook remix) and gOS on separate external drives. Just download the images and use Unetbootin to prepare a spare usb stick for boot. Boot off the stick and install to the external drive. The cool thing about the latest ubuntu installers is that they'll install grub directly on the external drive (an option during install) rather than the main internal drive. When you're done playing simply unplug the drive and reboot back to your main OS.

I'm liking gOS a lot. It's well suited for the Aspire One. But, at the end of the day when I need to get something done I find myself booting back to Vista. As others have stated most of the distros have issues where something (hibernation, card readers, etc.) doesn't work OOTB. Vista just works.

 

I just tried it. It was pretty similar to Ubuntu Hardy, got wireless working the same way that I would with Hardy. Otherwise, it was rather nice, very quick, though during installation of upgrades (on the HD version) open system preferences seemed to stress it a bit.

That green background---like the OP, I changed mine, quickly, to the blue.

As it has wine preinstalled, I'll have to give a try with my company's vpn client and see how it works. I know that the Nortel one didn't work with Crossover office a year and a half ago, but this is a different client. (However, on my two most used distributions on the AA1, Fedora 10 and CentOS 5.2, I have VirtualBox for those times when I need Windows.

(quick sidebar, it becomes less and less necessary to use Windows for anything these days--for example, the Linksys routers used to require a Windows machine to upgrade firmware--now anything with a web browser will work.)

 

I've booted from USB to give it a go and the boot time is quite substantial compared to linpus (which so far is the main thing keeping me on linpus). Does anyone know what the boot is like from hard disk?
I'm on AA0150 1gb RAM and 120gb HDD. Also my wireless doesn't work, any ideas?

 

For wireless, either look at the Hardy Howtos or my own, (which *I* think is better) at
http://home.nyc.rr.com/computertaijutsu ... .html#5007.

The boot time isn't anywhere as quick as Linpus, it's about the same as a boot of Ubuntu Hardy or Intrepid, probably around a minute. I've never timed it, as boot time isn't that big a thing for me. This is installed to the 160 HD drive with a gig of RAM.

 

Yeh I decided to change and don't regret it one bit! The boot time isn't near as fast as linpus but is still probably 1/2 that of my XP laptop with a similar spec, to ensure everything works I followed this tutorial:
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/AspireOne
And now everything is fine! I've also used ubuntu before so I'm hoping (and finding) a lot of similarities. Overall I'd definitely recommend.

 

Well i also made the change over and used the same guides as Ubuntu 8.04 and have been tweaking it removing services like printing i don't use and have got it to 35 seconds boot time.
Also make sure to install as EXT2 rather than the default ext3 it is much faster and better for the ssd.

All works very smoothly.
Upgraded the openoffice to version 3.0.
very polished this distro and Visually it is the best i have ever seen

 

I have looked at the live version booting off a memory card and would like to install it on my AA1 but I am not confident about the tweaking required.

Do you think that someone will upload an ISO image of a preconfigured AA1 gOS 3 system ?

fingers crossed

RiK

 

Going back to wireless, as per another thread on the forums that I'm too lazy to link to now, doing aptitude install linux-backports-modules-hardy should put in an ath5k module that works with the card. (Errm, I think that's the name of the package---sigh, let me go find the thread.....)

viewtopic.php?f=28&t=5822

Yup, I was right about the name.