(Credit:
Good OS)
Good OS, the people who brought you the Linux-based gOS found on the $199 Wal-Mart gPC last year, announced a browser-based OS called Cloud at the Netbook World Summit in Paris on Monday. (You know you've made it as a form factor when you have your very own world summit. Kudos, Netbook!)
The Cloud OS features a browser with an integrated, OS X-like dock and a Linux kernel that boots "in seconds," according to the company. The browser looks oddly similar to Google's Chrome, though no official connection between Google and gOS exists. Within the browser window resides a dock that provides quick access to a number of apps--Skype, YouTube, Google's Docs, etc.--that you can fire up without running Windows. From the dock, you can also boot to Windows.
Unlike the gOS, the Cloud OS isn't meant to replace Windows but live alongside it, similar to what Asus offers on some of its laptops and Lenovo on its IdeaPad S10 Netbook with the SplashTop app. Good OS states that Cloud "does not require additional hardware and is compatible with any operating system."
Good OS demonstrated its Cloud OS on a gigabyte touch-screen Netbook at the World Summit in Paris. The company says that such touch-screen Netbooks running the Cloud OS and Windows will be released at CES next month.
gOS--a company known for its debut in the $199 Wal-Mart gPC and Netbooks--announced Wednesday the details of gOS 3 Gadgets, the newest version of its Linux operating system for consumers.
The San Francisco-based company made the announcement at LinuxWorld Expo.
The main feature of gOS 3 Gadgets is its ability to instantly launch Google Gadgets for Linux on start-up, allowing users access to more than 100,000 iGoogle and Google Gadgets applications. These applications, though graphically rich, are small enough to be added to the computer in seconds over an Internet broadband connection. The new operation system will also be loaded with WINE 1.0, Lightweight X Desktop Environment (LXDE), and other Google software for Linux to improve the user experience.
While WINE has been known to allows users to use thousands of Windows applications on Linux platform, LXDE is a renewed effort to develop more lightweight desktop applications for Linux environment. By supporting LXDE, gOS 3 Gadgets, apart from desktops, would also make a good choice for ultra small mobile laptops, which are generally suffer from having slow hard drives and processors.
In addition to Google Gadgets for Linux, gOS 3 Gadgets can also run other Google applications more well-known in Windows platform including Google Desktop, Google Picasa, Google Earth and Google Maps. In the new gOS 3 Gadgets, other Google's web-based applications such as Documents, Calendar, and Mail launch have a closer appearance and functionality to desktop applications than other platforms.
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.
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