A Look at gOS 2.0 "Rocket"

by Michael J. Jordan, Managing Editor

January 15, 2008

gOS review

This past week, I gave the new "Google-based" distribution, called gOS, a spin. I tried the second version, 2.0 - called 'Rocket'. gOS' claim to fame is that it is the default operating system installed on the Everex Green PC sold at Walmart stores. The version that comes with the Walmart computers includes DVD playback and other extras, but you can also download a version from the website of the developers, Good OS.

I downloaded this version, which came in at slightly over 500 MB and burned it to a normal CD. I booted it up in my Thinkpad test laptop. I was immediately greeted by its trademark greenish hue.

The desktop is brought to you by the Enlightenment window manager. It has been heavily tweaked and it sports an interesting look which I assume is meant to mimic the behavior of Mac OS X, with the icons in the 'dock' getting bigger as you pass over them.

I called this a "Google based" distribution, because the main focus of the distribution is to get you to use the whole universe of Google services via the Firefox browser. The main menu items at the bottom puts the emphasis on accessing everything Google: Gmail, Google Docs, Blogger, YouTube, to name but a few.

You don't have to be on line all the time, however. It comes with enough "traditional" applications for you to get your work done plus entertain yourself. It comes with Xine video player, Rhythmbox, a music player - that supports MP3 out of the box, Skype for internet telephone needs, The GIMP, the most popular and powerful image program for Linux and the OpenOffice.org suite. You can also use a powerful package manager, called Synaptic, to install any other programs that you might need.

Some Observations

In my case, it seemed to run on my modest hardware (my Thinkpad has a Pentium III with 500MB of RAM). It detected the sound card and that worked fine, something that doesn't always happen with this machine. Though my wireless PCMCIA card was detected and seemed to be working, I couldn't get the network configuration program that comes with gOS, called Exalt, to configure the card. I don't have a DHCP server at home, so I needed to configure it for a static IP address. Each time I provided the necessary network information, the 'apply' button would never activate. I finally had to write my own '/etc/network/interfaces' and copy it from a pen drive to the Thinkpad and then restart the network services.

As you can see, I got it working:

Once over this hurdle, I could easily use gOS with my Thinkpad. All I needed to do was to copy these two files to a pen drive. First was the 'interfaces' file:

auto eth0
iface eth0 inet static
address 192.168.0.14
netmask 255.255.255.0
network 192.168.0.0
broadcast 192.168.0.255
gateway 192.168.0.5
wireless-mode managed
wireless-essid any
dns-nameservers [your ISP's nameservers here -- xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx]
wireless-key [your key here]

then you need a resolv.conf file in /etc - I just copied the one in my pen drive there

nameserver xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx
nameserver xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx

After this, gOS was totally usable, even as a LiveCD system, without installing it.

Conclusions

I had some problems configuring my network. After looking through some forums, I didn't see that many people had had similar problems. Since DHCP network configuration is pretty wide spread - and I seem to be one of the last holdouts - at least at my home, then there's no reason that gOS users should have a similar problem. gOS worked fairly well with my modest hardware and it offers a basic suite of programs which are adequate to get your everyday work done. If you need more, you can always use Synaptic to get the applications you need. You can also make use of the entire range of services that Google offers, which is quite large in and of itself.

The new concept that this Linux distribution brings I find interesting. If Walmart finds it good enough to want to sell PCs with it preinstalled, then that says a lot I think. If you want to download it and try it out, you can find it at the gOS website. I think we'll be hearing a lot of gOS in the future.

Michael J. Jordan is Managing Editor of Linux Online. He can be reached at Michael.Jordan**AT**linux.org