Linux Thread

[Obed_Marsh]

gOS is 8GB?

Nope. They are just recommending you have 8gb if you are going to be doing word processing and such. They do recommend "4 GB of disk space (for full installation and swap space)" as a minimum drive size.

That seems very tiny to me but maybe your laptop is older than I thought.

[Nathan]

gOS is 8GB?

Installed, it probably wants that much.  It is a live cd though, so you can run it off the CD without making changes first.  I might have to try it out tonight myself

[JMW IV]

Nope. They are just recommending you have 8gb if you are going to be doing word processing and such. They do recommend "4 GB of disk space (for full installation and swap space)" as a minimum drive size.

That seems very tiny to me but maybe your laptop is older than I thought.

nah, 4GB is fine. XP is almost 10GB i think. and I only have 20GB to spare on this machine. that's why I wanna make it a cloud-ish machine.

gonna download gOS before I leave the library. really my biggest fear here, is that I'm going to install a new OS, and my Wireless card won't work right off the bat...which will screw me, since I don't have internet at home to plug into right now.

[Nathan]

really my biggest fear here, is that I'm going to install a new OS, and my Wireless card won't work right off the bat...which will screw me, since I don't have internet at home to plug into right now.

Dude, it's a live CD.  You can run it RIGHT from the CD.  NO install.  NO changes to your hard drive.  It runs off of a CD instead of your HD.  If everything works fine, you can double click the install icon on the desktop to install it.  You can even dual boot at first, installing it side by side with XP before you delete XP.

[JMW IV]

bleh. almost 700mb download. don't think I have time to do it today hehe.

[JMW IV]

Dude, it's a live CD.  You can run it RIGHT from the CD.  NO install.  NO changes to your hard drive.  It runs off of a CD instead of your HD.  If everything works fine, you can double click the install icon on the desktop to install it.  You can even dual boot at first, installing it side by side with XP before you delete XP.

these "LiveCD"..can you install them on a USB drive? not sure if the DVD on this thing is a Burner or now.

[Nathan]

these "LiveCD"..can you install them on a USB drive? not sure if the DVD on this thing is a Burner or now.

I think it is based on the model you specified.  But I'm sure you can make it into a bootable USB drive.

[Nathan]

Here you go:
http://www.pendrivelinux.com/usb-gos-install-from-windows/

Distribution Home Page: thinkgos.com

Minimum Flash Drive Capacity: 1GB

Persistent Feature: No

Essentials for creating a Portable gOS Flash Drive via Windows:

    * gOS ISO
    * USB-Installer-For-gOS.exe
    * 1GB or larger USB flash drive (fat32 formatted)
    * A Windows host PC to perform the build

How to install gOS on a flashdrive using Windows:

Note: USB installation of gOS performs like the Live CD. Currently persistent gOS features are outside the scope of this tutorial. A separate tutorial covering persistence is available HERE

   1. Download the gOS ISO
   2. Download and run our USB Installer For gOS, and follow the onscreen instructions
   3. Reboot your PC and select your USB device from the Boot Menu or system BIOS and proceed to boot gOS from your USB device

If all goes well, you should now be running gOS portably from a USB flash drive!

Enjoy!

[JMW IV]

so supposedly this gOS is based on Ubuntu...essentially a Cloud-ish Version of Ubuntu. or trying to beat ChromeOS to the punch.

hey Obed, you said you were using Google Chrome on Linux, right?  are Extensions enabled in any channel of the Linux version?

[Obed_Marsh]

hey Obed, you said you were using Google Chrome on Linux, right?  are Extensions enabled in any channel of the Linux version?

Nope. Must have been somebody else. I've given away all my linux boxes. I went laptop/nas/wireless although I've been considering adding a TouchSmart.

gOS is probably google's OS's grandfather.

[The Chief]

Yes, Windows is a resource hog.

Right because the 350 MB that 7 is using on my laptop right now is soooo much memory

My quick take on the "which lightweight linux" discussion:

Puppy isn't nearly as ugly as DSL, but DSL is about as lightweight as they come.

gOS is pretty decent.  Tried it once, everything worked pretty well by default (though that's generally true of Linux on older hardware anyway)  I have no idea about support for any of the advanced Google stuff JMad uses.

[Nathan]

Right because the 350 MB that 7 is using on my laptop right now is soooo much memory

Is that just Windows or is that the total memory usage for everything on your laptop?

I still think he'd see an increase in speed by trying out a lightweight linux distro, especially compared to an XP installation that is who knows how old.  If he had the install disc, a fresh install of XP would probably show some significant speed boosts as well.

[PANatsFan]

Right because the 350 MB that 7 is using on my laptop right now is soooo much memory

He's running XP, on a machine with 640 mb of ram, 16 of which are gobbled up by the graphics card. So, your is actualy


You are so defensive about Windows, is Bill Gates your dad?

[sportsfan882]

He's running XP, on a machine with 640 mb of ram, 16 of which are gobbled up by the graphics card. So, your is actualy


You are so defensive about Windows, is Bill Gates your dad?

what do you have against windows?

[PANatsFan]

what do you have against windows? (Image removed from quote.)

Nothing I'm running 7 right now, with Virtualbox Linux on top of it. I've been running that way exclusively for months now. But Chief went ballistic when the statement that Windows is known to suck resources is not that controversial.

[Nathan]

what do you have against windows? (Image removed from quote.)

What do you have against OS X?

[sportsfan882]

nothing really although i'm not that familiar with it. i've never had one but i like to play around with the ones at work.

Windows is just better. It is a lot more compatible with software, hardware, etc. It's easier to use. Macs are overpriced.

[JMW IV]

so...

gOS is actually pretty nice.

however, no plug-and-play with my wireless card, so i gotta get the linux drivers for it. need to buy a cheap USB flash drive tomorrow.

once i get my wireless card installed i'll be in business. I think I'm going to go with this distribution though.

[Nathan]

so...

gOS is actually pretty nice.

however, no plug-and-play with my wireless card, so i gotta get the linux drivers for it. need to buy a cheap USB flash drive tomorrow.

once i get my wireless card installed i'll be in business. I think I'm going to go with this distribution though.

You might not need the flash drive, if gOS can read NTFS partitions.  I'm downloading it now, 30% completed, about 10 minutes to go, I'll check if it does if it will even run on my Mac.

[JMW IV]

so from what I can gather here, with my unknowledgeable eyes, is that gOS IS recognizing my Wireless Card. I think. When my wireless card is not plugged in, there are no prompts for connecting or creating wireless networks, wireless config options, etc.  but when I plug the card in, all of those options appear. both lights on my Wireless Card are on, when it is plugged in, while using gOS. my Networking is set to "Roaming Mode" (whatever that means).

incidentally, I am using UNetBootIn to do this, if it means anything.

so apparently, the OS knows that my wireless card is there.  at least I think it does.

however, I cannot seem to search for and connect to any available wireless networks. maybe this is a case of me just not knowing what I am doing, or maybe it's a case of not having the right drivers, but then again, if i didn't have the drivers, wouldn't the OS just not recognize my card at all?

[Nathan]

Well gOS runs on the Mac, and it does indeed read NTFS partitions.

However, my wireless didn't work either, and the hardware browser thingy (forget what its called) didn't have any proprietary drivers to use.

Back on my Mac I realize that gOS is based upon Ubuntu.  An older Ubuntu given it's release date.  And Ubuntu did have my wireless card in the list of proprietary drivers in addition to my video cards.  It's my current resident linux distro.

In addition, once installed, you can add on everything that gOS features to make it basically gOS.  If I were you, JMad, I'd try out Xubuntu, a lighter version of Ubuntu, and if you love gOS, you can add on al the packages to make Xubuntu be just like it.  gOS is based upon the Hardy Heron (8.04) version of Ubuntu, they are now on 9.10.

Broadcom wireless cards, which the Mac uses, can be a nag to install.  Given that Ubuntu can do it automatically, and gOS doesn't, I'll probably stick to ubuntu.

[Nathan]

so from what I can gather here, with my unknowledgeable eyes, is that gOS IS recognizing my Wireless Card. I think. When my wireless card is not plugged in, there are no prompts for connecting or creating wireless networks, wireless config options, etc.  but when I plug the card in, all of those options appear. both lights on my Wireless Card are on, when it is plugged in, while using gOS. my Networking is set to "Roaming Mode" (whatever that means).

incidentally, I am using UNetBootIn to do this, if it means anything.

so apparently, the OS knows that my wireless card is there.  at least I think it does.

however, I cannot seem to search for and connect to any available wireless networks. maybe this is a case of me just not knowing what I am doing, or maybe it's a case of not having the right drivers, but then again, if i didn't have the drivers, wouldn't the OS just not recognize my card at all?

It will recognize them even if it isn't working.

What is the model of your card?

[JMW IV]

It will recognize them even if it isn't working.

What is the model of your card?

Linksys WPC54g v 3.1

http://www.modem-help.co.uk/Linksys/WPC54G-v3-Wireless-G-Notebook-Adapter.html

that one right there.

what's the difference between Xubuntu and regular Ubuntu?

either way, this kinda sucks, cause i don't have an ethernet connection in my house. Wireless is all I got. so that complicates things, i think.

[Nathan]

Yep, that's a broadcom based card.  Same family as what's in my MacBook, BCM43xx.

Ubuntu is the main version and it uses gnome as the "GUI" environment you see.
Kububtu is a fork of ubuntu that uses KDE instead of gnome.
Xubuntu uses Xfce instead of either gnome or KDE, with Xfce being a much more light weight desktop environment (better for crappier hardware)

[JMW IV]

crazy.  I loaded PuppyLinux with Unetbootin...

wireless card worked natively, after running the network wizard. ridiculously easy to set up.

going to sleep now, will explore puppylinux more tomorrow.  apparently you can get the same window manager that gOS has on Puppy. if so.....I'm freakin set.