gOS or "good OS" was an Ubuntu-based
Linux distribution created by Good OS LLC, a
Los Angeles
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...
-based corporation. Its
CIO David Liu described that after meeting
Enlightenment and
open source people, he realized that his dream to bring
Web 2.0
Web 2.0 (also known as participative (or participatory) web and social web) refers to websites that emphasize user-generated content, ease of use, participatory culture and interoperability (i.e., compatibility with other products, systems, and ...
applications into mainstream use could be achieved by creating a Linux distribution that made it easy for users to access
Google
Google LLC () is an American Multinational corporation, multinational technology company focusing on Search Engine, search engine technology, online advertising, cloud computing, software, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, ar ...
and Web 2.0 applications. David Liu went on to create the
Chinese
Chinese can refer to:
* Something related to China
* Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity
**''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation
** List of ethnic groups in China, people of ...
Twitter
Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...
clone called Wozai (), leaving gOS officially defunct.
History
The company initially advertised gOS 1.0 as "An alternative OS with
Google Apps
Google Workspace (formerly known as Google Apps and later G Suite) is a collection of cloud computing, productivity and collaboration tools, software and products developed and marketed by Google. It consists of Gmail, Contacts, Calendar, Meet ...
and other Web 2.0 apps for the modern user." This first version of gOS (1.0.1_386) was based on
Ubuntu
Ubuntu ( ) is a Linux distribution based on Debian and composed mostly of free and open-source software. Ubuntu is officially released in three editions: '' Desktop'', ''Server'', and ''Core'' for Internet of things devices and robots. All ...
7.10 and the Enlightenment window manager E17.
On January 7, 2008, a test version (2.0.0-beta1) of gOS, intended to demonstrate the
Everex
Everex ("Ever for Excellence!") is a defunct American manufacturer of desktop and notebook personal computers. It was established in 1983 and headquartered in Fremont, California. The company was founded by Steve Hui, John Lee and Wayne Cheung ...
CloudBook
The CloudBook is a discontinued x86 subnotebook, or Ultra-Mobile PC developed by Everex using a VIA processor, chipset, and NanoBook reference design. It competed with the Asus Eee PC, the OLPC XO-1 and the Classmate PC. The device was categor ...
at the 2008
Consumer Electronics Show, and named gOS Rocket, was released. This version was also E17-based. The definitive second version of gOS debuted at the end February 2008, together with the launch of Everex's new CloudBook, the
gBook In the mid-2000s, Everex began selling several brands of green computers. These computers are targeted at users that only need access to web applications, versus Microsoft Windows-based applications (however, the company does sell Windows Vista-ins ...
laptop, and a new, second version of the gPC, the "encore". This version was called gOS V2 Rocket, and was completely rewritten and now based on the
GNOME window manager, a built in
Compositing window manager, and the
Avant Window Navigator
Avant Window Navigator (abbreviated AWN or Awn) is a dock-like bar for Linux, which sits on an edge of a user's screen and tracks open windows. Instead of representing open windows as buttons or segments on a bar, it uses large icons on a translu ...
.
On April 6, 2008, Good OS launched a publicly available version of gOS, called gOS 2.9 "Space", intended for the
gPC mini In the mid-2000s, Everex began selling several brands of green computers. These computers are targeted at users that only need access to web applications, versus Microsoft Windows-based applications (however, the company does sell Windows Vista-ins ...
, This version is based on Compiz fusion, Gnome, and the Avant Window Navigator
dock manager, but also uses E17 code. It has a dock with a "
stack" very much like the "fan view" of
Mac OS X v10.5
Mac OS X Leopard (version 10.5) is the sixth major release of macOS, Apple's desktop and server operating system for Macintosh computers. Leopard was released on October 26, 2007 as the successor of Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger, and is available in t ...
.
On September 23, 2008, Good OS launched gOS 3 Gadgets, which is described by Good OS, as "The third and best version of gOS to date, Perfect for Netbooks". It is still based on GNOME but has replaced
AWN with yet another launcher calle
Wbar It introduces the full support for
Wine
Wine is an alcoholic drink typically made from fermented grapes. Yeast consumes the sugar in the grapes and converts it to ethanol and carbon dioxide, releasing heat in the process. Different varieties of grapes and strains of yeasts are m ...
1.0,
Picasa
Picasa was a cross-platform image organizer and image viewer for organizing and editing digital photos, integrated with a now defunct photo-sharing website, originally created by a company named Lifescape (which at that time was incubated by ...
(using the Wine libraries) and
Google Gadgets
Google Gadgets are dynamic web content that can be embedded on a web page. They can be added to and interact strongly with Google's iGoogle personalized home page (discontinued in November 2013, although iGoogle Gadgets still work on other website ...
.
On December 1, 2008, Good OS announced its next operating system,
Cloud
In meteorology, a cloud is an aerosol consisting of a visible mass of miniature liquid droplets, frozen crystals, or other particles suspended in the atmosphere of a planetary body or similar space. Water or various other chemicals may ...
. Cloud can be described as an "
instant-on
In computing, instant-on is the ability to boot nearly instantly, allowing to go online or to use a specific application without waiting for a PC's traditional operating system to launch. Instant-on technology is today mostly used on laptops, ne ...
browser-based application environment". With Cloud, users can browse the Internet seconds after turning on their computer, and can also use it to run applications, like Skype, or a media player. Cloud shows a Dock similar to gOS 3 in the browser window, and will keep loading the main operating system (Windows, Linux, OSX) in the background. An icon in the Dock will tell the user when the main OS has finished booting in the background, and can be used to switch instantly to the main OS, when tasks not (yet) supported under Cloud are needed. A beta test program for Cloud version 1.0 was announced January 30, 2009.
On January 3, 2009, Good OS released gOS 3.1 Gadgets (SP1), or Service pack 1, a bug-fixed version of gOS 3.0.
[Download site for gOS 3.1](_blank)
/ref> Simultaneously, the Good OS team also launched a new official forum, as a replacement for the Google discussion group used previously and faqly, which is now defunct.
Faqly was a cross between an Internet forum
An Internet forum, or message board, is an online discussion site where people can hold conversations in the form of posted messages. They differ from chat rooms in that messages are often longer than one line of text, and are at least temporar ...
and a FAQ where gOS users could ask questions and browse for answers. Other gOS users, or Linux
Linux ( or ) is a family of open-source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged as a Linux distribution, w ...
experts, could then provide answers to the questions. But Faqly had some large usability problems, notably the fact that users had problems deciding when the system was searching for an answer, or entering a new question. Additionally, questions and answers could not be edited or deleted.
Around May 2008, members of the Good OS team ceased posting online from gOS-associated accounts, including their own forum and website. While the website was still on-line, and gOS 3.1 could be downloaded, no sources of gOS are available.
Development of gOS seems to have been stalled, and the official forum at forum.thinkgos.com was not moderated anymore and was quickly overrun by spam and was closed halfway through 2009 (one of the few life-signs of the Good OS team after mid 2008); its function has been taken over by the unofficial forum. No sign of promised developments like the netbook launcher version or cloud have been realized.
The official GOS page www.thinkgos.com was last captured live by Internet Archive Wayback Machine o
January 13, 2011
the next capture from February 2, 2011 is of the website yielding a "Site Temporarily Unavailable" message with an error code id "bad_httpd_conf". As of 2015, the thinkgos.com domain is no longer owned by David Liu. and no web site is configured for the domain.
According to DistroWatch.com, gOS is discontinued.
Design
gOS-1 was based on the Ubuntu
Ubuntu ( ) is a Linux distribution based on Debian and composed mostly of free and open-source software. Ubuntu is officially released in three editions: '' Desktop'', ''Server'', and ''Core'' for Internet of things devices and robots. All ...
7.10 distribution (later versions after 2.9 use version 8.04) and themed desktop environment somewhat similar in appearance to Mac OS X Leopard
Mac OS X Leopard (version 10.5) is the sixth software versioning, major release of macOS, Apple Inc., Apple's desktop and server operating system for Macintosh computers. Leopard was released on October 26, 2007 as the successor of Mac OS X Tig ...
. The earlier versions (1 and 2-beta) used the Enlightenment 17 window manager instead of the usual GNOME or KDE
KDE is an international free software community that develops free and open-source software. As a central development hub, it provides tools and resources that allow collaborative work on this kind of software. Well-known products include the ...
desktops, to create a desktop that had a similar appearance to Mac OS X
macOS (; previously OS X and originally Mac OS X) is a Unix operating system developed and marketed by Apple Inc. since 2001. It is the primary operating system for Apple's Mac computers. Within the market of desktop and la ...
. Enlightenment acted both as an X window manager
An X window manager is a window manager that runs on top of the X Window System, a windowing system mainly used on Unix-like systems.
Unlike MacOS Classic, macOS, and Microsoft Windows platforms (excepting Microsoft Windows explorer.exe she ...
and a desktop environment
In computing, a desktop environment (DE) is an implementation of the desktop metaphor made of a bundle of programs running on top of a computer operating system that share a common graphical user interface (GUI), sometimes described as a graphica ...
. Therefore, early versions of gOS worked on systems as low end as a 350 MHz Pentium II with 196 MB of RAM, but a typical gOS system would have used as a minimum a 1 GHz Pentium III
The Pentium III (marketed as Intel Pentium III Processor, informally PIII or P3) brand refers to Intel's 32-bit x86 desktop and mobile CPUs based on the sixth-generation P6 microarchitecture introduced on February 28, 1999. The brand's initial ...
with 256 MB RAM. After gOS2-beta the later versions of gOS abandoned the use of Enlightenment as desktop manager (although some E17 code still seemed to be used), in favor of using GNOME, with Compiz Fusion and the Avant Window Navigator
Avant Window Navigator (abbreviated AWN or Awn) is a dock-like bar for Linux, which sits on an edge of a user's screen and tracks open windows. Instead of representing open windows as buttons or segments on a bar, it uses large icons on a translu ...
. This increased the need for memory to values similar to normal Ubuntu.
Based on the idea of cloud computing
Cloud computing is the on-demand availability of computer system resources, especially data storage ( cloud storage) and computing power, without direct active management by the user. Large clouds often have functions distributed over mu ...
, all versions of gOS lean heavily on on-line applications built on Web 2.0 and AJAX
Ajax may refer to:
Greek mythology and tragedy
* Ajax the Great, a Greek mythological hero, son of King Telamon and Periboea
* Ajax the Lesser, a Greek mythological hero, son of Oileus, the king of Locris
* ''Ajax'' (play), by the ancient Gree ...
technology so they also do not use much hard disk space for applications. The whole gOS-1 system fitted comfortably in less than 2 GB. Also many of the documents created with gOS, such as Google Docs documents, can be saved on Google servers instead of on the local hard disk, so gOS can work with very small hard disks. In gOS V2 Rocket, Good OS introduced the use of Google's " Google Gears" technology which promises to make Google's web application
A web application (or web app) is application software that is accessed using a web browser. Web applications are delivered on the World Wide Web to users with an active network connection.
History
In earlier computing models like client-serv ...
s usable without an Internet connection. Currently, Google Reader
Google Reader was an RSS/Atom feed aggregator operated by Google. It was created in early 2005 by Google engineer Chris Wetherell and launched on October 7, 2005, through Google Labs. Google Reader grew in popularity to support a number of prog ...
and Google Docs are the only supported Google applications, though other web applications such as Remember the Milk
Remember the Milk (RTM) is an application service provider for Web-based task- and time-management. It allows users to manage tasks from a computer or smartphone, both online and offline. Created in 2004 by a two-person Australian company, it no ...
have added Google Gears functionality.
gOS 2.0 Rocket's primary features include a Mac OS X-like Dock called "the Launcher" (using Avant Window Navigator
Avant Window Navigator (abbreviated AWN or Awn) is a dock-like bar for Linux, which sits on an edge of a user's screen and tracks open windows. Instead of representing open windows as buttons or segments on a bar, it uses large icons on a translu ...
in gOS Rocket G and gOS Space, and iTask-NG in gOS Rocket E), containing icons to launch programs like the Firefox
Mozilla Firefox, or simply Firefox, is a free and open-source web browser developed by the Mozilla Foundation and its subsidiary, the Mozilla Corporation. It uses the Gecko rendering engine to display web pages, which implements current ...
web browser, Rhythmbox
Rhythmbox is a free and open-source audio player software, tag editor and music organizer for digital audio files on Linux and Unix-like systems.
Rhythmbox is designed to work well under GNOME, but can function on other desktop environments. I ...
audio player, Xine
xine is a multimedia playback engine for Unix-like operating systems released under the GNU General Public License. xine is built around a shared library (xine-lib) that supports different frontend player applications. xine uses libraries ...
video player, and Skype
Skype () is a proprietary telecommunications application operated by Skype Technologies, a division of Microsoft, best known for VoIP-based videotelephony, videoconferencing and voice calls. It also has instant messaging, file transfer, deb ...
for Internet telephony. There are also options to open many Google-based web application like Google Mail
Gmail is a free email service provided by Google. As of 2019, it had 1.5 billion active user (computing), users worldwide. A user typically accesses Gmail in a web browser or the official mobile app. Google also supports the use of email clien ...
, Google Docs, Google Calendar
Google Calendar is a time-management and scheduling calendar service developed by Google. It became available in beta release April 13, 2006, and in general release in July 2009, on the web and as mobile apps for the Android and iOS platforms.
...
, and Google Maps
Google Maps is a web mapping platform and consumer application offered by Google. It offers satellite imagery, aerial photography, street maps, 360° interactive panoramic views of streets ( Street View), real-time traffic conditions, and rou ...
. Other programs could be added to the Launcher as well. The first E17-based version of gOS used another Dock-style interface called the iBar.
Other installed programs could be started through menus, among the most important was the photo and picture editing program the GIMP, the document viewer Evince
Evince (), also known as GNOME Document Viewer, is a free and open source document viewer supporting many document file formats including PDF, PostScript, DjVu, TIFF, XPS and DVI. It is designed for the GNOME desktop environment.
The develo ...
, and the OpenOffice.org
OpenOffice.org (OOo), commonly known as OpenOffice, is a discontinued open-source office suite. Active successor projects include LibreOffice (the most actively developed), Apache OpenOffice, Collabora Online (enterprise ready LibreOffice) a ...
office suite. More programs could be installed using the built-in Synaptic Package Manager
Synaptic is a GTK-based graphical user interface for the APT package manager used by the Debian Linux distribution and its derivatives. Synaptic is usually used on systems based on deb packages but can also be used on systems based on RPM pack ...
.[gOS 1.0.1 had Ubuntu's easy to use "add/remove" application installer, but was missing in gOS 2-beta. However the synaptic package manager is available in all versions of gOS. and in gOS 3.0 add/remove has returned.]
Versions
gOS 1.0.1
gOS 1.0.1 was introduced on November 1, 2007, preinstalled on the Everex Green gPC TC2502 sold at Wal-Mart
Walmart Inc. (; formerly Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.) is an American multinational retail corporation that operates a chain of hypermarkets (also called supercenters), discount department stores, and grocery stores from the United States, headquarter ...
. gOS 1.0.1 fully supported the advanced Power management
Power management is a feature of some electrical appliances, especially copiers, computers, computer CPUs, computer GPUs and computer peripherals such as monitors and printers, that turns off the power or switches the system to a low-power st ...
capabilities of the gPC TC2502, so the system could be put in suspend mode and after turning on again was ready in a few seconds.
In December 2007, PC Club followed suit and reintroduced their Enpower Fuzion desktop for sale with gOS installed for $189, which is their second system to include a Linux distribution since their controversial temporary inclusion of Linspire
Linspire (formerly Lindows) is a commercial operating system based on Debian and Ubuntu and currently owned by PC/OpenSystems LLC. It had been owned by Linspire. Inc. from 2001 to 2008, and then by Xandros from 2008 to 2017.
On July 1, 2008, Li ...
(then LindowsOS) in late 2003/early 2004 and the sale of the Empower Essence system with Ubuntu during the month of June 2007.
Everex followed on by creating the CloudBook
The CloudBook is a discontinued x86 subnotebook, or Ultra-Mobile PC developed by Everex using a VIA processor, chipset, and NanoBook reference design. It competed with the Asus Eee PC, the OLPC XO-1 and the Classmate PC. The device was categor ...
, a laptop based on the VIA NanoBook reference. The CloudBook was bundled with gOS Rocket with a hint that later versions would include a touchscreen. At an RRP of $400, it was to compete with the ASUS Eee PC
The ASUS Eee PC is a netbook computer line from Asus, and a part of the ASUS Eee product family. At the time of its introduction in late 2007, it was noted for its combination of a lightweight, Linux-based operating system, solid-state drive (S ...
in the cheap miniature Laptop space. Less well known is the fact that Everex simultaneously also worked on a more classic notebook, called the gBook, and on the Mac mini
Mac Mini (stylized as Mac mini) is a small form factor desktop computer developed and marketed by Apple Inc. , it is positioned between the consumer all-in-one iMac and the professional Mac Studio and Mac Pro as one of four current Mac deskto ...
like gPC mini all designed to run gOS v2.
Online vendor ClubIT.com offered a RoHS
The Restriction of Hazardous Substances Directive 2002/95/EC (RoHS 1), short for Directive on the restriction of the use of certain hazardous substances in electrical and electronic equipment, was adopted in February 2003 by the European Unio ...
-compliant VIA C7
The VIA C7 is an x86 central processing unit designed by Centaur Technology and sold by VIA Technologies.
Product history
The C7 delivers a number of improvements to the older VIA C3 cores but is nearly identical to the latest VIA C3 Nehemiah ...
developer board bundled with gOS.
gOS 2-beta (gOS Rocket E)
On 2008-01-07, Good OS LLC released a beta of the second version of gOS, called gOS-live-2.0.0-beta1 and nicknamed "Rocket". However this version did not seem to be a valid replacement for rev 1.0.1 as it was missing some essential functions, such as hardware and system administration tools, and the easy to use application installer "Add/Remove". It also missed the capability to access CDs and hard-disk partitions other than its own. The demo version status of this version became extra apparent when the new Everex CloudBook
The CloudBook is a discontinued x86 subnotebook, or Ultra-Mobile PC developed by Everex using a VIA processor, chipset, and NanoBook reference design. It competed with the Asus Eee PC, the OLPC XO-1 and the Classmate PC. The device was categor ...
which was due to debut January 25, 2008 was delayed for a month to allow Good OS time to rewrite this second version of gOS for the CloudBook, gBook. and second version of the gPC. On April 11, 2008, Good OS released an updated version of gOS Rocket E. In addition, a fan of gOS has also released an unauthorized remaster of gOS Rocket E which includes the aforementioned system administration tools and drive mounting as well as the Thunar
Thunar is a file manager for Linux and other Unix-like systems, initially written using the GTK+ 2 toolkit and later ported to the GTK+ 3 toolkit. It started to ship with Xfce in version 4.4 RC1 and later. Thunar is developed by Benedikt Meu ...
file manager.
gOS V2 Rocket (gOS Rocket G)
Later it became apparent that the month was needed because Everex had decided that future versions of gOS for the Cloudbook, gBook and gPC2, would use the GNOME desktop environment, instead of E17. It was announced that this version would also be called "Rocket", to be precise gOS V2 "Rocket", (this version would also be offered to new gPC2 users) and would use the Avant Window Navigator
Avant Window Navigator (abbreviated AWN or Awn) is a dock-like bar for Linux, which sits on an edge of a user's screen and tracks open windows. Instead of representing open windows as buttons or segments on a bar, it uses large icons on a translu ...
system to create a dock to resemble the older gOS versions in looks and functionality. Until the launch of gOS 2.9 this version was not available as a Live CD
A live CD (also live DVD, live disc, or live operating system) is a complete bootable computer installation including operating system which runs directly from a CD-ROM or similar storage device into a computer's memory, rather than loading f ...
, but only to CloudBook owners. But after the launch of 2.9 it has now also become available as a Live_CD download from one of the mirrors as found on the Good OS web-site. This version is now referenced to as "gOS rocket G" ("G" for Gnome) to distinguish it from the older beta version now called "gOS rocket E", which is also still available for download.
gOS 2.9 Space
gOS 2.9 Space became available as a generic Linux distribution on April 7, 2008, and is a debugged and extended version of the older gOS V2 Rocket G. It can be downloaded as an .ISO that can be burned on a DVD (it is slightly too large for a CD), or can be put on another external bootable medium such as a memory stick
The Memory Stick is a removable flash memory card format, originally launched by Sony in late 1998. In addition to the original Memory Stick, this family includes the Memory Stick PRO, a revision that allows greater maximum storage capacity an ...
or Secure Digital card
Secure Digital, officially abbreviated as SD, is a proprietary non-volatile flash memory card format developed by the SD Association (SDA) for use in portable devices.
The standard was introduced in August 1999 by joint efforts between SanDis ...
reader acting as an external USB drive, with enough capacity. A gOS 2.9 DVD was also announced to be sold from The Good OS store on their website, but until now has not become available. gOS Space is loaded with new MySpace features, but all the existing Google applications can still be used. As a Linux distribution, 2.9 is much more complete than 2.0-beta and is also less buggy. gOS Space is less "light" (using a small amount of memory) than older, publicly available versions, as it is based on a combination of Ubuntu
Ubuntu ( ) is a Linux distribution based on Debian and composed mostly of free and open-source software. Ubuntu is officially released in three editions: '' Desktop'', ''Server'', and ''Core'' for Internet of things devices and robots. All ...
7.10, the GNOME windows manager enhanced with Compiz fusion
Compiz () is a compositing window manager for the X Window System, using 3D graphics hardware to create fast compositing desktop effects for window management. Effects, such as a minimization animation or a cube workspace, are implemented as lo ...
, and the Avant Window Navigator
Avant Window Navigator (abbreviated AWN or Awn) is a dock-like bar for Linux, which sits on an edge of a user's screen and tracks open windows. Instead of representing open windows as buttons or segments on a bar, it uses large icons on a translu ...
, a Dock-like launcher that has been enhanced with Stacks. According to Good OS, there is also Enlightenment code used, but its exact purpose is still unknown. In any case gOS Space needs about 384MB of RAM to work reasonably, the same amount as straight Ubuntu 7.10. When Ubuntu 8.04 (Hardy Heron) became available on April 24, 2008 it became obvious that trying to upgrade gOS 2.9 to the new Ubuntu renders it without any working kernels
Kernel may refer to:
Computing
* Kernel (operating system), the central component of most operating systems
* Kernel (image processing), a matrix used for image convolution
* Compute kernel, in GPGPU programming
* Kernel method, in machine learnin ...
, leaving a non-working system, so upgrading gOS has been disabled by Good OS. It is not expected that this will be fixed, but that instead a new gOS (rev 3.0) will be released, based on Ubuntu 8.04.
gOS 2.9M Escape Pod
As of July 2, 2008 ''Good OS'', in consortium with Digital Gadgets, launched the Sylvania g netbook. The Sylvania name is used under license by Digital Gadgets. Its similar to the original Everex CloudBook with more memory, and the trackpad
A touchpad or trackpad is a pointing device featuring a tactile sensor, a specialized surface that can translate the motion and position of a user's fingers to a relative position on the operating system that is made output to the screen. Touchp ...
and buttons have moved to the front of the device. the new system runs gOS 2.9M, a specially modified version of gOS 2.9 "space" based on Ubuntu 8.04
gOS 3.0 Gadgets
About a month after a first beta version, the final version of gOS 3.0 was released on the gOS website on September 23, 2008. It features integrated Google Gadgets
Google Gadgets are dynamic web content that can be embedded on a web page. They can be added to and interact strongly with Google's iGoogle personalized home page (discontinued in November 2013, although iGoogle Gadgets still work on other website ...
integrated into the desktop (not in a browser window) and includes Wine 1.0 and Mozilla Prism
Mozilla Prism (formerly WebRunner) is a discontinued project which integrated web applications with the desktop, allowing web applications to be launched from the desktop and configured independently of the default web browser. As of November 201 ...
. gOS 3.0 is based on the newer Ubuntu 8.04.1. This version goes "back to its roots", as it is intended for netbooks. The Avant Window Navigator
Avant Window Navigator (abbreviated AWN or Awn) is a dock-like bar for Linux, which sits on an edge of a user's screen and tracks open windows. Instead of representing open windows as buttons or segments on a bar, it uses large icons on a translu ...
's (abbreviated AWN or Awn) dock-like bar has been removed in favor of a more "lightweight" launch bar calle
Wbar
It is similar to the one used in the first Enlightenment-based gOS version. The gOS 3.0 Gadgets Live CD can be downloaded from the thinkgos site. In an official press release issued on August 6, 2008, gOS 3.0 Gadgets was announced to use LXDE
LXDE (abbreviation for Lightweight X11 Desktop Environment) is a free desktop environment with comparatively low resource requirements. This makes it especially suitable for use on older or resource-constrained personal computers such as netb ...
technology but this plan was later put aside. Launching Synaptic will reveal that none of the applications listed at LXDE'
About page
are installed.
gOS 3.1 Gadgets
gOS 3.1 Gadgets was launched on January 3, 2009 as an upgraded bug fixed version of gOS 3.0 gadgets. This version fixes some bugs in gOS 3.0, but it isn't an obligatory update for users of 3.0 because bugfixes in gOS 3.0 are distributed using the built-in updater automatically. This version has had over 45,000 downloads.
Netbook Launcher
On October 22, 2008, a beta version of the gOS Netbook Launcher was released. This is an independently developed extension of gOS that gives gOS 3.0 Gadgets the possibility to switch to a new "netbook user interface", similar to Ubuntu Netbook Remix. You can switch between a netbook user interface and the classic gOS desktop at will. This Launcher is provided by the gOS Community and is not officially supported by Good OS for system manufacturers. It is still in beta, and therefore contains some bugs. One remaining problem is that it does not work well with Compiz
Compiz () is a compositing window manager for the X Window System, using 3D graphics hardware to create fast compositing desktop effects for window management. Effects, such as a minimization animation or a cube workspace, are implemented as l ...
.[Netbook edition](_blank)
/ref>
Upgrade problem for versions before gOS 2.9M
When Ubuntu released version 8.04 (Hardy Heron) on April 24, 2008, it became apparent that gOS (versions before gOS 2.9M Escape pod) could no longer use the update/upgrade facilities that Ubuntu offered. Any attempt to upgrade any version of gOS before version 2.9M will either fail with an "incompatible windows manager" error or will remove all kernels
Kernel may refer to:
Computing
* Kernel (operating system), the central component of most operating systems
* Kernel (image processing), a matrix used for image convolution
* Compute kernel, in GPGPU programming
* Kernel method, in machine learnin ...
from the system. Version 3.0 of gOS solves the problem, as it is actually based on Ubuntu 8.04. Good OS claims that new versions of gOS won't use Ubuntu's upgrading repositories, to prevent the problem from happening again.
Version history table
Live USB
A Live USB
A live USB is a portable USB-attached external data storage device containing a full operating system that can be booted from. The term is reminiscent of USB flash drives but may encompass an external hard disk drive or solid-state drive, th ...
of gOS can be created manually or with UNetbootin
UNetbootin (Universal Netboot Installer) is a cross-platform utility that can create live USB systems and can load a variety of system utilities or install various Linux distributions and other operating systems without a CD.
Modes USB insta ...
.Information
at linux-tip.net
See also
* EasyPeasy
EasyPeasy (formerly named Ubuntu Eee) was a Linux-based operating system for netbooks. EasyPeasy was built upon Debian and Ubuntu, but was customized for low-powered computers and access to web applications. EasyPeasy is maintained as an open ...
* Everex green computers In the mid-2000s, Everex began selling several brands of green computers. These computers are targeted at users that only need access to web applications, versus Microsoft Windows-based applications (however, the company does sell Windows Vista-ins ...
* Goobuntu
Goobuntu was a Linux distribution based on Ubuntu LTS (long-term support). It was used by almost 10,000 Google employees. It added a number of packages for in-house use, including security features and disabled the installation of some applicatio ...
* ChromeOS
ChromeOS, sometimes stylized as chromeOS and formerly styled as Chrome OS, is a Linux-based operating system designed by Google. It is derived from the open-source ChromiumOS and uses the Google Chrome web browser as its principal user interfa ...
* Joli OS
Joli OS was an Ubuntu-based Linux distribution created by Tariq Krim and Romain Huet co-founders of the French company Jolicloud (also the name of the operating system until version 1.2). Joli OS is now an open source project, with source code ...
* LXDE
LXDE (abbreviation for Lightweight X11 Desktop Environment) is a free desktop environment with comparatively low resource requirements. This makes it especially suitable for use on older or resource-constrained personal computers such as netb ...
* Zonbu
References
External links
Official website, (down as of early march 2011)
gOS Archive and downloads
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gos (Operating System)
Discontinued Linux distributions
Ubuntu derivatives
Cloud clients
Everex
Linux distributions