[sf-lug] sf-lug Digest, Vol 25, Issue 59

[Rick Moen]

Quoting terry (a10cuba at hotmail.com):

> has any one used GOS yet nice   Ubuntu based  distro. 

It's actually the default load on some extremely inexpensive commodity
desktop machines (Walmart's, Everex's, ClubIT.com's).

I haven't yet seen gOS, but have read about it.  The use of
Enlightenment as the window manager is really interesting:  That was one
of the more gonzo, splashy, graphics-heavy X11 environments of the late
'90s, and I used to work with its two maintainers.  

The other distinctive thing about gOS is that by default it outsources a
large variety of types of datafiles you create to Web-hosted, online,
proprietary "Web 2.0" applications operated by Google, Inc.:  Google
Docs, Google Spreadsheets, Froogle, GMail, Google Calendar, Google News,
Google Products (shopping), YouTube, and Blogger.  There is also
non-Google, Inc. data outsourcing to Meebo (Web-based IM + conferencing),
Facebook, Box.net (online, hosted, storage of your files), and the
(proprietary) Skype VoIP application.

Personally, one of the reasons I use open source is to _not_ turn over
my data (and privacy) to proprietary software firms, so I'm not onboard
with that entire approach.[1]  (I'm not prepared to sign up to be a serf
of Google, Inc. or any other Web 2.0 company, and my basic reaction to
their "value proposition" has always been "Are you guys _kidding_?  What
part of open source have you failed to understand?")

However, at least gOS also furnishes OpenOffice.org, Rhythmbox/GStreamer
(though with obnoxious tie-in to Web 2.0 commercial services Magnatune
and Jamendo), GnomeBaker (CD/DVD-burning), The GIMP, Firefox,
Thunderbird (mail), Pidgin (IM), and xine (video). 

So, it's not totally useless for those of us who actually
_like_ open source and control of our own data.  However, it strikes me
that you'd get better results by just installing one of the other *buntu 
disks, installing the Enlightenment package, and switching over the
default desktop environment to that.  For one thing, you'd get more
useful _non-outsourced_ software by default.

[1] See also:  "Web 2.0 Cults" on http://linuxmafia.com/kb/Essays/ 

-- 
Cheers,                                     Ceci n'est pas une pipe:   |
Rick Moen
rick at linuxmafia.com