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Dell Considering ARM-Based Smartbooks
wonkavader sends us this quote from an article in PCWorld:
"In an effort to expand its Linux offerings, Dell is researching new netbook-type devices and will soon offer netbook Linux OS upgrades, a company official said on Wednesday. The company is researching the possibility of offering new Linux-based mobile devices called smartbooks, said Todd Finch, senior product marketing manager for Linux clients, at the OpenSourceWorld conference in San Francisco. The company will also upgrade its Ubuntu Linux OS for netbooks to the latest version in the next few weeks ... Smartbooks with Arm chips have inherent advantages over x86 chips like Atom, such as lower power consumption and longer battery life, according to Finch. The chips are also becoming more powerful, as indicated by the growing number of applications on smartphones, he said. 'I think it's natural and reasonable for us to begin looking at them as they begin scaling their processors up.'"
Windows?
Of course not - and who would want to except the brain-dead slack-jawed fools that still believe that "Windows came free with my computer". MS still haven't realised that Windows was superceded about 10 years ago. They can continue to make their interface ever shinier, but it's still the same old broken NT kernel underneath (and don't let the marketing hype about "completely new kernels" fool you!)
Game Over, Microsoft!
Easy or not, it'll take six to twelve months for Microsoft to make a decision, and two years to release it. ARM netbooks will be a huge win for Linux.
And Apple is getting 7 hour run times out of their normal laptops.
Then again they actually spent the R&D money to come up with something better. Everyone keeps talking about needing innovations in batteries for Hybrids, Electrics, Laptops, Cell Phones and Apple actually did it.
I haven't heard of any other similar new designs recently (other than, we promise, it's coming soon, we just have to test it real world).