Moblin V2.0 Beta For Netbooks and Nettops

superbubba writes "The Moblin steering committee is happy to release the Moblin v2.0 beta for netbooks and nettops for developer testing. With this release, developers can begin to experience and work with the source code of the visually rich, interactive user interface designed for Intel Atom based netbooks."

Comments

nice one kdawson

[gEvil (beta)]

Leave it to kdawson to post a story where the only link goes to digg....

Re:nice one kdawson

[Amouth]

yes i too agree we should kill the social networks - and if it includes an app for it.. then by all means give it to the masses..

Digg?

[jginspace]

So kdawson's attempting to Slashdot Digg huh? What's wrong with the actual link?

Significance?

[jginspace]

Why is this blog posting worthy of the Slashdot front page? The Moblin beta was reported 6 weeks ago (it wasn't actually a beta, the quality was shoddy). Since then they've decided they're having something called a 'beta refresh' program, with new releases to play with on May 29, Jun 07, Jun 16, and a new one today. That latter build is not actually linked from the download page yet so it's probably not what this breathless press-release is referring to. So, what's the significance of this "It's here" report>

Re:Significance?

[Sounder40]

I think Intel backing a Windows alternative is very significant for all the reasons as cited by Bob Cringely. I counted on Linux and even Apple to push Windows out, but Linux is too vague of a platform (Ubuntu? Fedora? SuSE? KDE? Gnome?) and Apple turns out to be every bit as evil as Microsoft. Of course, you could argue that Intel's anti-competitive past doesn't bode well for Moblin, and I think you would be right.

So I will choose to disagree with you that a Moblin beta release is a minor thing. I hope that we get more choices and not fewer. Something needs to do it for the sake of freedom.

Re:kdawson

[Anonymous Coward]

That would be cannibalism.

Re:What the fuck is a moblin?

[gEvil (beta)]

I believe it's a cross between a moose and a goblin.

Re:kdawson

[e9th]

You seem angry. Why not go here, uncheck kdawson, and you won't be bothered again.

Moblin and Ubuntu Netbook Remix

[Taxman415a]

So after reading both Wikipedia pages for Moblin and Ubuntu Netbook Remix I can't really tell what the difference is. Are they just two different attempts at the same thing? As I recall Netbook remix came first, then Moblin came out, but that may just be what I recall being anounced.

Either way it certainly is a big deal that Intel is supporting the development of a Microsoft competitor. Mobile computing is an area where Microsoft is very weak. The big problem with Moblin is that it is focused on Atom and the Atom requires an order of magnitude more power than current ARM solutions. It's no wonder that Intel based MID's haven't been able to come up with any decent battery life, the chip plus the chipset and graphics drawing multiple tens of watts is simply never going to be compelling for a mobile device. But when you can put in something that uses milliwatts, then it becomes possible. Of course, it's no surprise that Intel doesn't want to help the competition, but not that Moblin is at the Linux foundation, they really should seriously look at an ARM port.

Re:Moblin and Ubuntu Netbook Remix

[gbarules2999]

Are they just two different attempts at the same thing?

Yes. You have Ubuntu Netbook Remix, which is an official Ubuntu project that takes Ubuntu and slaps a netbook GUI over the top. Then you have Moblin, the Intel-funded program, which does the same thing to Fedora (or has it changed?).

Re:Moblin and Ubuntu Netbook Remix

[meson_ray]

Moblin and UNR are quite different. I've tried both of them on my eee. Moblin is specifically written for intel architecture, and takes advantage of atom/core2 (sse3) so it has a lot of eye candy that runs well on low performance hardware. There aren't very many applications in the repositories for it yet, but there are some neat built-in twitter/last.fm/gchat programs. UNR's main advantages are that it runs on any hardware and it has ubuntu's repositories, so you can install many more programs on it with the package manager.

Moblin seems to run really snappy, even with all the eye candy. The interface (I think they call it clutter) is kinda weird, and it's got a different feel than most other linux distros, but for a netbook it works well.

I look forward to them adding more programs to Moblin, and stop it from crashing as often as it does...

Re:FIrst

[V!NCENT]

C'mon this is a topical Digg comment being not the first post. Mod this guy up funny.

Re:WTF is a nettop?

[hairyfeet]

Nope, wrong, that is the Netbook. The nettop is an underpowered desktop with no DVD player. Basically it is like you ripped the guts out of an Atom based netbook and stuffed it into a mac Mini box. except of course you actually get a drive with a mini.

What I don't get is why folks would spend hundreds of $$$ on one. The Netbook I get, it is small and easy to carry, but the nettop? hell I paid a whole $50 for the 1.1Ghz Celeron with 512Mb of RAM I'm typing this on years ago, and it gets better performance that a nettop. Hey I can rip out the drive and I'll be hip and cool and happening and....wait...damn. According to my oldest I'm still old and creaky, I'm just power conscious as well as being old and creaky. Damn, just when i thought I might be hip again. Now get off my lawn!

Re:Great new idea!

[Tenebrousedge]

Hey, I've got a great new idea! What if the interface allowed for some way for minimized applications to notify the user of something! It would be awesome if--get this--when someone IM'ed me, I would have some way to know, so I could switch to that window and respond!

It does support notifications, through libnotify. It didn't have an IM client last I checked.

Ooh! And another! What if they made it so every time I tried to reach the upper toolbar of my application, a giant black bar didn't come down, grey out my screen, and interrupt me!

Waaaaah, I don't like the UI!
Deal with it, rewrite it, or use the terminal like God intended. It may also still have Xfce running underneath the Clutter UI. If not, you could download the alpha, which was perfectly functional.

Wait... what if I had some way of knowing which applications were open and where they were located at any time, instead of having to manage my desktop in my mind??

What, did you miss the pane that was intended for that purpose?

Question: do you actually own a netbook? If so, you probably are all too familiar with full-screen mode in your web browser of choice. 600 vertical pixels is not a whole hell of a lot.

The point of a netbook is primarily to get on the internet. How you can be railing against a project designed to make that easier is somewhat bizarre.