The Word of gOS

I’ve been waiting for the tide of comment following Google’s launch of the gOS - the Google Operating System - early last month (again). But it just seems to not have happened. Tie that in with the almost entirely unheralded launch of a syncing tool for OpenOffice and Google Docs and I can only assume that thanksgiving’s caused a lot of the high volume bloggers state side to rest on their laurels for the festive season.

Personally, I love OpenOffice - it strips out the unnecessary elements of Microsoft Office. In fact it forces me to think about the content I’m producing, and not how it’s formatted. However, I’m a multiple machine kind of guy. I need to get documents synched. Google Docs then, right? Well yes and no. I like the look of Google Docs, but the feel is way too laggy for me. If I’m entering data into a spreadsheet, I want that data going in and updating other cells instantly. When I save a doc, I want that to be done straight away.

Also: I bet I’m not the only one here who finds Google Spreadsheets to be frustratingly simplistic. I’m not talking about pivot tables, but at least a little flexibility in basic editing functions and some support for decent formulas is desperately needed.

So I just don’t get the speed I need from Google Docs and sometimes the product is a little limited. syncing up OpenOffice is a great step forwards. In fact it’s surely the greatest app for the gOS?

Google Operating System Vs Plain Vanilla Ubuntu

I was a big fan of Fiesty, and Gibbon is another great leap forwards, but still the pickup for Linux via it’s friendliest flavour is low. Google’s talent for making the mainstream love the geeky could be just the injection of glamour open source desktop environments need.

This entry was posted on December 12th, 2007 and is filed under design, life. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or Trackback from your own site.