Google is a company. That’s what everyone seems to be saying these days when they hear about Google OS, the new operating system that’s being developed by Google. But don’t call it Google OS – that would be too much like calling Microsoft Windows “Windows 8.1.” What we have here is a new operating system designed specifically for mobile devices, and it looks to be a major player in the coming years. It has been in development for some time now, and it’s finally ready to go live on devices like Android and iOS. What makes gOS so different from other operating systems? Well, first and foremost, gOS is built on the Android platform – which means that it can run on any device that has an Android phone or tablet installed. This includes both phones and tablets – so if you have an iPhone or Android device, you can use gOS just as if you had an original Android device! Second, gOS is based on the Linux kernel – which means that it’s very easy to use and customize. You can even create your own customizations if you want – something that other operating systems don’t often offer. Finally,gOS also uses a lot of modern technology like artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) to make your devices more intelligent than ever before. This will help you get more done on your phone or tablet than ever before!
I downloaded the ISO and burned it to disc. As with most versions of Ubuntu, gOS comes on a live CD where you can test out your computers hardware and run through the features. Because gOS is so lightweight in using system resources, the live CD runs much faster than any other live Linux disc I have used.
Installation is extremely fast as well. For those of you familiar with Ubuntu you will have no problem installing gOS. The screens and set up options are basically identical to any Ubuntu installation. When installation is finished you are prompted to remove the live disc and reboot. Then you are presented with the familiar Username and Password log in screens.
Here is a list of the pre-installed (links to) Web applications. Open Office is also installed, along with some cheesy games to pass the time.
Also pre-installed is Xine media player. I thought this player was a great choice to include by default.
I just installed gOS on a spare machine I had laying around. A Dell Optiplex 280 with a P4 2.4GHZ CPU and 512 MB of RAM. So far gOS runs surprisingly smooth and quick. I have not had a whole lot of time to play with it, but you can use apt-get to install more software packages and also included is Synaptic Package Manager.
This is certainly not the OS for a power user, but it’s kind of neat to check out and throw on a spare machine. Download gOS.[discontinued]
