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Moblin 2.0 Released, Intel's Linux For Netbooks
eldavojohn writes "Yesterday, Moblin, the joint OS project between Novell and Intel, was released as V2.0 Beta for netbooks with the image available for download. We've talked about Moblin before, but Computer World has an article speculating this is Intel's direct affront to Microsoft's Windows 7 by pointing out that Moblin is designed to optimally use Intel's Atom Processor and smaller screens so popular with netbooks. Windows 7's netbook competition doesn't stop there, as GoodOS's gOS3 Gadgets and Canonical's Ubuntu Netbook Remix are being designed to also take advantage of Intel's Atom, especially from a UI perspective. Ars has a look at Moblin's rich new UI as well. Back in April, Intel said it would support Windows 7 on the Atom later this year, and Intel also says Windows 7 is a good choice for Intel's netbooks, so it doesn't look like they're intentionally burning any bridges between them and Redmond."
I'm waiting for them to release GLADOS for Netbooks.
Oh wait, Moblin, not Goblin.
Carry on.
that Moblin is designed to optimally use Intel's Atom Processor and smaller screens so popular with netbooks.
I for one, welcome our new optimized-for-the-fucking-device-they-sell-it-with overlords.
How about a summary that describes the new Moblin release (what the post is ostensibly about), rather than focusing on the competition against Win7? How about being FOR something (Moblin in this case), rather than always being against Microsoft?
I'm no fan of Microsoft, but seriously, the one-note, constant Microsoft bashing on this site is getting old.
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I looked at the screenshots, and this looks really cool. They've put a lot of thought into the GUI, which is not only designed for netbooks and small screens, but touch screens as well.
Moblin is also totally open source, meaning that they won't charge for it and they'll get contributions from the larger open source community.
Unless Microsoft has some secret feature in Windows 7 designed for netbooks that nobody's heard of, then Linux could reclaim the lead in netbook OS's. If somebody ports Moblin to ARM, then Microsoft is in even bigger trouble.
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Or shall I say download slowness:
2.8 of 666 MB (3.8 KB/sec) 2 days, 1 hour remaining.
Not to mention that they mention a VMWare image on a page, link to the download page and no VMWare image can be found there.
"It's easy to spot MS shills."
Of course there are no Linux shills because everyone else here is totally objective and has no particular interest in promoting Linux.
...have to do with the interface really? My understanding is that most netbook builds tweak disk and UI related functions which hardly have any relevance to the processor. The summary implies that these non-Moblin builds have optimizations/customizations that improve the function with the Intel Atom processor, but I'm guessing this is not yet true. Naturally, the customized UIs have been an awesome improvement for the netbooks, but that would be true regardless of Intel's Atom Processor.
How about a summary that describes the new Moblin release (what the post is ostensibly about), rather than focusing on the competition against Win7? How about being FOR something (Moblin in this case), rather than always being against Microsoft?
I'm no fan of Microsoft, but seriously, the one-note, constant Microsoft bashing on this site is getting old.
Well, it's edited pretty much how it's submitted so I'll take full responsibility for this one.
... we really do need to shake that image at least a little bit to be taken seriously.
I guess I'm confused though. I didn't seem to think my summary was pro or anti Microsoft--merely focusing on what else is out there besides Windows 7 for netbooks and pointing out that Intel may have an unfair advantage in this department. If anything, I was hoping for discourse containing thoughtful comments about Intel's upper hand in pointing Novell in the correct direction for optimally using the chips/chipset/gpu in these hardware devices surrounding the Atom process.
When I looked for other stories to reference this one to, I found 10 or more talking about Windows 7 on the netbook and one talking about Moblin (the on linked in the story). I'm sorry for not continuing the trend of talking about Windows 7 and am disappointed you think my submission was a veiled attempt to attack Microsoft. I am anti-Microsoft but I try to keep that relegated to my posts down here instead of in the summary.
Specifically what did I write that was offensive to you? I also found the title of the Computerworld article to be speculation but the actual text to have level headed statements from Intel (something I tried to reflect in the summary). I guess I failed and I apologize for making Slashdot seem so biased
My work here is dung.
Shills are paid. Linux is free and also free!
The word you're looking for is "zealots".
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
So, it's more than just that Intel is releasing this. It's Intel, working with the Linux Foundation in an attempt to create a new standard. Isn't this pretty much the ideal case for we've been asking for in open source? A propietary hardware manufacturer working with an open source consortium to create and release open source software. I'll view this collaboration as successful if we start seeing netbooks for sale from major OEMs with this OS installed.
Oh, and some other random stuff I saw that I liked:
-standard X11 window server and can run most linux apps
-the clutter organizational scheme looks intriguing but I'd have to use it for awhile before I could tell you if I liked it or not.
-It's using the gecko HTML rendering engine. What's interesting here is it is not using webkit.
-Lastly, I'd like to see something on how well the wireless network device works and changing networks. The article was a bit short on this aspect. Has anybody used it? How is it?
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The same way 'NetBurst' was to make your Internet surfing faster....
I still remember when Dilbert was 'Optimized for Intel', basically added a useless java app to slow the page for anyone on a slower CPU. I lost some respect for Adams on that one, though i'm not sure how much he was consulted.
How about a summary that describes the new Moblin release (what the post is ostensibly about), rather than focusing on the competition against Win7? How about being FOR something (Moblin in this case), rather than always being against Microsoft?
I'm no fan of Microsoft, but seriously, the one-note, constant Microsoft bashing on this site is getting old.
OK, what "Microsoft bashing"?
These products (Moblin, Windows 7, etc.) are in competition with one another in the netbook market. If Moblin achieves some level of success in the netbook market, that reduces the number of netbooks sold with Windows 7. So, the summary states (quite correctly) that this system is a threat to Windows in the netbook market. Any well-packaged system optimized for the platform would be. It's just a fact.
Bow-ties are cool.
Bypass all of the useless Web 2.0 Flash/Java/AJAX pushed by their marketing department:
www.dilbert.com/fast/
Seriously, if there's one website that should know better than to listen to their marketing department, it's Dilbert.com
When the eee PC came out, Linux had a big opportunity. Unfortunately, Asus completely blew the details of the implementation. They picked a sucky distro, and they did a lousy job on quality control and integration. My wife uses linux on the desktop, and when she saw the eee at Target for $280 she asked me to get her one for her birthday. The model they were selling at Target was out of date and not very good, so I ordered a fancier model on amazon for $400. It came with its wifi misconfigured, and Asus tech support told me they couldn't fix it, and I'd have to return it. This was a few months ago. Yesterday I was making a trip to Fry's, so my wife suggested I just buy one while I was there. Well, Fry's is now selling the eee only with Windows, and Amazon's site also doesn't have the linux version available. AFAICT retailers were just getting too many returns of the linux ones. You can pretty much tell what was going on based on the amazon reviews. Some, like mine, were being shipped misconfigured. In other cases, you had people buying the linux version and not understanding that it wasn't windows. And in still other cases, people were buying them with linux and then trying to install a (presumably illegal) copy of Windows, and failing. (None of this is new, either. All this stuff happened in the past with the Great Quality linux boxes they used to sell at Fry's. The hardware was in fact great quality, but Fry's was getting too many returns, so they stopped carrying them.)
I think the basic problem here is that it's expensive and difficult to do a good job integrating hardware and software for a consumer computer. That's the kind of thing Apple is famous for doing well. Apple puts a lot of money and effort into it, and they charge for it when you buy a mac. I just don't see how anyone is going to do anything like that in the netbook market, which is an ultra-low-margin market. It would have been especially difficult for East Asian manufacturers like Asus and Great Quality, which have a language barrier to deal with. (At one point, Great Quality was shipping their machines with a linux distro that didn't even have an English-language web site.)
Meanwhile, MS can afford to do what it takes to maintain dominance in all sectors of the market. MS doesn't even have to do a good job on netbooks. They just have to avoid doing such a horrible job that it becomes painfully obvious to people who have never used anything but Windows before. It's possible that ARM-based netbooks will change the equation, but I wouldn't be surprised if MS jumps in and starts competing vigorously on ARM, simply to maintain their monopoly.
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I thought that was Windows 7.
When I hit Ctr-Alt-Del his eyes just flash.
"The Adobe Updater must update itself before it can check for updates. Would you like to update the Adobe Updater now?"
At least a couple times a week I see a new article by some journalist rambling on about how linux will never take off and we will all pay homage to Microsoft for the rest of our lives, but just look at the efforts being put into linux by some of the biggest players. IBM, Intel, Dell, and HP just off the top of my head. It seems to me like they all very much want it to thrive. And why wouldn't they? Their fates have been defined by Microsoft for two decades now. I can only imagine how enticing linux must seem to them. An OS they can mold into whatever they need it to be without having to pay licensing fees to anyone. Don't get me wrong, I'm no anti-Microsoft zealot and I think windows is here to stay, but the mono-culture hit it's peak with XP. The biggest thing holding linux back from being a major contender is figuring out how to ween users off of windows, and Moblin is just the latest experiment on how it can be done. The next couple of years will be very interesting.
The Linux world is fractured, meaning that a single binary will only work on a small fraction of all Linux distros.
But with Linux, the distro usually comes with comes with all the applications you can eat, either on disc or in the online repositories. This is the preferred way for non-techies to get their apps (whereas no true slashdotter would install a binary package when they could roll their own tarball instead).
Punters need to be told this, not "oh, er, well we do Windows as well if you like".
Because most of the popular applications are Free, the application publisher doesn't have to support every distro and architecture - that can be sorted out downstream.
If someone was serious about investing in shifting Linux boxen, it is perfectly feasible for them to add their own application repository to fill any gaps or omissions in the distro repository (something that would be unthinkable with closed source). Asus started to do this with the EEEPC, but didn't exactly throw their heart and soul into into it once they started offering XP.
I completely agree that Linux could do with a unified installer for the exceptions to this rule, and make things easier for people who did want to sell non-free software. There are things like Autopackage - but I haven't used it enough to know whether its good. Its not as if this sort of thing has to support more that the top 3 or 4 "click'n'drool" distros.
In a survey of 100 programmers, 111111 thought that duck-typing was a good idea.
The netbook looks enough like a "real computer" that people expect to see conventional-looking desktops on it. This is a major reason why XP-Home is the dominant player at this point, if XP-Home had been repackaged as the netappliance desktop suppliers of netbook "Linux" are under delusion that the public wants, and the XP desktops were locked down so you couldn't install standard Windows apps to them, nobody would buy XP-Home netbooks, either.
IMO, Intel's efforts would be better spent building drivers for Open Source distros so that more netbooks will run straight out of the box with Open Source installed, and pushing vendors to install conventional desktop UIs rather than "netbook UIs".
Smartphones don't have that problem because people don't have fixed expectations as to what a smartphone desktop ought to look like, it just has to be easy to use and mildly extensible.
That said, I'm running Kubuntu Jaunty 'right out of the box' on my Eee PC900 (and yes, that's a 900MHz computer with the original 1G DRAM) . . . without concern about my warranty because it lives on an SDHC flash card sitting in the internal card reader. Looks great, works well, and it's a standard KDE4.2.2 desktop.
Find out how here. Just Part 1, the tweaks needed for Ubuntu-Intrepid described in Part II are not needed with the new Kubuntu. If you don't have an Eee PC900, make sure Kubuntu-Jaunty has the drivers required to support your netbook or you know where to get them first. Google is your friend.
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I really wanted to have Linux on my Acer Aspire One but the struggle was just too much. I spent days then gave up with Linpus, then tried again unsuccessfully with eeebuntu. It's now got Windows 7 and runs fine.
Is it too much to want to close the lid on a netbook and then everything to come back again when I open it? And to get a bluetooth 3G modem connection without huge messing about?
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