As you know, we chose user-friendly Linux operating system gOS for the Kogan Agora netbook range.
There has been some great feedback from customers familiar with the benefits of using open source Linux operating systems.
There has also been feedback from customers new to the open source game that were a little unsure about how to take full advantage of the thousand of free tools and apps available for Linux operating systems.
To add or remove a program from the Kogan Netbook, simply choose "Add/Remove" from the menu:
This will present you with a marketplace of applications - you can search through them and see how other users have rated them. To install a new app, simply select the check box next to it and then click "Apply Chnages".
gOS will then go out on the internet, find the latest version of that app, download all the files and install it...without you having to do anything:
The app is then ready to use:
You can potentially spend hours searching through thousands of online apps at sites such as Linux.org, Sourceforge and Linuxlinks, which can be a little daunting for those new to the open source game.
By adopting gOS for the Kogan Agora range we have made it easier for Linux newbies. gOS is based on Ubuntu – another Linux distribution – and opens the door to a range of free apps and tools for use on the Kogan netbooks.
The apps are easy to find and install. Users choose from thousands of applications in the repository or catalogue, all of which can be downloaded at the touch of a button.
Whether you are using a Kogan Agora netbook or not, we want to ask about your favourite applications for Linux and what you can like using for day to life and what you would recommend others.
What makes a good app? What sites do you use to search for the best Linux apps?
Comments
Hear what our customer's have to say.
Greg says...
The great thing with gos is that most of the apps that people use are included out of the box, but here are some more that I use:
Playonlinux. is a great interface for WINE, Sauerbraten is a good FPS, Audacity for audio recording and editing, Infrarecorder for CD/DVD burning.
Posted at 11:47 a.m. on April 17, 2009
Splinter says...
I would recommend VLC (Video Lan Client) it will play nearly all media, no mater the file format, the encoding or the location.
I must admit I was dissapointed that out of the box the Netbook would not play AAC files, or AVI DivX files (gave up after that and just installed VLC)
Posted at 2:31 p.m. on April 20, 2009
Matthew says...
I've been paying out this guy on Youtube who removed gOS and installed Win7 on the Kogan Netbook. I think that just defeats the purpose and philosophies of a netbook and plus Win7 is really just re-branded Vista with a KDE theme.
I'll be getting a Kogan Netbook sometime this week but will probably install Ubuntu 9.04 if gOS doesn't appeal to me.
Posted at 2:52 p.m. on April 20, 2009
Ubuntu fan says...
Ogle is a great DVD player when menus are important.
Rhythmbox allows the loading of files to/from your iPods.
Mainly with beginners with linux the problem is they don't know what it is they want to or can do. I still find amazing stuff just reading the descriptions in Add/Remove or Synaptic.
TeeWorlds is a cool free netbook ideal game I found recently.
And "Stopmotion" will give you something fun and interesting to do with some of your holiday images and digital camera. (great for school projects as well)
Most importantly ... try stuff out! it is pretty hard to break gOS by accident.
Posted at 5:02 p.m. on April 20, 2009
Alistair R says...
I just wiped the laptop and installed the Ubuntu Netbook Remix.
I did this because gOS is bloated, ugly and just gets in my way.
Also, the Netbook Remix has optimisations specifically for the Intel Atom hardware, and it boots a lot quicker and runs snappily.
I just found gOS to be Ubuntu with a lot of unnecessary crap piled on top -- which is definitely not a good thing for a netbook.
Posted at 7:51 p.m. on April 20, 2009
Thomas David says...
Alistair
I have to agree with you 100%, Ubuntu netbook remix is much snapper and is designed for small screens.
But I have had a few issues, what version are you using? I installed 9.04 and I can't get the touchpad to work..
Posted at 9:16 p.m. on April 20, 2009
Matthew says...
9.04 is still beta, though is close to the official release date. Wait until then and see if it works. If it doesn't then I'd suggest submiting a bug report.
Posted at 1:40 a.m. on April 21, 2009
rg says...
I recommend MPlayer for playback of media files and the Gecko based Galeon browser as a fast and lightweigt alternative to Firefox.
For me a good app is one that serves a particular purpose and does this well. I do not like the one app for everything approach that much, because it often results in cluttered user interfaces.
Posted at 4:56 a.m. on April 21, 2009
Bucky says...
Interesting. A glitch in the system or are my posts being rejected when I give a link that is not approved by the powers that be??? ie, when I mention a site that could help newcomers to Linux and gOS the most, the Ubuntu Forums, and an operating system that is fast and specifically designed for netbooks (unlike gOS), Ubuntu Netbook Remix???
Whatever the illusion, this is a blog, not a forum, and not sure why people would be dissuaded from getting help in the appropriate places. There is already a stack of info on gOS about. Seems pointless to try and re-collect it here rather than point people in the right direction.
Either way, my posts are disappearing.
Brasero for burning disks, The Gimp for a Photoshop substitute (also runs on Windows), Abiword instead of OpenOffice for word processing (faster), Filezilla for FTP and Transmission for torrents.
Posted at 12:58 p.m. on April 21, 2009
Matthew says...
Though I would recommend Photoshop CS2 for those who are use to it's interface.
Posted at 2:50 p.m. on April 21, 2009
Matthew says...
Forgot to mention that it runs great in Wine 1.0.1 and most likely other versions as well.
Posted at 8:35 p.m. on April 21, 2009
alex says...
I use Deluge: for torrents, and if you are keen to edit text files for configuration (you only need to do it once) try mpd with sonata for a beautiful 'just works' mp3/flac/m4a/wma player. Inkscape: vector illustration. prism: web apps (that is what gOS uses for maps, mail etc. I think). You know what though, the thing stopping me from being tempted into getting one of these Agoras is the short battery life. Please design a new pro model with 9 cell battery which fits snugly in the case, that will convince me.
Posted at 10:38 p.m. on April 23, 2009
Ubuntu fan says...
"the thing stopping me from being tempted into getting one of these Agoras is "
For me it is that it isn't an 'Agora' that was a phone! That I saw and ordered and nearly had delivered, only to have it scrapped for fear of 'future' direction. Phones are lucky to stay with me for 12mths anyway. And as it would be the only one in peoples hand other than the garbage HTC pump out it would be a major part of the forming of the Android's future.
Smells like they got paid off by the carriers not to bring in a open phone that customers might want and be able to use!
Posted at 11:38 a.m. on April 24, 2009
I says...
I was just wondering about what is happening with the Kogan phone?
Posted at 4:51 p.m. on April 24, 2009
Trent Petro says...
Everyone is- I want one- cause I need a new phone which dosn't break all the time which is also affordable/featurewize. :(
Posted at 11:30 a.m. on April 25, 2009
kayno says...
i have now tried several versions of ubuntu on my agora pro, and cannot get the touchpad to work. i just tried gOS via live usb, and it is still not working!
i figure kogan has loaded a driver to support the touchpad, however i cannot find it.
could someone who has an agora with gOS (or other linux distro with a working touchpad) please help me out by providing some of the config info, so I can determine the driver/module?
if you could execute the following commands in terminal, and post the output of:
cat /etc/X11/xorg.conf
and
lsmod
it would be much appreciated :)
thanks
kayno
Posted at 11:31 a.m. on April 25, 2009
Paul says...
Delivering the agora by courier is a huge hassle for those of us that work. The couriers will not deliver wthout a signature (fair enough) and cannot tell you what time they will arrive. If it came by Australia Post it would just be held at the post office until I could get there to collect. Please Kogan give your cusomers a choice on delivery.
Cheers, Paul.
Posted at 12:43 p.m. on April 25, 2009
Owen says...
Kayno, I have posted the output of the commands in the previous blog, Australia's cheapest notebook.
Posted at 3:27 p.m. on April 25, 2009
Travis says...
Hi Paul (and Ruslan) -
I've got news for you...
I too work in city and when my Kogan was delivered to my home address, it was left outside the front of my door (albeit behind a plant bowl).
So it was delivered without my signature.
Posted at 6:26 p.m. on April 25, 2009
Paul says...
Hi Travis,
after I missed the delivery of my Agora Pro because I was out for an hour it was returned to the delivery company's depot a long way away. I pleaded with them by phone to just redeliver it the next day and leave it out of sight on the front porch. They said they could not without a signature, and further could not give me a time of delivery except sometime between 8am and 4pm. A big hassle!
Anyway, glad you got yours too :-)
Posted at 5:20 p.m. on April 26, 2009
Paul says...
I'm trying to boot ubuntu-9.04-netbook-remix from a USB so I can repartition the Agora Pro harddisk to make it dual-boot. It seems to try to boot from the USB then fails and falls back to the standard gOS boot. Has anyone got this USB booting to work? Is there a trick I'm missing??
Posted at 5:25 p.m. on April 26, 2009
rob says...
It is unfortunate that we have been left to fend for ourselves whilst we without fail see "Live support Off-line" and the promised PDF support files flying with those flu virus infected pigs somewhere.....
KOGAN take not don't promise something that you cannot fulfil.Dedicated guys and gals on here should not BE your source of support for people seeking answers...
For me it amounts to FREE product support. NOT something you should consider saving money on mate, get fair dinkum and follow up peoples concerns please!
Posted at 3:42 p.m. on April 28, 2009
Ray says...
I to, was dissappointed that there was no Australia Post delivery available to a PO Box. Mine was left on the back step while I was at work.
Posted at 11:12 a.m. on April 30, 2009
jones says...
does this netbook have hsdpa module?
if not can a usb modem from vodafone or whatever work on it as it it a 3g network?
if it can work... will it work to the speed it can do?
Posted at 7:58 p.m. on May 6, 2009
John in bris says...
Hey guys,
interesting to see the talk about the netbook - I would get one for sure if I had not scored a eee 10 inch last year - its my main computer now and I am sure the kogan one will change the way you use the internet/compute in general. interesting to note that the street price of the eee had gotten down to $540 just before the exchange rates crunched..... Bout the same as a pro-version huh? Bloody exchange rates!
My issue is those 32 inch HD displays - cummon Kogan, when Big W is doing the same basic product for the same money with demo models, a retail experience and no delivery fees, whats going on? I have been poised to grab one at tax time but if Big W can do a similar product for the same money, why buy from you? I am talking about a 32 inch, full high def panel with a high def tuner built in, for $799. OK, if they are a loss leader, fair enough. And maybe your panel is better. But how can they even get close? I reckon you are making more money than you should be, if your retail model is as superior as it seems. Well, cash in while you can - its how branding/retail works obviously - but don't expect people to support you if the big boys can get close with their much higher overheads. And they are doing letter box drops of catalogues as well!
I have been following your progress since your earlier panels started showing up on Ebay and I instinctively want you to do well but your model requires that people never even get close to buying the same product through an established retail for similar money - your dead real quick then.
cheers John
Posted at 3:45 a.m. on May 14, 2009
Tel says...
Just got one of these Kogan Agora netbooks, dispatch and delivery took two and a half working days (to Sydney). Battery life is 4 hours (on the "pro" version). Bootup time (to the login screen) is a bit under 35 seconds -- which is quicker than any of the reviews I've read about other netbooks.
Everyone should take note that the gOS installed comes with a memory checker in the boot. When you see "GRUB", press the ESC key and the last item in the menu is the memory checker. It's a good idea to leave that running overnight with a new machine, just to be sure.
I would also suggest that if you want to use the gOS, get into the Synaptic Package Manager and run the update because I found nearly 300 packages were out of date as shipped and the system stability is a lot better after the upgrade.
Finally, what about the suspend? I can't get suspend to work under gOS. I tried installing the Ubuntu power management utility and it offers a suspend option but the machine never comes back afterwards. There must be a simple bugfix for this?!?
Posted at 9:25 p.m. on July 3, 2009
Tel says...
OK, suspend works now, and hibernate also works. Not sure what I was doing wrong, or exactly what fixed it... curious to know if I'm the only one :-)
Is there a Kogan Agora wiki where people can put notes and documentation? Might be a useful thing.
I've had sound and video camera working through linphone, and run a few games, all runs nicely. 3D acceleration does work, not great but pretty much what you would expect from a netbook. Good enough to play pinball. Builtin speakers and mic are a bit crappy (sound is very tinny), with a headset you get decent audio.
Posted at 9:30 p.m. on July 5, 2009
Jim says...
Hey guys,
I just bought a Kogan Agora Netbook Pro from the Kogan Web sight last night, so hopefully it arrive at my work next week.
Can anyone report on how well th Wi-fi performs in say an airport or internet cafe? I've heard there were some problems with the Wi-Fi at first but Kogan has fixed them.
Thanks.
Posted at 6:51 p.m. on July 12, 2009
james says...
i purchased several of these for a school i work at, for the students to use for their classwork. There was a bug in the open office install where it could not actually save anything that was typed up.
Very annoying, then i go to install Ubuntu NBR and get it to run off USB so that I can see if there are drivers that I will need etc, and I find that Kogan has put in a bunch of crap hardware that is not supported natively in Ubuntu!!! WTF how hard is it to find hardware that is NOT supported natively by ubuntu these days...
Anyways I have moved on and will try to install something else on their but am frustrated with the lack of info about what hardward is actually indeed installed and then the lack of drivers specifically for the parts... any help would be awesome, email me if you have any help.
Posted at 1:52 p.m. on July 22, 2009
kayne says...
james - i don't have your email, but I have put lots of info about installing Ubuntu Netbook Remix on the agora netbook over at http://agoranetbook.kayno.net/ubuntu-netbook-remix-quick-...
Posted at 11:46 p.m. on July 25, 2009
Tony Wilkinson says...
How do you add a network printer to this computer
Posted at 4:38 p.m. on July 31, 2009
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