  We present a generic model of an atom laser by including a pump and loss term
in the Gross-Pitaevskii equation. We show that there exists a threshold for the
pump above which the mean matter field assumes a non-vanishing value in
steady-state. We study the transient regime of this atom laser and find
oscillations around the stationary solution even in the presence of a loss
term. These oscillations are damped away when we introduce a position dependent
loss term. For this case we present a modified Thomas-Fermi solution that takes
into account the pump and loss. Our generic model of an atom laser is analogous
to the semi-classical theory of the laser.
