Hello, forgive me if someone mentioned this before, there exists a Linux distro based on Ubuntu. The desktop shell includes Google-friendly tools and a Mac Aqua-like desktop with a magnified dock at the bottom. The system looks like very simple and could be a chance to be used in schools and on many beginner desktops.

Here is the website:

http://www.thinkgos.com

This could be a good chance for Efika & Pegasos as well. The desktop looks sympathic and includes almost every tool an avarage internet-user demands.

Why don't you go and port it, Leon? :D

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Matt Sealey

I tried firefox with my Efika on a brand new cruxppc 2.4 install. I think Efika doesn't have the horsepower to handle the load. Simply moving the mouse over the menu eat 50% cpu. I use fluxbox window manager and GTK was fresh compiled against latest stable. The experience was not satifactory to my taste : feeling a laggy GUI is not good.

Another point to worry about : 2.4 kernel + Xorg + fluxbox + FF + some xterm = 4Mb free ram. Luckily, no swap in use. Don't expect runing another stuff in parallel like openoffice. Low IDE performance will
give another performance hit (swaping).

The performance may be bad because of my display : 1280x1024 32 bit (radeon 9250). This gives a lot of work for a 400Mhz CPU. Efika + Linux will be certainly best fitted with a lower display, 800x480 for example.

Do anyone have experienced such performance hit with efika? I feel a bit disapointed. Maybe something is wrong in my setup. Or maybe I expect too much ? Maybe I am too much used of AmigaOS/Morphos responsiveness!

gOS seems to be designed to run on a VIA C7 at 1.2Ghz and much more memory than efika (512Mb ?). Three times the MPC5200 frequency. Even if power arch have a better MIPS/FREQ ratio, we are not exactly in the same area... Another point to worry again : memory. gOS seems full of eye candy... OpenOffice can run with 128Mb. But will it run fluently with firefox ? IM ? Mail ? I guess not.

Linux + X + GTK + whatever eat lots of ressource (mem & cpu). Not really tailored with embeddeding in mind... unless you accept laggy UI and swaping on Efika.

Morphos? Aros? come to the rescue! Low footprint, clever design. Tailored for embedding!

gOS uses enlightenment 17 as wm, which runs very well on efika.
there are not too many apps included which could be too slow
for efika and firefox browser still could be replaced by sth
more resource friendly.

I agree that it would run slow on Efika. But I guess a Pegasos would make the job, and contacting the gOS developers could make them considering a PPC port, imho.

I think you misunderstand why gOS exists; it's to support the Wal-Mart $200 PC.

If you want to port gOS to your platform, you have to embrace the nature of open source. The code is there. You have access to it. You can port it yourself.

If there is something we have learnt over the years it is that if you want something done you have to do it yourself, in open-source software. So, you guys should go and try it yourself first, and see how far you get before you start engaging the gOS developers in producing an OS build for a platform which doesn't sell anymore (Pegasos) or one that probably won't run it (standard Efika)

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Matt Sealey