The other day while browsing in Barnes and Noble (admittedly one of my favorite stores) a magazine caught my eye. This magazine had Google written all over it with their traditionally bright colors which seemingly called my name. Drawn to the magazine I was at once stunned by the words “gOS” which could only mean Google OS. With the tech blogs I read and geeks I follow on Twitter how could I have missed the elusive operating system from Google? Rumors of an operating system being worked on by Google have circulated for a while now and this seemed to be its debut.
After opening the magazine and reading some of what was written it became clear that Google had not in fact released or even planned on releasing an operating system (at least not by this name). gOS did not stand for Google OS but rather “Good OS”. The operating system was Linux with a Google flavor to it (Bright Google like colors and Google related widgets). Android is much more a Google OS than gOS although it should be pointed out that Android is a collaborative work and is also based on a Linux kernel.
While I did not buy the magazine I did download gOS as soon as I got home (I am a Google fan). After burning the ISO to a DVD I installed it to a VM on my Macbook. The icons and various widgets felt a bit like they were meant for a child though the OS itself seemed to be just fine. While the widgets and overall looks could be changed to the user’s desire I think it would be easier to just install Ubuntu which I already like the look and feel of.
A bit sad that I had not found a truly new OS it did reawaken my desire to play with Linux. Linux+ may not be in my immediate future but I will be trying a few distro’s and relearning some of the features they offer. The latest version of Ubuntu (Jaunty Jackelope) is out so that will be the first on my list.
