gOS 3 Gadgets (Beta) Review
Time for a review. Thanks to the always useful DistroWatch.com service, I discovered a new Gnu/Linux distribution, called gOS. gOS stands for Good Os, born in 2007 in California. The version I’m reviewing is the so-called “gOS 3 ‘Gadgets’”, their third release. gOS 3 Gadgets BETA is based on Ubuntu 8.04.1, and the final release is to be expected in the next 1-2 months.
This distribution is built around Goggle apps and services, comes with Google Gadgets for Linux pre-installed, as well other nice programs, like Google Picasa, Wine, Mozilla Prism for Google web applications and Wbar as launch bar. I’ve never heard about this bar, it’s very quick and light. Good choice! The distro also includes proprietary codecs for multimedia content.
As said before, being based on Ubuntu 8.04.1, gOS3 has got the same boot screen, but different colors, which lets you choose system and keyboard language.
The live cd takes a bunch of seconds to load, then the default desktop appears, without any login required.
The desktop is very clean and accurate, a customized Gnome with green colors. At the right side you will immediately notice some Google Gadgets activated, while the bottom side is occupied by the very clean dock-bar, that should have been modified for non-xgl’ed users (I’m using a desktop pc with a Nvidia 8800gt video card, and the bar is working).
The last gadget is hidden by another one. I think this is a monitor resolution related problem.
In the following screenshot you can see three applications opened (openoffice.org writer, gnome-terminal and Nautilus). The icons and the window manager themes and colors are in symphony and very elegant. You can notice that the window buttons are on the left side of the window, like in Mac Os X.
The official website reports that “gOS 3 Gadgets includes LXDE (Lightweight X Desktop Environment) applications in the renewed effort to develop a more lightweight desktop”. But I could not find any application not belonging to Gnome..
I really appreciated the presence of Mozilla Prism and various Google services (Google Documents, Calendar, and Mail) can be launch from the dock-bar as they were real applications:
A quick look at the software repositories reveals all the official Ubuntu repo activated (main, restricted, universe, multiverse), as well as other useful repositories, like lxde, skype, medibuntu. Yes, this means you can install multimedia proprietary codecs in a apt-get!
I could not resist, and tried to apt-get dist-upgrade just for curiosity. The result was a messy desktop, a second panel magically appeared on the bottom of the screen:
Nothing dangerous, a couple of mouse clicks and the situation came back as before the update.
I could not find Google Earth and Google Desktop Search, reported to be installed by default (Tracker is not included). Let’s see if they will be included in the final release.
I believe that gOS 3 Gadgets is an accurate personalization of Ubuntu. The fact is does not include personalized administration tools makes it not really an adversary of the more famous Linux Mint distribution. I see gOS 3 more as a customization of another distribution, you could even keep your Ubuntu installed and customize it to look and act like gOS. But you will spend a lot of time in doing it.
My advice is to download gOS 3 if you would like something different to the graphical aspects of Ubuntu, plus some very delightful Google tools, while keeping all the original tools that Ubuntu offers.
It isnt gnome it is LXDE which is a light gtk enviroment
Are you sure it is so? I noticed that the panel at the top of the screen was something different from the one provided by gnome, I thought it was just modified, and a dist-upgrade brought in gnome-panel (you can see it in the last screenshot)
A look under /usr/share/xsessions revelas just the files gnome.desktop and ssh.desktop; the only application installed which that is considered as a component of LXDE is lxterminal.
And the following is the output of ps -U bodom_lx command:
I tried the original gOS and it was nice enough. I mentioned it in my look at distros for new users:
http://linuxlatitude.blogspot.com/2008/03/which-linux.html
I thought it had Enlightenment Desktop then? Anyway, may be worth another look when the final come out.
Thanks for the review.
Maybe it relies heavily on gnome as LXDE is not a complete environment like enlightenment. Also I presume is heavily uses gnome apps so would need all that framework for them
Is the bar AWN ?
No, it is not. It’s Wbar.
Tomm Says: “It isnt gnome it is LXDE which is a light gtk enviroment”
Yes, it is Gnome. Click on gOS > System Preferences > System Monitor and select the Processes tab. You will see a lot of Gnome processes running but not a single LXDE process.
Happy to see that somebody agrees with me
The processes are those listed on comment 3
Yes, I know but some people are easier to convince with the output of a gui tool. Blame DesktopLinux.com for these two articles:
http://www.desktoplinux.com/news/NS2665924172.html
http://www.desktoplinux.com/news/NS7428727466.html
Thank you very much for your participation, Ariszlò