gOS: Linux Going Mainstream Soon?

gOS

This is what's running under the hood of the $200 PC being sold at Wal-Mart, the gOS.  Based on Ubuntu Linux 7.1, gOS can be considered as the much hyped GooglePC from years ago.  Most of the pre-loaded apps are based on Google Lab's products and that's not such a bad thing... *if* you have a DSL connection to constantly access these products.  But for those unfortunate enough not to have a DSL connection, there's the ubiquitous (at least on Linux installations) OpenOffice.Org which has all the essentials such as a very capable word processor, spreadsheet and presentation software.

With this out in the wild, will this mean a higher penetration rate for Open Source Software?

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Linux on iBook: Putting (no) Money where my Mouth Is

I've been advocating the use of free and open source software in this blog. However, I've been in-and-out of using open source software because of different factors but simply because I'm so enamoured with Mac OS X.

Anyway, my iBook's hard drive went bonkers and I had to find a way to fix it. I don't want to revert back to Mac OS X 10.3.x so I decided to install Ubuntu Linux on it. Installation went well and pretty painless and now I'm using it to post this blog post. Now I'm enjoying my iBook (White 800 Mhz PPC) anew with an entirely different OS.

Hopefully, this experience will help me because high on my "to buy" list is an Asus Eee PC which is also running Linux.

The Linux Equivalent Project

One of the biggest stumbling block to the widespread adoption of Linux is the perceived lack of applications for it. Another is that a lot of people simply got stuck with the programs that they got used to using in Windows.

The Linux Equivalent Project is an informational website that tries to compile the open source equivalent of frequently used Windows software. People who wants to try out Linux can visit this
site and see if there is a free and open source equivalent of the programs they use -- allowing them to try out Linux without much hassle.

Looking at the list, their "roster" of programs may not be as extensive as I would have wanted but since the site is still in "beta", I'm sure it will mature gracefully given enough time.

Portable Apps Suite: Now You *CAN* Bring it With You

John T. Haller of PortableApps.com finally did it! His site has just released the PortableApps Suite -- a suite of useful and free programs that can run directly from a flashdrive.


The PortableApps Suite has three "flavors" -- the Standard Edition, the Lite Edition and the Base Edition. All flavors of the PortableApps Suite has an integrated PortableApps Menu system and a backup utility.

The Standard Edition has the following portable software in one bundle and it is an 85 MB download(occupies 260 MB on the FlashDrive):

• ClamWin Portable (free anti-virus)
  
• FireFox Portable (web browser)
  
• Gaim Portable (instant messager)
  
• OpenOffice.Org Portable (office suite)
  
• Sudoku Portable (puzzle game)
  
• Sunbird Portable (calendar/task manager)
  
• ThunderBird Portable (email client)

The Lite Edition has the following portable software, is a 30.4 MB Download(occupies around 105 MB on a FlashDrive):

• ClamWin Portable (free anti-virus)
  
• FireFox Portable (web browser)
  
• Gaim Portable (instant messager)
  
• AbiWord (word processor)
  
• Sudoku Portable (puzzle game)
  
• Sunbird Portable (calendar/task manager)
  
• ThunderBird Portable (email client)

The Base Edition only has the PortableApps menu system, the portable backup utility and custom folders, icons and autorun. It is a less than 1 MB download and once installed and configured, users can customize which portable application they want to add to the mix.