All kinds of things can happen in the world of free and open software. gOS is a new easy to use and free operating system, with a strong focus for using Google's web applications. It comes with an integrated Google search, Google Maps, Google Documents but also has integration to Flickr, Facebook, Meebo and so on. The gOS is the default operating system of a $199 PC sold at Wal Mart, so it already has one major partnership to start with. But the gOS is also available as a free download for everyone.

Overall the gOS is an interesting story. First of all, they announce on their web site that gOS is not affiliated with Google, even though a lot of effort is done to promote Google's services within the operating system. And they are succeeding, as many web pages reported gOS as Google Operating System, which it is not. Actually the utilization of Google's brand image is somewhat questionable, if Google really is not involved..

The gOS also seemed to come out of nowhere, as it had it's version 1.0 release. There were no alpha or beta releases, which are typical for Linux distributions, and the Linux scene seemed to know absolutely nothing about it until the October 31st when it was released. If you look at their website, there is very little information about the vendor of the operating system. So if there is no major commercial party behind the gOS, how in the heck they struck a deal with a major retailer like Wal Mart?

We downloaded the gOS live DVD and gave it a quick spin. The gOS is actually is re-branded Ubuntu 7.10, but the default desktop is replaced by Enlightenment. The appearance has vivid colors and plenty of Mac-like eye-candy. The top right corner has a Google search box and at the bottom of the screen there is a quick launch bar with icons for several Google's and other web based services. The integration of the services to the operating system does not go any deeper however, as the icons are nothing but shortcuts to the websites - pretty much the same can be achieved by just adding a bunch of shortcut icons on your desktop. While the gOS aims to be pleasing for the eyes, it quite doesn't succeed - the colors and icons are a bit too bright to be pleasing for the eye, and overall the visuals would need a final polish. The good thing about the Ubuntu and Enlightenment desktop combination is that the performance should be pretty good. And one can of course configure the visuals freely.

Very interesting project in many ways. We'll see gOS will do in the long run, and how will the mysterious vendor update the operating system in the future.

Source: ThinkgOS.com