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Seamus Byrne and Ruslan Kogan himself take a look at the Kogan Agora Netbook in the Midnight Update studio. Seamus begins with a quick review of the netbook's hardware and Ruslan continues with a look at the Ubuntu based gOS (Good OS) operating system.
Kogan opted for gOS because it's fast, reliable, very functional, and has got a very nice looking interface. gOS features many free applications including several Google apps such as Google Calendar, Google Documents, and Google Reader. Applications can be quickly accessed via the menu bar at the bottom that is similar to the Dock in Mac OS X.
Ruslan then talks about the applications manager, which he considers on of the greatest features. It makes it very easy to install and update software packages and see which applications are popular with other users.
I can only confirm that this way of managing applications is very comfortable compared to Windows where you often have to the search Web extensively to find allegedly free software on shabby looking websites to make your system even more unstable.
Ruslan and Seamus also demonstrate Windows 7 Beta on the Agora Netbook, which is not an option for purchase but is said to run stable, if you can say this about a Windows system. They also do a boot time comparison, and believe it or not Windows 7 boots considerably faster.
Seamus concludes that manufacturing this device is a very smart step for Kogan Technologies and that he is really impressed with the hardware and the choice of software. Also check out his post on the Midnight Update website.
Comments
I brought the kogan agora
I brought the kogan agora pro, and whilst I am very impressed with the hardware, I think that gOS leaves a lot to be desired for.
Hardware wise, an excellent laptop. It has great specs, the keyboard is easy enough to use, the screen is the 'sweet-spot' size of 10", and the battery lasts around 4 hours. It is well priced for what you get.
gOS however let me down. The desktop may look pretty, but the menus were hard to use and look like the web did in 1994 - no style! Plus the version of ubuntu it sits on is 8.04 - a year and 2 versions old.
I have since installed Ubuntu Netbook Remix (9.04), and find it much better than gOS. I would urge anyone with the kogan agora to ditch gOS, forget about windows, and install Ubuntu Netbook Remix. I have documented installing and setting up wireless adapter and touchpad at http://agoranetbook.kayno.net/, as well as adding common applications.
kayno
I've seen that GNOME/Ubuntu
I've seen that GNOME/Ubuntu based desktop load a lot slower than KDE ones, especially KDE4. Maybe Kogan should consider a KDE4-based distribution (openSUSE, Kubuntu or even Mandriva) and then compare the boot times.
KDE4 definitely boots significantly faster than GNOME 2,2x. Also, KDE 4.2.2 is now very stable, feature-full and end-user friendly :-)