If you’re into MySpace enough that you’ve been pining for a PC made JUST for doing MySpace-type activities, Everex has the PC for you.

Its what happens when you combine an award winning design with the power of Open Source.  The limited edition gPC mini (MyMiniPC) provides MySpace users with a customized platform to easily collaborate, modify and update webpages on the world’s most popular social networking site.  

With enhanced graphics, animations and a new icon dock, which aggregates the latest MySpace and Web 2.0 entertainment media sites, users can surf, email, blog, IM, Skype, rip and compute, all with the power of an Intel Pentium Dual-Core processor and the gOS Space 2.9 operating system.

I’m still trying to wrap my head around this but I’m pretty sure that Everex has created a PC for MySpace users. Can you do non-MySpace stuff on this rig? Probably! But if you’re a MySpace nut and have $500 to throw down and an extra keyboard, mouse, and monitor lying around, this is right up your alley.

MySpace aside, the hardware includes the following; 1.86GHz Intel Pentium Dual-Core Mobile Processor T2130 (1MB L2 Cache, 1.86GHz, 533MHz), 120GB Hard Disk Drive, 512MB DDR2 667 SDRAM, DVD+/-RW, Intel Graphics Media Accelerator GMA950, Realtek ALC268 High-Definition Audio, (1) 10/100/1000 Ethernet Port, (1) DVI-I Port, (1) S-Video Port, (1) IEEE 1394 Port, (4) USB 2.0 Ports, (1) 2-in1 Media Card Reader, (1) Headphone/Line-Out Port, (2) Microphone/Line-In Port.

Here’s what the back looks like.

On the software side, you’ll get the gOS Space dock, which is “stacked with the most popular websites for MySpace, News, Photos, Videos, Music, TV, and more!” It’s basically a dock filled with internet shortcuts to popular video sharing sites like Hulu, Pandora, and MySpace of course.

This computer is a limited edition machine! So…hurry? Here’s the link.

The Everex gPC launched in October with a $199 price tag and an operating system that put Google front and center. The gOS Linux Distribution offered direct links into Google services such as Gmail and Google Docs, as well as links to Wikipedia and Facebook. We asked in November whether gOS is the direction computers were heading, where the Operating System is nothing more than a conduit to the cloud, with minimal local applications.

According to a Wal-Mart spokesman quoted on AP, “This really wasn’t what our customers were looking for.” The gPC will still be available via Wal-mart.com, with Everex spinning the decision as “significantly more effective” than selling the gPC in stores.

Some will argue that the failure of gPC’s to take off bides poorly for both Linux distros and cloud focused offerings. The decision really just shows that low-spec cheap junk with a Google focused operating system is no more appealing to consumers than low-spec cheap junk with Windows, even when the price of the Linux option is significantly less. The sales success of the Asus EeePC (with its focus on the cloud) demonstrates that buyers are willing to purchase a Linux powered cloud focused PC when the computer it comes with provides decent or innovative tech and is low priced.

There’s no joy in Mudville as Everex has delayed its $399 Linux-based ultraportable notebook (specs here) until February.

It was supposed to be released yesterday and, sure, February’s less than a week away but Everex is talking about a month from now, meaning the end of February.

The delay, according to Everex, is due to the “OS being refined” and workers taking time off for Chinese New Year. Sorry kids. I was looking forward to this one, too. Hopefully it won’t get delayed any further.

Software ‘tweaks,’ Chinese new year delay Everex CloudBook [Computerworld]

Product Name: Everex Cloudbook
Description: An “ultra-mobile” PC that runs on gOS Rocket
Price: $399
In-store date: January 25 (at Walmart.com)
Site: Everex
Why it’s cool: It’s green (as in the environment), which is chic nowadays, and does seem to offer a decent power:performance ratio given the price. The Linux-based gOS Rocket has a really impressive UI, too.

I think it’s time we shut down the Internet.

A new version of the so-called Google OS, gOS will be available next week. Dubbed “Rocket,” this new version has Google Gears support for hot offline action and includes:

Virtual desktops: Available on the desktop, allowing easy grouping of applications across multiple desktop spaces

· Online Storage Drive: available on the desktop, allows easy online backup and file sharing powered by Box.net.

· Adobe Flash 9 for Linux: preloaded, allows instant use of YouTube, gBooth, Google Talk

· Updated Wi-Fi Manager “Exalt”: for improved reliability

While it’s not amazing, it’s nice to know it’s out there, you know? It’s like “Hey, gOS, whatcha doin’?” “Nothin, just raisin’ the profile of Linux by upsetting purists.”

Before you ask (as some have previously) why TechCrunch would write about a Linux distro, gOS is different. This is the first major OS to come standard with a focus on web apps, and as I wrote in November last year, it isn’t perfect, but it may well be a sign of things to come; a world where web apps are the primary focus of an operating system as opposed to native desktop apps.

Most notably gOS 2.0 will come with Google Gears installed standard. There’s not a lot of web based apps running on Google Gears quite yet, but Google Reader (for RSS reading) and Zoho Writer (for a MS Word substitute) are amongst them.

Other features in gOS 2.0 include a browser-based Web-cam application gBooth that is focused on working with sites such as YouTube and Facebook.

Visit CrunchGear for full coverage of CES, and hopefully they’ll also manage to visit the gOS booth as well during the week.

The minimum spec PC has received positive reviews from Walmart customers (here) with plenty of 5 star ratings.

As we noted in our review of gOS November 4, the system may well be a sign of things to come. Rather than offer a desktop app focused OS like Windows, the Ubuntu derivative focuses on a range of Google apps that are accessed by dock based short cuts and presented in Firefox.

At least one punter noted on the Walmart page that the system can be used to run Windows, although he’d be keen running Vista with 512mb of ram. The specs would support XP, although I wouldn’t think many people would buy a system such as this (particularly people who buy computers at Walmart) only to swipe the hard drive and install a copy of Windows. The more likely scenario is that at $200 the computer hits an impulse buying sweet spot; consider that a couple of hundred for many people isn’t a huge ask in an age where computer games cost $100 and where products from Microsoft (such as Office) cost more again. Given the sales success of the gPC expect to see more startups and companies operating in this space. I’d even go as far as suggesting that maybe, after years of promise, Linux desktops might now be poised to go mainstream.

*sold out in Walmarts warehouse, the PC may still be available in some stores

(via Slashdot)

Why would you do this? Well, this product could ressurect your old PCs, which can then be given to parents or grandparents, ensuring tech support will be minimal on these new machines. You could also use gOS to create a decentralized document storage system for classrooms or training purposes, allowing you to give each of your students an on-line repository and saving cash on attached storage. The possibilities, as they say, are endless. Take a look at Lifehacker’s how-to and then get thee some gOS — or just Ubuntu.

gOS download page
LifeHacker Howto
Ubuntu

In an interview at Fsckin, David Liu, founder of the gOS project gave some indication of what they are trying to achieve:

I got interested in Google applications, especially docs and spreadsheets, presentations; and originally, I wanted to create my idea of what a Google OS would look like.. if there were such a mythical OS. As I started looking around at all the Google applications out there, I realized that all of our “computing” could eventually be done in the Google cloud. We just needed an OS that looked really good and pointed people to Google in a really friendly, intelligent way. After seeing this, I got excited because I saw it was also commercially viable for the mainstream end user… Google makes Linux familiar.

gOS is billed as “Linux for human beings who shop at Wal-Mart” but how does it really stack up? gOS is available for download so I gave it whirl under VMWare Fusion to see if we are seeing the future of PCs.

Not your usual Linux desktop

The most obvious difference in gOS to a usual Linux install is the use of the Enlightenment windows manager as opposed to the more commonly used Gnome and KDE managers. KDE and Gnome in a standard install look and feel a little like Windows, Enlightenment looks a bit like OS X, complete with the rounded window open/ close buttons to the left of each window.

A dock bar runs across the bottom and provides links to a range of Google tools, Meebo, Skype, Wikipedia, Facebook and a couple of OS specific apps. A Google search box is embedded in the desktop in the top right corner.

A leaf icon bottom left opens up a familiar Windows style menu, complete with program short cuts and settings options. Interestingly the Live CD comes with Open Office, despite the emphasis on Google apps elsewhere.

It Works

I tested a number of Google apps and they all work, pretty much as they would on any machine. Apps are delivered via Firefox. The only drawback I found is one of aesthetics: the standard font pack in gOS doesn’t make for the nicest online experience, but many wouldn’t notice.

The dock shortcuts are handy, and will probably be more appreciated by those who aren’t highly computer literate, like those who cant save a bookmark or type in a web page…perhaps that’s a little bit harsh but most people don’t need gigantic shortcut buttons.

The Future?

This isn’t a PC anyone reading this article will likely buy, the specs are low and if you’re competent enough to read blogs then you can use an operating system that isn’t gOS. It is however an interesting exercise in where computers may well be heading. In a range of areas, web apps are now the equal to their offline equivalents, or are quickly catching up. If we get to the point where we can do the majority of our activites via an online interface, the need for all-powerful operating systems and computers diminishes. gPC and gOS is a nice try, and for people out in middle America looking for a cheap second or third PC for their kids to do their homework on, or conversely to do their own work on as their kids are using the main PC for gaming, its a pretty good buy. This is very much a first generation, or perhaps even 0.1 effort, but going forward it’s an option we will see more and more of. In 10, 15 or even 20 years time, when the idea of locally installed applications may be foreign, the likes of gOS may well be the norm.

Well today it’s been announced that Everex “will bring Linux laptops under $300 to users next year.”

How do you like them apples? There will be two versions — one with a 12.1-inch screen and one with a 17-inch screen. They’ll both be running the same Google-friendly “gOS” (based on Ubuntu) found on the $200 desktop.

That’s about all we know so far, except that Everex “also plans to introduce other mobile devices like ultramobile PCs.” Hopefully those devices will carry similarly low price tags as well.  

Everex Readies Sub-$300 Linux Notebooks [PC World]