gOS, the Linux-based operating environment that Everex put on its low-priced gPCs it sold at Wal-Mart Stores, is getting a nice little update and support by more Everex computers, including one ultra-tiny laptop.
Asus ePC, meet your new competitor, the Everex CloudBook
See our first gOS review: Almost the Google PC.
The 2.0 version of gOS, or "Rocket," has a freshened user interface with a few new features, such as a multiple desktop switcher. It also has support for Google Gears, so you can use the few offline/online apps that support it on the gOS devices. Currently, Google Reader is Gears-enabled, as is Zoho Writer and Remember The Milk. Unfortunately, Google's GMail, Calendar, and the Docs suite are still online-only. (We expect updates this year; GMail and Calendar first.)
Rocket also comes with the first gOS-built app, gBooth, a simple Webcam photo studio. The app will also be sold in a bundle with a Webcam and will be called meeBooth; it will work on Windows as well as the gOS.
Soon to come: support for Mozilla Weave Prism (correcting previous error), which is basically the Firefox browser without its toolbars--a nice framework for Web apps.
On the hardware side, the $199 gPC is getting updated with new plastics. It will be joined by a slick mini PC priced at $499 and a $399 notebook with a 15.4-inch screen, the gBook. All of the gOS machines are powered by Via chips, except the mini, which gets a dual-core Pentium (not Core 2 Duo).
The real news, though, is the Everex CloudBook, a 2-pound ultra-small laptop with a 7-inch screen, a 30GB hard drive, a Webcam, and good connectivity (Wi-Fi, 3 USB ports, a 4-in-1 card reader). It "out-specs" the Asus ePC, according to Everex, and will sell for $399 when it shows up at Wal-Mart on January 20.
These are all real computers. They may not run XP or Vista or OS X, but you can do real work and participate fully on Web apps with any of them. And they're selling at Wal-Mart. One has to wonder for how long people will continue to buy machines that are massively overpowered just so they can run Vista--an operating system that we're going to need less and less as more and more of our applications move onto the Web.
View complete CES 2008 coverage from CNET.
The $198 Google-approved Web 2.0 gPC.
(Credit: Everex)On Thursday, WalMart begins selling the Everex Green gPC TC2502, a $198, low-power, Linux-based PC designed primarily for running Web 2.0 applications.
When users first fire up their gPC, they'll get a Mac-like desktop with a series of program icons "docked" across the bottom. The icons are bookmarks to popular and useful Web 2.0 services from Google and other vendors. There are icons for Google Docs, Gmail, Google Maps, and YouTube, for example, as well as Meebo, Facebook, and Wikipedia. Sprinkled into the lineup are some non-Web-based apps, like Skype and Gimp, but the novice user won't know, initially, which are local applications and which are Web services.
Isn't that as it should be? An app is an app, so why should users know or care if it's running on their local PC or in the cloud?
The gPC icon dock
(Credit: CNET)Unfortunately, using the gPC's Web apps isn't as transparent as we'd like, although that's not Everex's fault. Web apps still run in a browser (and the gPC won't ship with Adobe AIR or another runtime platform that runs online apps in their own windows), so each time a user clicks on one of the icons that's pointing to a URL, it will fire up Firefox or a new tab in it. Also, Web apps require their own online logins (though if you're logged into Google, you have to worry about that only once per session). And, of course, there's the question of where one's data is stored. The gPC has a hard disk, but users of the Web apps won't be putting files on it. (It also has OpenOffice installed on it, but users will have to dig to find the suite.)
My criticisms are aimed mostly at Web apps in general, and this is nonetheless a great product. It costs less than $200 and you don't have to buy one for a child you've never met to get it (not that that's a bad thing, but it would drive up your cost). It will do what most of us need, thanks to all the Web 2.0 sites and services that are available now and that don't require the equivalent of a Cray supercomputer to run acceptably fast. The gPC, which Everex is selling with Google's blessing, gives us a look at what a Web PC should be: A much cheaper but almost-as-capable alternative to a regular PC or Mac. This is the closest thing I've seen to a Web appliance that might actually sell.
The gPC runs a 1.5GHz VIA C7-D processor and ships with 512MB of RAM and a 80GB hard drive. The operating system is gOS, from a new company of the same name. It's a version of Ubuntu 7.10 with the Enlightenment window manager. The $198 price tag does not include a monitor. But it does include 24/7 800-number tech support.
The gPC will be available at Walmart.com and at these Wal-Mart retail stores.
See also these interesting Linux-powered products from Everex competitor Asus: The P5E3 Deluxe/WiFi-AP motherboard with embedded Firefox, and the Eee PC 4G, and low-cost Linux laptop
The gPC runs all the Web apps you'll need as well as several useful Linux-based desktop apps.
(Credit: CNET)
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