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GUI Intel Operating Systems Portables Linux

First Moblin V2 Netbook Launches 70

Posted by timothy from the still-want-to-rhyme-with-goblin dept.
nerdyH writes "The first netbook preinstalled with Moblin v2 for Netbooks will launch next week, possibly at Intel Developer Forum (IDF) in San Francisco, or else the Linux Foundation's LinuxCon in Portland. Then, within the next couple of weeks, the Moblin Project will release the first stable release of the Moblin v2 Linux distribution, which began beta testing in May."
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First Moblin V2 Netbook Launches More

First Moblin V2 Netbook Launches

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  • Instead of a distro, I'd rather see the Moblin concepts applied as a shell in Gnome and/or a containment in KDE 4. This is much nicer than the netbook containment concept I see the KDE 4 guys currently kicking around. However, as a complete distro, it suddenly requires package maintainers and much more support overhead. In that regard, Moblin seems to fall short.

    • Re: (Score:1, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward

      I once went looking for an API to their shell infrastructure, curious as to how extensible it was and how to write my own activities for it. But on their site they only provided links to documentation to existing libraries they use. I didn't look at the actual code but I have a bad feeling it's just a monolithic application and not an extensible desktop environment.

    • No - we need a speedy handheld device experience (Score:4, Interesting)

      by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 17, 2009 @03:42PM (#29457865)

      One of the main things I want in a netbook is *fast* boot/suspend/resume. I want to pop it open and use it right now, like a handheld consumer device. Same goes for opening the basic apps. Think iphone, it's ready *now* when you want it, Safari opens fast. You wouldn't want this as your office desktop, but you really do want this as your on-the-go experience.

      IF Moblin delivers this where others have failed, all hail Moblin. I'll even run it on my older laptop -- one with a 1.3GHz Celeron and 256MB of RAM that is too painfully slow to use with GNOME. It's OK as a desktop where you don't need to boot or re-start apps often, but as a portable it's not acceptable to wait and wait and wait...

      • I've got Fedora on my laptop. It probably boots about as fast as windows without crapware would, which isn't terribly quick ~1 minute. But it comes back from suspend like lightning and uses virtually no power on suspend.

        I really like it for homework, because I can look something up quick, then suspend, work for another hour, repeat. I rarely run low on battery that way. I can't really give a time (like 4-5 hours) because each time is a little bit different with my usage, but there is more of a lag in me

      • I'm running Fedora 11 on my Samsung N140 netbook and it wakes from suspend almost instantly. I can't see any reason to shut down and reboot when the battery will last quite a few days in suspend. With 2GB RAM, apps start and run nearly as fast as they do on my Core 2 Duo Thinkpad.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Auroch ( 1403671 )

      However, as a complete distro, it suddenly requires package maintainers and much more support overhead. In that regard, Moblin seems to fall short

      I suppose if you want to install moblin on everything, then yes. It falls short. Why would you want to do so? Did you need your fridge to run moblin?

      It seems clear to me, If you install it on netbooks, the support will be excellent, given that it is designed for netbooks.

      • Reading up on community responses to Moblin, it seems like many are not quite satisfied with the package selection, stability, and overall polish of the distro.

        I'm certainly not an Ubuntu fan by any means, but one thing they do well, is have ten million packages ready for their distro. The more new distros out there that pop up, the more we fragment the community on packaging for each of these distros, and providing community support for each distro.

        Conversely, the benefits Moblin provides is not suddenly primarily offered up only to those who are willing to migrate away from the distros they already enjoy, and give up the opportunity cost those distros might currently provide them.

        Moblin is open-source, but if they focused their energy on simply providing a shell and optimizations for the Atom processor, that code would more easily directly benefit all existing distros, while requiring less effort on Intel's part, as opposed to creating an entire distro.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Spykk ( 823586 )
      Canonical agrees. They announced their intent to develop a moblin remix [ubuntu.com] for Ubuntu back in June.

    • Re:Concept best applied as a shell/containment (Score:4, Interesting)

      by Aphoxema ( 1088507 ) * on Thursday September 17, 2009 @04:23PM (#29458425) Journal

      I really liked MoblinV2 when I tried it on my wind but it seemed to keep falling short of my needs. Pairing my bluetooth mouse more than once was too much trouble, and I had all sorts of little nags. The way the bar at the top popped up every time I tried to close a window or anything was a nuisance.

      So many things right are easily undone by the problems underneath. I'd just like to see the Clutter interface for Ubuntu, and more unique interfaces in general.

      • Re:Concept best applied as a shell/containment (Score:4, Insightful)

        by Orange Crush ( 934731 ) on Thursday September 17, 2009 @05:16PM (#29459099)

        I just want Moblin's atom optimizations and boot speed improvements rolled in to Ubuntu Netbook Remix. I'm pretty happy with UNR on my Acer Aspire One, and as much as I disliked the stock install of Linpus, it *did* have much better battery life and bootup times.

        I don't want the stupid UI running on top of another distro, I want the under-the-hood improvements.

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by A5un ( 586681 )
        I too like Moblin on my Acer Aspire One. It feels much better for a netbook than XP or Fedora which are also installed on the netbook. My only gripe is the media player doesn't come with proprietary codec support and I can't find any repo that provides those ala rpmfusion. Oh, that and no adblock for the moblin browser.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by zdzichu ( 100333 )

      Moblin UI draws heavily (dynamic workspaces, single windows, etc.) from GNOME Shell, which will be default in GNOME 3.0. Also, moblin packages were accepted in Fedora, so there will be Fedora Moblin Spin.
      You can have both now by installing F12.

  • Um...who? (Score:4, Interesting)

    by filesiteguy ( 695431 ) <perfectreign@gmail.com> on Thursday September 17, 2009 @03:34PM (#29457751)
    I read the article (I know that's a suprise to many) but didn't see it saying exactly *who* is going to be releasing this next week. If they don't know at this point, it would be safe to bet that someone next week may *announce* a release but there's no way we'll actually see a release.

    Also, I don't know if I see a benefit in Moblin. It is so far removed from what we're used to after some twenty years of Mac and Windows and X guis.

    I tried it back in may and thought it intriguing but very different.

    http://www.perfectreign.com/stuff/2009/20090526_moblin_browser.jpg

    http://www.perfectreign.com/stuff/2009/20090526_moblin_desktop.jpg

    Also - do they have flash plugins for the moblin browser? Will people want to use Firefox? Wine?

    • Different.. (Score:5, Insightful)

      by msimm ( 580077 ) on Thursday September 17, 2009 @05:36PM (#29459357) Homepage
      I don't know if Moblin will succeed or not, and I suspect many variables will play into that but am I the only one that sees their attempt at different as a rare but positive move? So far from the desktop-Linux world we've seen distros patch, compile and configure all the same pieces of open source software. This gives us a vary organic and grass-rootsy environment, and for familiarity and compatibility that's really great. But on the same note there's very little to differentiate one desktop distribution from another and I've typically made my decisions based on package manager and the size of the user base (popular distros/ good community support).

      On the server I really think that all the above is important, and I'm in not hurry to see any of that change. However on the desktop all these marginally different distributions provide very little compelling reason to use one over the other and honestly without the branding (or having installed it myself) I'd be hard pressed to tell you which distribution I might be using at any given instance.

      In the cases of commercial distributions aiming at the desktop, like Ubuntu or Mandriva I really see this a failure build on the advantages made available by open source software. Canonical could risk designing an operating system based on this wealth open source software, but instead they choose to focus on packaging and polishing disparate pieces of existing software, designed my a multitude of people for a for an even greater variety of reasons.

      Distributions succeed at being usable collections of polished software, but they fail at being what I'd consider true operating systems because of the nature of their design and I for one hope that we continue to see more movement in projects aiming at the mobile and netbook market where it seems to be considered more important (or more plausible) to design the operating systems interface.

      Granted, I'm not suggesting I'd like to see change for the sake of change but I would like to see a more serious attempt at OS design coming from somewhere in the Linux distribution space and right now that seems to be happening in the mobile space on platforms like Android and Moblin and I believe that the risk of good design could be a sea-change that doesn't just push Linux onto the desktop, but answers the question once and for all about the idea of a widely used free software platform. It simply makes too much economic sense.

  • Once again a geeky name sinks good product (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 17, 2009 @03:41PM (#29457849)

    Moblin? What is it - a combination of "goblin" and a "mob"? No matter how I read it, the associations I get are just very negative. Can't sell a product with a name like that.

  • Great! (Score:3, Funny)

    by aminorex ( 141494 ) on Thursday September 17, 2009 @03:45PM (#29457899) Homepage Journal

    Now can I get that on a snapdragon 1.5GHz please?

  • Ditching Windows on Netbooks (Score:5, Interesting)

    by imgod2u ( 812837 ) on Thursday September 17, 2009 @03:53PM (#29458025) Homepage

    So Intel developed Atom as an x86 processor because so much software runs on x86 and not, say, ARM.

    Then Intel spends money developing a Linux OS for netbooks that's open source.

    ARM just got free software from Intel and makes superior processors.

    • That was what I found particularly interesting about intel's decision to push moblin. As long as Windows is a ubiquitous expectation, so is x86(outside of the very narrow and peculiar ia64 niche, which intel also owns, and that one guy running NT on alpha). That would seem like something that intel would be loath to disrupt.

      However, intel's actions seem to indicate otherwise. Their Linux drivers are generally pretty good(GMA 500 notably excepted), and they certainly didn't have to start moblin. I can onl

      • That was what I found particularly interesting about intel's decision to push moblin. As long as Windows is a ubiquitous expectation, so is x86(outside of the very narrow and peculiar ia64 niche, which intel also owns, and that one guy running NT on alpha). That would seem like something that intel would be loath to disrupt.

        As long as Windows is far and away the main support for x86 dominance, Intel's fortunes are dependent on Microsoft's business decisions, legal situation, etc. That would seem like someth

        • That was my impression as well. Also with Moblin you see a drive to push the lower end processors which have the potential to sell more units than their more expensive cousins that run Windows.
  • I looked at moblin a while ago and thought the design better suited for touch screens rather than keyboard/mouse inputs.

  • NOT READY, DO NOT WANT (Score:3, Interesting)

    by drinkypoo ( 153816 ) <drink@hyperlogos.org> on Thursday September 17, 2009 @04:35PM (#29458555) Homepage Journal

    I tried Moblin on an Intel Aspire One D250 and on an Asus 701 4G with 1GB RAM upg. recently and it was a superfail. Just visiting the built-in applications would cause crashes and you'd have to reboot before they would work again. It's amazing how intel has managed to make the stuff horribly reliable on their own chips, when the systems it's based on work just fine on these machines.

    If they can bring Moblin around to the point where it doesn't crap all over itself constantly I'm interested. It has a really nice interface. It's ungodly slow on intel graphics chips, though...

    With that said, I'm running Windows 7 Enterprise on my lt3103u and could not be happier, except for compatibility problems. I hope Microsoft can iron them out. Dungeon Siege doesn't work, that's pretty sad considering it's a Microsoft-distributed game. I know that if I were Microsoft I would demand that games I will distribute call my APIs properly so that they will work on the next edition of my OS. Civilization 2 Gold doesn't work either, but at least it doesn't require a 3D accelerator and so I may be able to play it in XP Mode. If I can't, then the value of running Windows is diminished; backwards compatibility is a loss, so I might as well run Linux on the metal and run Windows inside of VirtualBox or VMware where I will have at least cursory 3D support.

    If I do end up back on Linux, though, it'll be Ubuntu Karmic x64, which I know supports all but my wifi without so much as a repo change (drivers are available in backports or something.) It's not going to be moblin, which Intel has taken some pains to alter to not work well on anything but their chips. It's unfortunate that, in their incompetence, they made it not work well on theirs either. Oh yeah, the interface doesn't fit on the screen of my EEE 701 either. You'd think that an OS for netbooks would work on small screens. Maybe that's fixed now, though. I know they don't actually care about you if you don't have an Atom chip, which just makes me more miffed at Intel... Since I put XP back on the Atom-based system I've got, and gave it to my Lady to replace her stupid failing Dell Vostro 1500. Hmm, that's a Centrino system, too... IntelFAIL

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by mlund ( 1096699 )

      I tried Moblin on an Intel Aspire One D250 and on an Asus 701 4G with 1GB RAM

      People still write code for the 7" Asus model? I mean, I own one but I didn't even bother trying to shove UNR on the thing. I really wouldn't expect much support for 2-year old models that support less than a 8.9" screen.

      • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

        by drinkypoo ( 153816 )

        We're talking about a 900 MHz coppermine celeron here, it is plenty fast for the kinds of machines commonly available in a handheld. Intel made it, two years is really not that long, they should not crap on it. But seriously, it ran like shit on the Aspire One D250.

        • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

          by jawtheshark ( 198669 ) *

          I own a 701 too and it is indeed plenty fast. The thing is, that CPU isn't two years old as you claim. It's from 2001 [wikipedia.org]. So, two years ago, it was already 6 years old. It is also Asus who chose the chip and not Intel.

          Anyway, that's not my point. I don't think "mlund" was criticizing anything about the CPU. He was most certainly talking about the screen size and only that. As an 701 owner, I must agree with him: it's really too small and pretty much all other netbooks came with 1024x600 resolution which

          • I own a 701 too and it is indeed plenty fast. The thing is, that CPU isn't two years old as you claim. It's from 2001. So, two years ago, it was already 6 years old. It is also Asus who chose the chip and not Intel.

            Asus, Intel and Microsoft chose the chip and the OS together.

            He was most certainly talking about the screen size and only that. As an 701 owner, I must agree with him: it's really too small and pretty much all other netbooks came with 1024x600 resolution which at least is close to 1024x768 form days yonder. 800x480 is really limited.

            This is because of gross incompetence in UI design. Most Windows applications are usable at 640x480 — not all of them, but most. By contrast, most Linux applications are unusable with less than 800x600. Often a dialog won't appear fully on-screen until you have 768 lines, like Handbrake (an epic failure in UI design.)

            There is no excuse for settings dialogs that won't appear on small monitors. None. If you can't fit your interface on a VGA re

            • Asus, Intel and Microsoft chose the chip and the OS together.

              Microsoft?!? How so? The 701 was the one that came with Linux. I used the stock distro for a very very long time. I needed to switch because Asus can't maintain a repository if their life depended on it.

              Now Intel, may or may not been involved in the design process... It doesn't have to be. I think Intel was caught as much by surprise as Asus by the success of the platform.

              Most Windows applications are usable at 640x480 â" not all of the

              • Microsoft?!? How so?

                You can bet that this system was going to be offered with XP, but "something happened". The 4GB model is more than large enough to handle it. Even the 2GB would have room for XPe and some apps.

                Now Intel, may or may not been involved in the design process... It doesn't have to be.

                They pretty much do; The 701 is a sort of triumph of stuffing intel chips in small packages. You don't do a design that deviates so far from the reference design without some guidance. ASUS has been doing this stuff for a long time... with intel.

                It hugely depends on the window manager.

                I'm using Jolicloud which like UNR uses some daemon to strip the decorati

  • It looks nice, but I question the value of lowing a netbook's capability to toat of a smartphone/pda.

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