When did this happen?

“Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, –That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government,”- Declaration on independence 4 July 1776

That was the beginning, if you walk down any major street in any major city and recite those lines 1 of 4 people may recognize its origin. Sadly we live in a country that has lost site of what we stand for. We have begun to allow ourselves to forget that our government is supposed to be “of the people by the people”. As a mass the citizens of this great country are afraid, they are ignorant to the fact that we have a right to influence what OUR government does. We as a nation have become complacent in our ways, and settle for an administration that cares nothing for us. “People should not be afraid of their governments. Governments should be afraid of their people.” This is our country, one that was built such rights allowing us to express our distaste in what we see.

Is that all? Is all we can do is express? Why hasn’t any one rose up to say something by now? That’s right, I forgot people have. People have been shot down, people have been dis-credited, people have simply been silenced. Or people just don’t care. When did this happen? when did we become a “high school” country? When did the current fad or who’s pregnant at 16, Become the bigger headline?

In a few days the presidential primaries begin. So many listen to the news media on political issues and adopt the opinions of the commentators. When did we become sheep? When did we become a nation of people afraid to think freely and decide the right course for our own futures? When did we become so lazy!

We, as a mass, are afraid. We have lost site of our own rights to decide the future of this country! We have become sheep! We are “Drinking the Kool-Aid”. We refuse to stand up and fight for what we believe in.

Now before anyone decides that I’m just ranting and haven’t stood up or fought. I’m and OIF/OEF Veteran and spent my time in the sand. I have a unique perspective on the state of the country and its people.

gOS

The creation of Windows Vista has spawned the need ,for a fast growing base of frustrated users, to seek out alternate choices.

In a world where Mac and osX have become just a little out of reach for the average “Joe” in terms of price, and where MS has produced such a disappointment in Vista. Walmart and Everex have produced a saviour, or so we thought. The Everex gPC, 1.5GHz, C7®-D Processor, 512MB DDRII 533MHz, SDRAM, 80GB Hard Disk, is certainly a steal for $199.99 at Walmart. The system has been getting awesome reviews from Walmart go’ers since is release early this year.

I my self have had the opportunity to test drive one of these machines, and I have to say I was disappointed. Not in the machine itself but in the representation of Linux known as gOS. A little background, gOS is built on the already wonderful and widely accepted Ubuntu 7.10. But substitutes Gnome or KDE with the still very young E17 WM. That being said, it lacks certain user features that are just not available ,yet, for E17. Because the target market is not the Linux enthusiast, but rather the average end user looking to save a hard earned buck, this is a bad idea.

My problem,

gOS represents the Linux that isn’t capable of much. What do I mean? Well gOS is on a quest to create a “Green PC” that is light on resources & easy on the energy bill. Because of this gOS attempts to utilize only E17. Because E17 is, very much so, still being developed. They have missed some of what I believe to be key features.

The target audience has agreed with me. A user from Walmart reviewed the system saying “One serious problem with gOS’s window manager was that certain functionality in the menus was only presented to the user whose account was the first to be create….”

and went on further to say…

“The Exalt software for handling network connections also didn’t work properly for users other than the first one created, and there was no documentation available on how to get going with any other type of network connection besides ethernet.”

Because the system requires an active internet connection, to use some of the application “Links” on the desktop’s main window. It leaves the user helpless and again lacking if they do not have internet. Even further the system REQUIRES broadband speeds. I understand that this is becoming the standard amongst computer users, but again the target market, average “JOE”, may not have this luxury, and would be left with nothing but a $199.99 paperweight.

E17 currently lacks particular user management functions that, I feel, cannot be done without if this system is going to be used as the “Family PC”. User management is non-existant and simple things, like changing the time zone, lead us on a command line journey. Even for those of us who have been using Linux based systems for some time now. The “average JOE” Walmart go’er, is going to see this as an unnecessary need for an effort they don’t have time for.

When asked, one of the developers of gOS stated: “well not sure what to tell you…we don’t really qualify gOS to work on anything but the OEM hardware that it comes preinstalled on”  To an avid Linux user looking to put gOS on his system to determine if it was going to be the right solution.

The bottom line?

In my opinion, Everex is making Linux available to the world of average users and that is a great thing!

Their choice in the OS was flawed. In that they were not producing functional, simple, productive home, home office, small office PC’s for the masses. But rather “Thin” clients that are bound to frustrate a new user who was just trying to save money, and ended up frustrated and completely turned off to the joys and functionality of a real Linux system.