Steps to install gOS on Ubuntu Gutsy Gibbon

I am sure by now you have heard of the gPC loaded with gOS via various news sources. For those in the dark, gPC stands for green PC which is a sub $200 PC which comes loaded with a customized version of Ubuntu known as gOS or in popular parlance called Google OS.

If you look carefully, you will find that gOS is a customized version of Enlightenment desktop and contain links to popular online services like the Google docs, Gmail, Facebook, Blogger and so on. All that a user of gOS has to do to access these online applications is, ensure his machine is connected to the Internet and double click on the respective icons. Of course apart from these online services, gOS also contain almost all applications that are standard fare in any Linux distribution.

Here is the interesting part... it is possible to install gOS on your Ubuntu Gutsy Gibbon Linux machine by following a couple of simple steps. In other words you can install the heavily customized enlightenment window manager which is the base of the gOS using the following steps...

Fig: gOS desktop running in Ubuntu Gutsy Gibbon

Fig: About gOS dialog box

First open up your /etc/apt/sources.list file which lists all the repositories and append the following two lines to it.

$ sudo vi /etc/apt/sources.list

# FILE: /etc/apt/sources.list
...
# Adding gOS repositories
deb http://packages.thinkgos.com/gos/ painful main
deb-src http://packages.thinkgos.com/gos/ painful main

In the terminal enter the command to import the public key of the repository so that the signatures could be verified as follows :

# wget http://www.thinkgos.com/files/gos_repo_key.asc
# sudo apt-key add gos_repo_key.asc

Next update your apt cache database using the command :

$ sudo apt-get update

To install the necessary files which will allow you to run gOS on Ubuntu, run the following apt-get command :

$ sudo apt-get install greenos-desktop

I already had enlightenment (e17) window manager (WM) installed on my Ubuntu machine so it was a mere 11 MB download for me. If you do not have enlightenment WM, then apt-get will have to download and install that too which could hike your download size by around 35 MB.

Once installed, you can select gOS/Enlightenment from sessions option in your login screen.

Fig: gOS module settings dialog box

It is worth noting that the gOS that is thus installed is devoid of the Google branding namely the desktop icons to Google services; which are conspicuous in their absence. So the name gOS in this case could be a misnomer.

Having used gOS for some time now, I am sufficiently impressed on the color and theme preferences. While I found the default theme of Enlightenment not that good, I find the gOS theme quite elegant and pleasing to the eyes. At the same time you also get all the features that are available in Enlightenment which includes transparency, shadows, animation on the desktop and many usability features which can make your desktop experience all the more comfortable and productive.