In November 2007, Everex Computers began selling an eco-friendly computer called the gPC. Using a low-powered VIA CPU and consuming only 2 watts of power, it sold out within one day on walmart.com with reported sales of over 10,000 units. (EDIT: The gPC is also for sale at many other online retailers such as Amazon.com and Tiger Direct.)
What makes the gPC unique is the fact that it is one of the first mainstream computer products to include a GNU/Linux-based operating system instead of the industry-leading Windows or Mac OS X. The included operating system is gOS, which is based on Ubuntu 7.10 "Gutsy Gibbon" and uses the Enlightenment E17 desktop/window manager.
In January 2008, gOS version 2.0, dubbed "Rocket," was released with some minor improvements, including a Mac OS X-style dock. However, I must say that the default installation was seriously lacking, so I decided to improve on it.
As soon as I got gOS 2.0 installed, I set it upon myself to tinker with the OS. Since there was no terminal seen in the dock or in the Applications menu, I had to search for a way to add a terminal. I configured the dock to include a root terminal, and from there, I mounted my Xubuntu 7.10 installation CD using the "mount mediacdrom" command. Then I used the terminal to go to the directory that had ndiswrapper. I installed ndiswrapper, then I installed my wifi drivers.
Upon getting my wifi started, I opened the Synaptic Package Manager and installed the Thunar file manager and the XFCE terminal because gOS' default file manager and terminal were sub-par. I installed the multimedia codecs that come with ubuntu-restricted extras, and I installed libdvdcss2 and w32codecs. I added the Brasero CD/DVD burner. Finally, I replaced xine-ui with totem-xine. My multimedia was configured.
Next, I downloaded and installed Opera 9.25. Then I downloaded the Adobe Flash Player 9 plugin and installed the plugin into Firefox and Opera. I also decided to upgrade the Pidgin IM client from version 2.2.1 to version 2.3.1 and the GIMP program from version 2.4.0.RC3 to version 2.4.4.
I dicovered that there was no easy GUI-based way of adding extra users. I fixed this by downloading gnome-system-tools. I could then add my users.
I also wanted to include dial-up support. I accomplished this by downloading and installing wvdial, linux-image-2.6.22-14-generic, and the Conexant HSF OEM driver from linux.dell.com. I ran "sudo wvdialconf" to get wvdial to recognize my modem.
Finally, I decided I wanted to create a customized installation CD which would include all these improvements. I found a nifty program on linuxmint.com called Remastersys. I installed version 2.0.2 of Remastersys and had the system download and install all dependencies so Remastersys would install and work. Now it was time to make my customized installation CD.
I closed out all windows except for a lone terminal. I executed the command "sudo remastersys backup" and sat back while the ISO image was created. As soon as the ISO image was created, I had to check to see how big it was. Since it was under 700 MB (676 MB), I used Brasero to burn the image to a CD-R. After it was finished burning, I decided to test it out.
I rebooted with the CD in the drive, and sure enough, it successfully booted into the custom installation CD, and it even allowed me to install the customized installation CD to my hard drive. I finally had the version of gOS that I wanted!
There are several people on the Ubuntu forums who have expressed disappointment in gOS' announcement that they would be switching from E17 to GNOME. So for those who would rather use the E17 version of gOS instead of the GNOME version, I decided to upload my customized gOS installation CD to the world wide web.
I wanted to share my experience with everybody, and I want to share my customized installation CD with everybody. If you wish to download the CD and play around with it or even install it, you can by visiting http://www.youtube.com/... and clicking on the links in the video description area. The download is being hosted on Rapidshare.
Happy computing, my friends!