Last year Wal-Mart started selling a Linux-powered computer for under $200 called the gPC. After some confusion amongst consumers they decided to boot the budget computers from the store shelves, and offer it solely online. Ever since it looks as though the operating system that powers the low-cost computer, called gOS, has started to go through an identity crisis with Mac OS X.
The most obviously clone is the dock that is the home of your application shortcuts. The gOS has had that ever since it debuted last year, but it’s worked hard to become even more Mac-like in its latest release dubbed gOS Space 2.9. The goal of the new version was to become more appealing to the 100+ million MySpace users, and thanks to the Avant Window Navigator a feature remarkably similar to Mac OS X’s Stacks has been added to the dock. Not to mention that it includes Compiz Fusion for some added eye candy.
And as Crunchgear noticed even the gOS site has become remarkably similar to that of Apple’s:
gOS Website:
Apple’s Mac OS X Website:
So what do you think? Are they smart for trying to grab ideas from an operating system that is often lauded for its great design, or should they be trying to distinguish gOS from the competition?
The gOS Space 2.9 Linux operating system is freely available for download.
I don’t like the look or feel of OS X. They should be focusing on functionality over aesthetics. Both Apple and gOS.
Of all the things to copy from a mac, why stacks?
It looks so much like a blatant ripoff that Apple could sue them
Besides, the OS looks very polished if it’s designed to appeal MySpace users
Interesting…I should install on my laptop just for the heck of it.
Well, they aren’t the ones who created the stacks implementation. It was the open source community and AWN that did it, but they just included it with their OS.
It’s more geared to be an operating system that focuses on things being web-based. So I don’t think you’ll like it very much if you start trying to install all of your favorite apps like you would in Ubuntu.
I hadn’t noticed the similarity until the two websites were put one on top of the other. I suppose someone has to give an apple like os for people who can barely afford to use the bathroom, huh?
That was pretty good… definitely made me laugh!