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It looks like the new gOS is coming sooner than we think: http://www.thinkgos.com/cloud/index.html

Already been done:

http://www.thinkgos.com/

http://toastytech.com/guis/gos.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GOS_(operating_system)

The decision of a Linux distro for old hardware is somewhat dependent on the age of the old hardware. I've been pretty successful at using PuppyLinux (and MacPup isn't too bad) on a very old Toshiba laptop with 192mb RAM. However, I have found that the "random incompetence" factor is an issue with it, as well as some laptop quirks (X refuses to come back if you close the laptop lid, and you then have to power it off, X doesn't start up on boot, and you have to type "startx" at the command line and chose xmesa or xorg...).

Xubuntu is actually not too bad from the resources side... I tried it on an old 256mb ram/celeron computer. It was pretty slow, though.

gOS also isn't too bad. It's geared towards getting online and using Google stuff... gmail, google docs, etc. It booted faster and the liveCD was faster than Xubuntu, for me.

Another one that I haven't used a whole lot but looked pretty good was TinyME (based on PCLinuxOS I think).

I think there's more to it than that, though, too. For example, you'd have to completely bypass all checking, device discovery, etc., on boot (it takes time to discover drives, PCI/PCI-E/ISA ;) /USB device. Yeah, you could just have that set up in BIOS or something and just use that configuration, but that could be a pain, too.

Now, if we're talking about post-POST boot-up, I think something could be done there. Even if it was having the option of, oh, 8GB of onboard memory dedicated to having a fast-boot operating system.

As far as the extremely fast-boot idea goes, though, isn't that sorta what Good OS's partnership of Cloud and GIGABYTE is supposed to be? The GIGABYTE Touch Netbook M912 to be precise. Link here. It was mentioned on slashdot a while ago as well.

"gOS Gadgets" (not "Gadget")... sorry about the typo (duh!)

The reason "open source" sucks for Joe User is that Joe User often wants functionality that is sometimes only available in proprietary software

I call BS. For example my mom and brother-in-law use gos on an old pentium II to do work for his business. His house guests also use it as a general internet computer. Try Vista on a PII!!!

The average users you refer to are not savvy enough to need the kinds of apps that are only available in closed source software.

Now if you said dental office billing software, 3D games, or high end music production you might have a point. Maybe tax prep software (open tax solver is hard to use for a power user like me, although I have filed my taxes with it several times).

I challenge you to list commercial software that a 'Joe User' would want that does not have a FOSS version.

Are you astroturfing or talking about something you don't have experience with?

gOS 3 Gadgets instantly launches Google Gadgets for Linux on startup, introducing over 100,000 possible iGoogle and Google Gadgets to the desktop.

Google Documents, Calendar, and Mail launch in Mozilla Prism windows to closer resemble desktop applications.

Google _everything_ links right there on the desktop.

I'll get modded down for dissing a Linux distro, but I'm not knocking the OS, I've been running it as my primary OS for some years. Currently on Gentoo. I have installed gOS for several people.

My wife not only uses Linux but thought that gOS wasn't man enough for her and asked me for the DVD so she could install openSUSE 11.

gOS 3 Gadgets BETA is based on the solid Linux distribution base of Ubuntu 8.04.1.

and also

Designed for NetBooks & NetTops

gOS has a place, much like Puppy Linux, DSL, etc. But gOS is heading to as much proprietary-ness as you can get with Free Software. Compare the gOS homepage with Ubuntu's, http://www.thinkgos.com/new/ and http://www.ubuntu.com/ . gOS has no obvious place for developer participation on the home page, while Ubuntu clearly advertises it. The main page for gOS nowhere mentions Ubuntu or even Debain, heck, Linux isn't even mentioned! The main page for Ubuntu clearly states that it is A) Linux and B) made from Debian, as of now it even has a banner celebrating Debian.

there is gOS, it is NOT made by Google but is optimized for googly googlers & googling :)

http://www.thinkgos.com/

I'm not sure if you're aware of this already or not... I can't tell from the tone of your post:

It's called gOS (yeah, it's supposed to be Good OS, but it may as well be Google OS).

Google doesn't have to do this themselves. See: http://www.thinkgos.com/ and http://www.linuxjournal.com/article/9989 .

The interesting thing here is that Microsoft is not just fighting Google. Google is marshaling the whole world in a way that will make Microsoft irrelevant. That's what gives them nightmares. It's got them scared enough to even consider a worthless deal that can never work out. It is an act of desperation.

Like so? http://www.thinkgos.com/

Useful new features

Have you seen gOS?
It has the option to install just about anything you want with one command, yet as an OS it has a market because most people just use it to play with the internet and the apps available on websites. Mail, Calendar, Documents, Picasa all provided by Google. Facebook Myspace and iTunes are all right there on the desktop with Blogging sites too.
I'm not saying everyone should use these, I certainly don't, but this is what a lot of people think computers are these days.
WinXP came with a whole heap of sub-par applications (CD burning, IE, Wordpad, Defrag, Paint, Sound Recorder, WMP, Compressed Folders, (list goes on)) that people replaced with ful-featured packages if they wanted to use the functionality of the program.

Compatibility

I posted here on that one and got some comments, but I also posted here on Linux making life hard too.
When you bear in mind that WinModems and GFX cards were specifically designed to run fast under Windows it is a wonder that the OSS world can use them at all, and to be fair, I still can't run Compiz (or KDE4's compositing features) on my 9600XT 256MB. But I can sit here and type this message, I can run a VM for Photoshop, and I can browse my photo collection at the maximum resolution my monitor supports. I think that qualifies as usage requirements. I do keep Vista and XP partitions. Vista is pretty but I can't access my games, XP is insecure so I can't use the web, Linux won't play games and I haven't yet missed the prettiness because of Domino (which openSUSE is including in the distro now).
Upshot is, I haven't yet found anything I can't make work with openSUSE, my distro of choice, that upsets me.

Third option

Sheesh, I couldn't even go there without a link to Sinulate,which I found for a post I just made =)

We're still in alpha stage...

At our current state, we are just encouraging interested developers to download, play with, and help improve the gOS. For our general audience, we encourage trying a gOS product that gOS has already been qualified on.

I think we are on the border of a time when any OS can be a success given a few things:

1. It has a word process that opens Word documents and the icon is on the desktop.

   Google Docs supposedly opens Word documents, and I imagine one of the icons on the desktop opens Google Docs. I just don't know which without mousing over it.

2. It has a web browser with an icon on the desktop.

   Firefox appears on this other screenshot. A Google search from the desktop or other icons like Wikipedia and Blogger should bring it up.

3. It saves documents locally and on the web with one click.

   Again, this depends on Google Docs, but supposedly it can save locally, and it shouldn't take too many clicks.

4. It plays DVD, flash, mp3s.

   As discussed and linked below, the OS bundled with the PC does play DVDs and mp3s. I saw no specific mention of Flash; but I can't imagine how the YouTube icon would work without it.

5. It lets folks use their ipods.

   It certainly does, with an icon on the desktop!

I think we are on the border of a time when any OS can be a success given a few things:

1. It has a word process that opens Word documents and the icon is on the desktop.

   Google Docs supposedly opens Word documents, and I imagine one of the icons on the desktop opens Google Docs. I just don't know which without mousing over it.

2. It has a web browser with an icon on the desktop.

   Firefox appears on this other screenshot. A Google search from the desktop or other icons like Wikipedia and Blogger should bring it up.

3. It saves documents locally and on the web with one click.

   Again, this depends on Google Docs, but supposedly it can save locally, and it shouldn't take too many clicks.

4. It plays DVD, flash, mp3s.

   As discussed and linked below, the OS bundled with the PC does play DVDs and mp3s. I saw no specific mention of Flash; but I can't imagine how the YouTube icon would work without it.

5. It lets folks use their ipods.

   It certainly does, with an icon on the desktop!

Does it play DVD movies?

Yes.

I bet a clone of Ubuntu, but what are the key differences,

and why such a horrible name?

*shrug* One mans wart..

The starting 'g' may be a hint and if you look at, hmmmm let me think - almost any of the news about gOS that may be a bigger help.

Sorry to come across rude mate - but if you want to know a bit why don't you just get off your arse and have at least a cursory look ?

If you are hoping to get full Linux support for this board (from gOS Products):

"Experience our first developer product. We encourage developers to advance the currently limited driver support for this eco-friendly VIA board."

http://thinkgos.com/downloads.html

you can download it here.

http://www.thinkgos.com/files/gos-live-1.0_386.iso

looks like a live cd?

http://www.thinkgos.com/index.html

"An alternative OS with Google Apps and other Web 2.0 apps for the masses"

So we have an unknown linux vendor shipping an OS filled with google applications and it's called gOS. Oh, and they got a deal with Walmart. Is this the elusive Google Os?

Haven't seen anyone mention the OS distro website: http://www.thinkgos.com/

"An alternative OS with Google
Apps and other Web 2.0 apps
for the masses"

Also says "Website coming 9am, November 1, 2007", which is almost 10 minutes ago!

How often is gOS updated?

Well, apparently their web site is not even up yet
http://www.thinkgos.com/index.html

Right now, it states "Website coming 9am, November 1, 2007" but none of the links work.
I did find this though:

gOS is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.
I am not familiar with that license but it does have a really long name.