GOS: The Good OS?

Linux has always been a distant third in the PC market, usually for lack of awareness and really having too many different variations out there. Up until the last few years Linux as a whole has also been seen a much harder operating system to understand and use for mainstream users. gOS, on the other hand, is a Linux distribution that claims to be easy to use, easy to install, stable, and free. Given that Linux still has a mainstream image of being solely for computer geeks sitting in front of a screen with code on it, it is a lofty goal to make distro for the casual audience. However, given the people behind the project, and the fact that some people find gOS easier than MacOSX (according to one forum I visited before downloading gOS) have they actually made the impossible... possible?

gOS is an Ubuntu derivative, Ubuntu being the current poster child of the Linux community. Using Ubuntu as it's base is a good idea. GOS uses Ubuntu 8.04 which will have all updates through April 2011 (as opposed to 8.10 which will only have updates until 2010), which means the system will be secure and up to date until 2011. However, GOS is a bit more than a re-skin of Ubuntu, everything is made to be as simple as possible for the mainstream user, in fact usually even more so than Windows or MacOSX it seems, though not without a price.

The OS can be downloaded free from the website, burned to a CD or DVD, and then not installed, but experienced. Allow me to explain. Unlike windows and MacOSX, the majority of linux operating systems can come on what is known as a LiveCD or LiveDVD. This is a way for you to test that you like the OS before you commit precious hard drive space to it. You put the disc in your computer, restart and it boots the OS without installing it to your hard drive. This allows you to use it just like any other OS, you can surf the web, write documents, almost anything you want. If you don't like it, just shut down the system and eject the disc.

If you fancy gOS after trying it on the LiveCD, installation is fairly straight forward. You just double click the install icon on the desktop of the LiveCD. Everything is pretty straight forward, and if you want to use it as the only OS on your computer you will have no problems, the installer can do that very easily. If you want to have it installed along side Windows though... that's a bit more complex, but not overly so. There are plenty of guides for that online, a simple google search will turn those up, so I'm not going to cover that here.

After installing gOS though there are some interesting issues. First off, it can't detect my monitor, so it default to an 800x600 resolution, and will not accept me changing the monitor type or resolution. This has more to do with HP though than gOS, but it does bring the first problem for anyone with more than a mainstream knowledge of computers. gOS is almost more restrictive with what it will let you mess with than MacOSX. To even attempt change my monitor type and resolution I had to add the menu to the main menu (they are hidden by default). I was impressed by how easy that was though. It was all done with menus, I had expected to need to enter some command lines.

The other snag I hit was gOS is often mistaken for Google OS, which is understandable given that the OS loads a lot of google gadgets to the desktop upon first start up. You have gadgets for news, weather, time, a flower pot to water (cause everyone needs that), WiFi, and a battery meter. Even though they are all easily turned off it does give a very bad first impression.

gOS is also very green... Everything is green, the background, the buttons, the window bars. It's a little much, luckily you can change desktop backgrounds any time and themes are available online to do away with the overly green theme. It's almost a complete turn around from Ubuntu in that case which is very orange (which is also a bad choice in my opinion).

The OS comes with a variety of useful programs pre-installed including Open Office, Mozilla Firefox, and pidgin (an AIM, MSN, YAHOO, etc. chat client). A series of simple games are also installed. Everything needed for your basic computer needs is present, however, do not expect anything advanced like 3d gaming (Nvidia and ATI drivers are not installed by default and are restricted drivers).

Overall, this is the perfect linux distro for someone not very used to computing. If you are giving a computer to parents or grandparents with no experience you have a good solid option with gOS, but if you want something a bit more advanced there are much better alternatives for you.