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Browser-based 'Cloud' OS launched for netbooks

Matthew Elliott CNET News

Published: 02 Dec 2008 11:16 GMT

Good OS, the company behind the Linux-based gOS found on the $199 (£134) Wal-Mart gPC last year, announced a browser-based OS called 'Cloud' at the Netbook World Summit in Paris on Monday.

The Cloud OS features a browser with an integrated, Mac OS X-like dock and a Linux kernel that boots "in seconds", according to the company. The browser looks similar to Google's Chrome, though no official connection between Google and gOS exists.

Within the browser window resides a dock that provides quick access to a number of apps — Skype, YouTube and Google Docs, for example — that can be fired up without running Windows. From the dock, users can also boot to Windows.

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Unlike gOS, the Cloud OS isn't meant to replace Windows, but rather to sit alongside it, much like the Splashtop app on some Asus laptops and on Lenovo's IdeaPad S10 netbook. Good OS said that Cloud "does not require additional hardware and is compatible with any operating system".

Good OS demonstrated its Cloud OS on a gigabyte touchscreen netbook. The company said that such touchscreen netbooks running the Cloud OS and Windows will be released at the Consumer Electronics Show next month.

Credit: gOS Cloud: browser-based OS for Netbooks from CNET News